John Lanchester-Shortcuts

‘..it’s only when the tide goes out that you learn whose been swimming naked.’

Well, last text and we’re back to where we started. The doom and gloom of the financial crisis that we are experiencing today (yes, it’s still here and not getting any better).

In this short text, Lanchester takes us through the debacle that’s faced three companies across the globe in this mess that has been the last few years; Northern Rock, the MF Global Scandal and Olympus.  Now, I was aware of these scandals, particularly in the case of Richard Branson’s buy out of Northern Rock (on a side note, I’m almost convinced that Branson is the devil…never trust anyone with that much money and a smile like that). But, quite the dodgy nature of these scandals and the simple fact that no one seems to be doing anything about them. I was not aware, for example of, ‘the best case scenario sees the taxpayer losing £400million.’ What?!?! That’s bloody ridiculous!! Why on earth are we not taking to the streets on this one?! Maybe the number just isn’t big enough anymore? Like Badiou wrote, ‘just what does 400 billion euros look like?’ Most of us are happy to sit back, relax and watch the world fall apart around our ears.

We live in a Capitalist society that is essentially run by corrupt bureaucrats, businessman and politicians whose sole purpose in life seems to be greed.  Frankly, I can’t help but look on in disgust at the whole thing. What’s most interesting to me is the fact that most of us do choose to ignore it all, and are more concerned with celebrity and who won the X Factor than whether or not you’ll be waking up the next morning to find the bank in which you were keeping that little nest egg for your pension collapsed and, oh, silly them, mis-placed  it into the pension pot of the CEO who is ‘so graciously’ stepping aside after he fucked up the bank in the first place. Nobody seems to really care anymore.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend recently over Christmas. Older than me, and in a much more financially stable situation than myself he asked me what my opinion would be if we just let it fail…’let what fail?’ I asked. To which he replied: ‘all of it.’ This got me thinking, what if we did? A swift kick in the head would get our arses into gear. Maybe that is the only way forward. I’ll be honest, I’d rather that not be the case as I do enjoy having a job and being able to pay the mortgage, but frankly while we precariously hover along the edge of oblivion I can’t see any other way.

Apologies for this bleak rant, and a lot of people would read this and tell me to shut up, and in the past, they have! But there’s no use prettying the situation up.  Lanchester writes about the shit storm befalling just three companies worldwide, and the lack of action taking place. Just think about what else is going on?