Calmer Waters

So here we are in our quaint little house on this quaint little street in this (you guessed it) quaint little town in the U.K.

As I am sitting here in the smallest and most crowded room of our house and look out of my gabled window onto the sun glazed white walls of our neighbors’ house across the street, I can hardly believe that after all these years I have made it back to where I came from: the middle class Europe of my childhood.

Although still alive and well, the middle class seems to be struggling a little more now than when I was growing up. The basic desire to “get ahead” is weighing upon people in this world that is ever more...I think ‘global’ is the word.

For example, a lot of money, time, and energy is dedicated to placing one’s off-spring at good schools and pursuing worthwhile after-school activities. But all and all being middle class in Europe is still a good place to be since the same old values that keep it all together still prevail. Foremost is that sense of caring about community and what’s good for everyone. The ideal of sharing one’s fortune and contributing to the common good is another.

There are well maintained parks that one can walk in at any time, there are libraries, museums, pools, playgrounds, sidewalks, crosswalks, recycling facilities, and lots of ways to meet the neighbors. There is a sense of civility based on the underlying certainty that the golden rule holds sway.

There also is reason to believe that everyone is taken care of and that there is enough for everyone to go around. And in my opinion, that precisely is the way to achieve quality of life.

Of course, it is great to strive upwards but not as much as when everyone moves ahead and shares in the happiness and good fortune.

What good is it, after all, to have a private tennis court, pool, waterfront, and two or three cars if wealth and security ends on the other side of the barbed wired fence of one’s own property? It is nothing but the proverbial golden cage!

That was what life was like in Costa Rica and as it is that’s what life is like wherever the sense of community has been washed away by the personal greed of a few.

It was sad to see a beautiful country and its middle class exploited by big money. And it is disheartening that Costa Rica isn’t by far the worst case in the world.

These days, the governments that try to mitigate the impact of a capitalist economy are struggling. In fact, there are fewer attempting that now than there were twenty years ago.

Fred would probably state with sincere darwinistic conviction that that proves that capitalism is superior.

I would, of course, venture to say that that proves nothing but our human weakness because, in the end, capitalism, too, will die leaving behind uncounted casualties, one of which might be our planet.

As a matter of fact, what makes capitalism so dangerous is that it taps into our primordial and ever nagging fear that unless we secure that next bit for ourselves, we and our kin, and therefore our gene pool, won’t make it.

That fear is a formidable force to reckon with. In fact, it is also stupid, because as we all should remember, human beings would not even exist any longer if it hadn’t been for their ability to coexist and cooperate with each other.

However, if left unbridled, that primitive fear will take over and only die with us.

In a way, it is only natural that fear becomes most virulent in us when we see others beginning to grab and hoard. That is precisely the point when the social contract that lies at the base of our peaceful coexistence starts to crack and the rule of the strongest reestablishes its brutal reign.

I am not blind to the changes I see around me even here, but for now I enjoy being in quieter waters again. The Americas were stressful even when we managed to find little niches here and there where life was still a thing to enjoy with others.