Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [152]
Key concepts in this chapter:
Hybrid work
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Process of Internal Transformation
By definition, internal transformation means our understanding and worldview have changed even as the external world remains unchanged.
By changing our internal expectations, we eliminate one source of misery and internal strife.
Studies have revealed a common-sense correlation between happiness and expectations: those (usually low-income) with low expectations which can actually be met are significantly happier than those with high expectations which cannot be met. Thus part of the process of moving from unhappiness, hostility, grief and loss to acceptance, hope and a positive view of life is to reconcile unrealistic internalized (often manufactured by the mass media) expectations with what life actually offers.
A classic example of the causal nature of expectations originated in Hong Kong a few years ago. Immigrant maids who worked long hours six days a week for wealthy Hong Kong households were found to be much happier than their employers, who often suffered from depression, anxiety and even thoughts of suicide. By the usual material measures of "success and happiness," the outcome should have been reversed.
But while the bourgeois Hong Kong residents internalized expectations for wealth, success and recognition which were impractical or impossible to meet, the maids were buoyed by the meaning of the labor--supporting their families back home in the Philippines--and by their one day of socializing with other immigrant workers.
This essential transformation of expectations is made all the more difficult by the consumerist marketing ethos described earlier which generates insecurity, dissatisfaction and unrealistic externally-dependent expectations as key motivators for buying unneeded goods and services (and thus generating profits).
An entire constellation of complex emotions may be triggered by a devolution in financial wealth and loss of home and livelihood: anger, resentment, grieving, confusion, and even betrayal. The thinking may follow this line: I did what was expected of me, I played by the rules, I worked hard, and now my life is a shambles. This isn't right, it's not fair.
When the credit-dependent path of perversely dissatisfying "material happiness" comes to an end, many who believed in the system may well feel betrayal as well as loss. These emotions may parallel those felt by people who have been intimately betrayed by loved ones or betrayed by business/financial partners. They may feel they "did their part" and as such they don't deserve this harsh fate.
The entitlement mindset that we are each "owed" a pension, healthcare, housing, a livelihood, etc., by the Savior State also feeds a self-defeating resentment and sense of betrayal.
The underlying assumption was that the exponential-credit/bubble economy was supposed to "work" in some enduring fashion: higher debt was supposed to enable a "nicer" lifestyle, rising housing values were supposed to effortlessly fund a permanent increase of material improvements, and so on. The collapse of security and assets/equity may feel like a betrayal, and all those who feel betrayed by their own self-destructive actions will feel a great temptation to blame someone other than themselves.
Ironically, the very forces which rigged the game and manufactured the politics of experience which fostered the delusions of grandeur (wealth without saving or sacrifice, etc.) are rarely identified as responsible by the average middle class citizen, who has been trained to "accept responsibility" rather than