What Do I Have to Do with It? And Why Me?

“Tout se tient”, they say: everything in existence is connected. Economy and economic suppression are no exception. And the key connections trace back the branches to the less visible roots. In the subtitle I wrote, “find out where you are”: that is the first step to get anywhere; and you are the core of where you are. There are branches and roots, and you are the basic root.

With all the important things we’re already forced to care about, why this, too? With all the interesting things we would like to mind about if we could just have the time, now why this instead? If you’re a goldfish and the level of water in your fish tank keeps going down despite the fact that the tap keeps on being turned more and more open, it’s time to take a good look at the deep end. If the result of the inspection is that not only there are many drains open, but one of them alone drains about ninety percent of the water, it’s worth assigning it a priority in ratio with the risk of dying of asphyxia.

Conspicuous and important are two quite separate qualities. There are subjects so conspicuous that we see at once we have to take some care of them, and then there are less evident subjects, but which may even be the hidden causes of the conspicuous ones, too. The real cause may be different than it seems at first sight; and as a general rule, the puppeteers foment from behind the curtains, unnoticed and undisturbed in the shade of all the noise and destruction carried out on stage by the apparent cause, the mere puppets. So where are our efforts likely to yield the most?