Yesterday my friend James North said that the recession/depression/hogwart whatever you want to call it has already been good for us. He had to run; he was going to explain to me today.
Last night I saw a friend for dinner who told me to read two Lincoln speeches, from 1848 and 1854, the Mexican war speech and the Kansas-Nebraska speech. I went to bed at midnight and as I was brushing my teeth wandered out to the big bookcase in our living room. We'd moved from a bigger house to this one a year ago and, happily, tossed a lot of books. I had developed a theory that libraries are now generally circulating, due to the internet, and when I need a book I should buy it at my computer and when I'm done I should give it away. It was my general economic idea, actually, and maybe some other people's too. Since then we've battened down the hatches. Anyway, I seemed to remember that Lincoln had made the cut, on aesthetic grounds; and there was a Library of America boxed set of Lincoln that had floated into my life 15 years ago. My brother-in-law gave it to my step-grandfather, whom I lived with on the Lower East Side. My step-grandfather gave it to me. (My brother-in-law later saw that I had the books, and was annoyed.) I don't think I'd ever opened them. Snooty interior decoration.
Anyway, the point is, I grabbed the books and there were the two speeches my friend had mentioned, and then I was up till 1 a.m. with the realization, I could read this guy all winter long (in part from this recognition, that the intellectual clarity and moral leadership that I worship in Chomsky was there in a book I took for granted; and I'm going to have more to say on that head soon). As Economic Man, I am saying that the era of spending and getting and looking around for more that we thought would never end, has ended. And good things will come of it. Including rediscovering the simple riches that are already in our possession.
