Those who worship power and strength inevitably cast evolution and natural forces (like, say, market forces!) as being on their side. They’re never willing to entertain the possibility that one day it might be someone else’s boot on their neck — because if they did, then that would mean they weren’t worthy of calling themselves the baddest mothers in the room anymore.
Serdar was talking about people’s reactions to Detroit’s bankrupcy, and that some realized that the love of “creative destruction” meant the creative destroyers never realized they’d get their turn on the block.
I myself have watched the various pundits jump onto the detroit issues, and most of those brushing it off or laughing about it have that peculiar self-confidence of people who figure that nothing bad ever happens to them or theirs. In fact, among the various pundits enjoying a laugh, there were no solutions, but plenty of dragging-out-the-same explanations. They were preaching to the choir, not solving problems, with the confidence nothing would happen to them.
And there were doubtlessly people laughing along at what happened to “those people” in Detroit. It’s always “those people” – until you become one of them. Then you wonder why people aren’t there to help you . . .
This is why I think sustainability is an appropriate and unappreciated value. Sustainability means that you have some surety. Sustainability means some predictability.
However it’s not popular. Sustainability means hard work. Sustainability means that if you “win” you have to make sure the whole game doesn’t fall apart. Sustainability means not always getting your way. Sustainability isn’t a chance to do your victory dance about how you’ve won forever and are awesome.
That’s not exactly popular – especially among entitled politicians and pundits.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.