[Paleopsych] defiant habits

[Steve]

Eventually this negative feedback loop will
cause unbearable pain, and then there will be 
a reaction.  Our trade deficit tells us we are
well on the way to a turning point.

The Opium War was the result of massive
exports of silver from Great Britain in exchange
for the Chinese tea to which they had become
addicted.  

If you look up the census data regarding
distribution of income you will find that 80%
of the American people have seen their
incomes decline during the past 10 years.

This means that although the macro statistics
may be improving, everyday life is getting harder
for most of us.  Overall consumer confidence
numbers may be up, but they are down for
people earning less than $50,000.

For a lot of things, there are no "made in America"
alternatives, so we buy (if we can, if we must) in spite 
of our discomfort.

Making changes in regard to energy depends on
flushing the Oil Boys out of the Executive branch.

If we had a progressive regime that launched a
serious effort to increase the use of wind power
etc then our bargaining position in regard to the
Saudi's would be improved.


Steve Hovland
www.stevehovland.net

-----Original Message-----
From:	Michael Christopher [SMTP:anonymous_animus at yahoo.com]
Sent:	Saturday, July 24, 2004 11:56 AM
To:	paleopsych at paleopsych.org
Subject:	[Paleopsych] defiant habits

>>Perhaps America will wake up and realize we have
been giving China the family jewels. What happens if
we pull out a lot of the manufacturing that we have
exported to them in recent years?<<

--What's odd to me is that despite growing
anti-immigration and anti-globalization sentiment in
the US, people are still content to shop at WalMart
and reap low priced goods in return for the exporting
of jobs. And, despite the widespread recognition that
the Saudi regime is corrupt and leaks money to Al
Qaeda and extremist schools of Islam, people are still
content to drive cars that eat a lot of gas. 

At some level, personal decisions are not being
connected to the big picture. Once a person splits his
own actions from the effect on the whole, it becomes
very difficult to reconnect them. Guilt and cognitive
dissonance build up and result in defiant continuation
in habit. Thus, someone who uses more gasoline than
necessary can say "No treehugging environmentalist is
going to tell ME what to drive!" when he could just as
easily say "No Saudi royal is going to use MY gas
money to fund hateful Madrasas. I'm going to WALK!"
The question is, does a point come where defiant habit
becomes defiant reaction against habit? Will we
defiantly buy American to support American jobs, and
force WalMart to switch to American-made products? Or
will we just go for what's cheapest and most
convenient?

Michael


		
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