WHAT IS HAITI TEACHING US?

So what are we learning in Haiti? I’ve been sick the last few days and basically just laying around watching TV, most of it news coverage of Haiti. A few things jumped out at me.

There is no way to prepare for a disaster of this magnitude. The best you are going to get for the first week is total confusion. The US military, just because of its organizational structure, is probably the most qualified body to take command of the situation but I’m sure there is resistance to that from other organizations. Even then, it takes weeks to start to get some workable plan in place because the problems on the ground are too immense. And, if the primary purpose of the military is to break things and kill people this sort of humanitarian effort requires, I would think, many subtle and some not so subtle changes in thinking for the commanders.

America will take the lead regardless of what others may or may not want because there really isn’t anyone else capable of doing it. This is all well and good until you start to consider the cost. We don’t have the money; period. Our coffers are exhausted; we are printing money as fast as we can, just to blow a bubble big enough to keep the lie of a healthy economy going. The usual suspects are starting to refuse to buy our debt up, forcing the Treasury to do it; to try and beat this dead horse across some imaginary finish line one last time. We are paying the bill for the rescue of Haiti with an exhausted credit card, hoping that a new offer comes in the mail so we can roll the debt over for another month.

So where is Saudi Arabia or any other of the oil producing states? Where is China? I know China sent a team of rescuers but really, how about sending a boat load of money; they’ve got plenty.
You won’t see any help of a substantial nature from any country besides America. We’ll carry the load and sink ourselves further into debt to the Chinese, the country that won’t send its money as charity but will be more than happy to lend it at a price.

In the end we’ll make a valiant effort that will save some lives. The inevitable result is going to be chaos and disease run rampant because there really isn’t any other possibility. There are too many bodies rotting in the heat and no way to adequately deal with them. There is no way to supply adequate food and water to all the effected people in time to stave off riots. The people of Haiti have done well to hold it together as long as they have.

And you just know the empire builders in Washington are already putting plans in place to install a government and create a new democratic country. Of course, in view of all the bribery, graft and arrogance surrounding the health care legislation I would think that maybe we should look a little closer to home when we worry about representative democracies. Once again, our political leaders will ignore the history of a third world country and spend billions to try and force a system of government on a people that are not prepared for it and cannot see it through to completion. We will borrow or print billions because we don’t have it to spend.

What does Haiti really tell us? Haiti is a sign post; a warning. Haiti is the last gasp of Pax Americana. We will never again be able to expend this much wealth to help others. Once we are gone, who will take our place? The answer: no one. There has never been another country so willing to go all in and help those in need. This isn’t bragging, just fact. Without the wealth created by the American economy the rest of the world will flounder. I don’t care about what is happening in Asia, I think it is overstated and distorted by the various governmental reporting agencies. And, even if the growth of the Asian economies could offset the loss of American capitalism the moral imperative to help others so peculiar to the American way of life will not survive. In historical terms, America has been an aberration.

The world, and in particular America, is being stripped of all that is superfluous. All the pretty, shiny baubles that we have come to expect as a part of our daily lives are being removed; if not forever for the foreseeable future. The access to cheap and seemingly endless supply of energy that has fueled all of our development over the last hundred years is coming to a close because the collapse of the economy that created the demand will take it away as well. Without America and its consumption crazed middle class the need for oil will diminish. And as demand diminishes so will production capability. Investment in future production will dry up with it, creating a death spiral for cheap energy. Let’s face it, no matter how much politicians and environmentalists want to talk up green technology nothing can replace oil. Without it, we will quickly begin to return to a standard of living closer to that of 100 years ago.

And that is the kind of place Haiti was. The vital difference was political and cultural. The West, over thousands of years has developed an understanding of man, his rights and his place in the world far superior to that of any other culture. Again, not bragging, this is just a fact. The problem for the West is that we have systematically destroyed our educational system, to the extent that the average Western citizen has no understanding of the philosophical underpinnings upon which our society depends. We have replaced our knowledge with the slavery of comfort and ease. Our people have been distracted by TV and governmental largesse, accepting comfort as payment for siphoning away our humanity and our grasp of our political and philosophical inheritance. We are no more prepared today for societal survival in the face of systemic collapse than are the Haitians. As the support structure that we have come to absolutely depend upon for the most vital components of our lives unravels we will begin to look just as Haiti looks today.

And that is what I have seen in the last few days, watching as the world responds to Haiti. I’ve seen our future. Haiti is systemic collapse writ large. But it is just a small part of a small island. If the world did nothing we wouldn’t notice any difference.

What is coming is different, but only in scale. As the West begins to collapse the world will notice. The difference is that no one will respond. No one can help. We will be on our own as everything we know changes; except our knowledge. The essential question in our collapse is whether we can retain and use the knowledge we have gained over thousands of years regarding reestablishment of useful and just political systems or do we enter into the dark ages once again. Do we return to the time of the collapse of Pax Romano when all knowledge was swept away to be replaced by marauding bands of barbarians, ruling by force and fear? Or, do we accept our fate and begin to rebuild society based on the philosophical truths and moral foundations that have served us so well? Do we move into a future based on reason or one based on fear?

This is what I’ve seen watching Haiti this weekend and I’m not hopeful; for Haiti or the West.