The need for speed

Faster, faster... that's been the mantra for a century now. Transportation. Finance. Commerce. But when you don't realize where you're headed, getting there faster isn't always a good thing...

During the dot-com bubble we often heard the phrase "competing in Internet time." The idea is that business now moves at the speed of bits and bytes--competition speeds up, and victory belongs to the swiftest to adapt to changing business conditions. Just as business responds on Internet time, so do our markets. The stock prices of companies rise feverishly to soaring heights, only to plunge rapidly when the market determines that they are not winners. So our markets and businesses now run on Internet time. What about nations? ...

In an age when billions of dollars in securities are traded in nanoseconds, when a 24-hour news cycle seems long, why should national decline be exempt from what the Germans call Zeitgeist, the spirit of the age? The Book of Revelation, speaking allegorically of ancient Rome, states, "Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come." Ancient Rome surely did not expect its sudden fall any more than the Soviet Union did in 1991, or than America does now.

Or, as another verse of scripture puts it:

Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

I don't believe the end of America necessarily has to coincide with the Biblical end of time, though that's certainly a possibility. Either way, the point is relevant: nations (just like individuals) that are on self-destructive paths often fail to realize it until their fate is sealed. I've long said the difference between Republicans and Democrats is that both are driving the country toward the cliff, but the latter would floor the accelerator. The past two years have given me no reason to change that analysis. Besides, I suspect these folks are down with the 'faster' bit...

Arriba, arriba, andale, andale!!