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Michael Haines's avatar

"Big Finance might operate like a motor cortex, but the financial crisis of 2008 made it very apparent just how deranged this motor cortex can sometimes be. Hundreds of thousands of workers were mobilized into constructing real estate that would stand empty, while precarious people were pushed into debt to buy it. Their desperate promises to pay back were bundled into packages and sold to mega-funds across the world. The financial sector was orchestrating a tragic dance, turning the global economy into something akin to a veering drunk losing their motor functions"

And yet, the houses were built. Which means we had the resources to build them, and once built, it was a 'sunk cost' (in resources terms). And, there clearly was a demand for the housing as they were occupied, with families and lawns and real neigbourhoods of people enjoying life. And then interest rates rose, and loans became unaffordable, and people walked away, and the homes deteriorated, and the lawns became overgrown with weeds and the neighbourhoods became deserted and the property values fell even more, and then they were sold to some rich dudes for a bargain, wth the government stepping in to keep the banks afloat, while the vacant properties continued to decay, or were rented in some cases to the same people who once owned them and still needed a place to live. Instead of forcing sales, the Government should have guranteed banks on conditions that the banks write down their loan repayments to a level where the borrowers could continue to afford the repayments. Then people would have remained housed, the lawns mowed and the neighbourhoods vibrant. And in time, property values would have recovered. The 'loss' was only 'money'... and the Government has no lack of money... as QE proved

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Parsifal Solomon's avatar

Thanks Brett, extremely... stimulating...!

It reminded me of these images https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-many-lives-of-the-medieval-wound-man/ thinking also of giants, and us as part of some sort of mega power ranger ;)

The nervous system works in (at least) 2 ways: as well as sending impulses for action, it also receives sense information. This relates to the numbness you talk about, and thus the question: how do we restore response-ability?

For me there is a lot in ideas of decentralised (and deeply interdependent) intelligence and selfhood that we as humans can express, contrary to the individualised separated cell-hood encouraged by our culture. The identities we have been taught to assume are defensive and disempowering postures which deny connection and are founded on blind (or numb) spots. As developed in the ecological and mycelium thinking of such as Sophie Strand, and this essay: https://hmirra.medium.com/holotropism-1cdf99c00b74 (I'd be interested to hear how this lands for those who don't particularly feel 'autistic' - my sense is it has something of the universal about it)

And questions of how I, as some sort of individual conscious focal point, node, or perhaps 'cell' interdependent with infinite and infinitesimal connections, part of organisms at many scales greater and smaller, can best act to increase health.

Awareness of the systemic wholes feels necessary to make visible the hidden patterns of connection and energy flow which have kept me limited and disempowered. The more I can see the ecology of my impact and interconnections, the more I can take responsibility for them - and the more attention I can bring to the health of my immediate surroundings.

I guess I'm feeling my way to the fine balance and interdependence between the big picture, and the hyperlocal. Health seems to be a good flow and rhythm of both...

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