Scared Small

Scared Small? - Is the World We Know Changing For Good?

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The recent economic meltdown and the immediate impact it has had on all our lives is not hard to miss. The media is full of it everyday so no need to take up space with all that here. The change I want to call attention to is this. As I talk to my "40 something" year old friends I hear an undercurrent of change. Partially, it is based on fear - fear of not knowing how long this will last, fear for jobs and homes, even fear for extended family members. Is it just the age group - the wisdom of another decade of experience taking hold? Is it idle chatter to just be able to comment on the enormity of what has happened? Possibly, but I sense there is something more.

Underlying the current of conversation I hear a determination. A resolute tone that this is "lesson learned" time. This time it is creating life changes. People are disposing of things in their lives, changing rituals, changing habits and generally re-prioritizing. There seems to be a clarity that just was not there before. To be sure some confusion and grey area remains in a crisis this new but I am not seeing anything that looks like lip service. People seem determined to change the status quo in their lives. Priorities have simply shifted out of necessity - if not simple practicality. All of this has made me start thinking what will our "revamped" world look like when we emerge on the other side?

After years of "credit card baby" syndrome - where we borrowed endlessly to sustain a life of lattes, fashionable things and indispensable little luxuries - has common man met the point where those things no longer hold the allure they once did? Perhaps they just don't seem worth fighting for anymore? I maintain the answer is yes. The overwhelming developing mantra is one of less is more and now they realize it. This time they mean it.

For whatever reason I take them at their word. I do not see this as an off shoot of the recent election where the "C" word was such a big deal. Though, perhaps the grinding, grim & ghastly nature of the last 8 years has just taken its toll. Whatever your politics, it would be hard to deny the simple truth that nothing got better and a whole lot seemed to get much worse. A system wide breakdown - financial- manufacturing - health - that burst its seams, overflowed the edge and creaked to a halt.

With no easy way out on the horizon the hard work of rebuilding is perhaps the engine that will drive the change. This necessity to change will be the taskmaster that will keep us all on the "diet" of the season. Once we emerge on the other side I have to wonder if we won't be in a totally transformed world. One where we can't image the excesses of the past being okay with anyone, much less politically correct. One were less is more is the rule of the day. Needing less and having that not only be okay - but be something cool. In a consumerist society like ours this would have a drastic effect. In my lifetime I remember the changes that I saw between the 1970's and the 1980's. A shift from less to more. The eighties, in my mind became a decade about change and a change to excess. Wall street and corporate mergers became daily news, new technology flooded the market styles changed and needs and wants of the consumers grew. The way we all lived our lives changed forever. It seems very possible that we are in a similar situation right now.

What remains to be seen is the extent of the change. Where will the lines be drawn? What industries will die out and what industries will be born? What will the sacrifices be? Will we all be scared into a smaller lifestyle? Will that new lifestyle then morph into a new hip and trendy? (My guess is that the marketing gurus will determine most of that) The only thing I am totally sure of is that it is bound to be interesting!