smart guy talks about stuff
http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/343/Bruce-Sterling-State-of-the-Worl-page01.html
inkwell.vue.343 : Bruce Sterling: State of the World, 2009
permalink #4 of 50: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Thu 1 Jan 09 09:38
I'm a bohemian type, so I could scarcely be bothered to do anything "financially sound" in my entire adult life. Last year was the first year when I've felt genuinely sorry for responsible, well-to-do people. Suddenly they've got the precariousness of creatives, of the underclass, without that gleeful experience of decades spent living-it-up. These are people who obeyed the social contract and are *still* getting it in the neck. The injustice of that upsets me. The bourgeoisie who kept their noses clean and obeyed the rules, I never had anything against them. I mean, of course I made big artsy fun of them, one has to do that, but I never meant them any active harm. I didn't scheme to raise a black flag and cut their throats because they were consumers. I even fret about the bankers. Seventeen percent of the US works in financial services. That's a lot. I've got friends and relatives who work in those industries. I frankly enjoy tossing myself into turbulent parts of life, because I'm a dilettante who bores easily, but jeez, bankers are supposed to be the ultimate humorless brown-shoe crowd. They're not supposed to wake up on a sleeping roll and scrounge breakfast. If the straights were not "prone to hostility" before that experience, they might well be so after it, because they've got a new host of excellent reasons. The sheer galling come-down of watching the Bottom Line, the Almighty Dollar, revealed as a papier-mache pinata. It's like somebody burned their church.
inkwell.vue.343 : Bruce Sterling: State of the World, 2009
permalink #4 of 50: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Thu 1 Jan 09 09:38
I'm a bohemian type, so I could scarcely be bothered to do anything "financially sound" in my entire adult life. Last year was the first year when I've felt genuinely sorry for responsible, well-to-do people. Suddenly they've got the precariousness of creatives, of the underclass, without that gleeful experience of decades spent living-it-up. These are people who obeyed the social contract and are *still* getting it in the neck. The injustice of that upsets me. The bourgeoisie who kept their noses clean and obeyed the rules, I never had anything against them. I mean, of course I made big artsy fun of them, one has to do that, but I never meant them any active harm. I didn't scheme to raise a black flag and cut their throats because they were consumers. I even fret about the bankers. Seventeen percent of the US works in financial services. That's a lot. I've got friends and relatives who work in those industries. I frankly enjoy tossing myself into turbulent parts of life, because I'm a dilettante who bores easily, but jeez, bankers are supposed to be the ultimate humorless brown-shoe crowd. They're not supposed to wake up on a sleeping roll and scrounge breakfast. If the straights were not "prone to hostility" before that experience, they might well be so after it, because they've got a new host of excellent reasons. The sheer galling come-down of watching the Bottom Line, the Almighty Dollar, revealed as a papier-mache pinata. It's like somebody burned their church.