“Pizzaonia Emerging” Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, curator
Pizzaonian reflections on happenings in the United States
What happens when you live in a world where the good stuff never seems to run out? Through the years, many countries in the Western democracies, particularly in the United States have grown very used to having resources that seemed inexhaustible.
Those days seem to be running out. When you have an economy where economic survival depends on continued expansion, there is not much time to consider the future. The object is to make what is in front of you work today, tomorrow will take care of itself.
Well, for the first time it is beginning to look like tomorrow will not take care of itself. The United States may have exploited its existing resources to the point of impending exhaustion. The question is what can you do about it? Without the willingness of the people to understand the problem and its long-term consequences, without the will of a political system that will risk in order to call for sacrifice, without a courageous leader who is willing to step forward and honestly lead regardless of the consequences, nothing is going to happen other than the tragedy that is waiting to happen.
One could consider many reasons why this is occurring, but the most obvious is an economic system that must grow regardless of the outcome. One must be careful here not to be critical of the free-enterprise system. We are believers. Regulated free enterprise is absolutely necessary for true democracy to exist.
However, with the blessing of a healthy free enterprise system is a need for self-control and discipline. Unfortunately, frugality is not compatible with the existing mentality. It seems that the need to be frugal and the need to consume available resources for continued expansion are mutually exclusive.
Where does the blame lie? The truth is that in the final determination, the people are ultimately responsible for the result. I know that today it is considered fashionable to blame the politicians but in a democracy the people bear the responsibility.
To paraphrase John Kennedy, who said it best: Will a democracy impose upon itself the necessary sacrifices that a dictatorship does by decree?
Brother Giovanni