History May Be Partly Bunk: Part Ten
Despite all the favourable conditions I was living with, in the 1970's, my life tumbled on a diownward slope. Then I was lucky again. I met a man who taught me survival skills. He taught me how to access social prgrams. He guided me into an unorthodox therapy that cured me of my sadness and damped down my ferocious temper. He also taught me how to write journalism. And this helped me get jobs.
"This man was the greatest guidance counselor I ever had," I told a woman who also knew this man too. When his grip fastened on me too tightly, I escaped into the world of anti-poverty movements. Once in this milieu I met two other men. One man guide me to apply to live in a housing co-op. Another helped me get a handicapped allowance. A third man gave me a book on drawing that transformed my life. All of these events and people turned my life around.
In my early 30's, I was a depressed abusive handicapped man. Ten years or so later I had become a more stable balanced human being who felt happy and secure. In the film 'Match Point' the tennis pro Chris Wilson over a dinner in an upscale London restaurant agrees that hard work is mandatory for any success in life. Yet luck and fate, he insists, counts most of all if you're going to thrive. I agree with Wilson and now in the closing days of my life I tell myself and others, "I've sure been lucky."
Henry Ford may well have been correct when he said, "History is bunk. Yet I now see that luck has enabled me to escape the terrible events that clutter up history books.
Saturday 29 June 2019
Wednesday 26 June 2019
History May Be Partly Bunk by Dave Jaffe. Part Nine
History May Be Partly Bunk by Dave Jaffe. Part Nine.
One thing has let me live to the age of 77 and it's not events from history.. It's just plain luck.
"It's better to be lucky than good," tennis instructor Chris Wilson played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers says in effect in Woody Allen's film 'Match Point'. At times I've tried to be good. Yet near my life's end, I realize how important luck is.
First off, both of my parents were nearly killed by German flying rockets in World War Two England. Yet luckily they weren't hit and they both survived. So I grew up with two parents. Not all children in post World War Two England were as lucky. Then for the first eight years of my life, I lived a middle class lifestyle and went to a private school. Soon my parents lost all their money. With me and two sisters in tow, my parents trekked across the Atlantic Ocean and through poverty stricken times in 1950's Montreal.
Yet even when we were poor neither my mother or father descended into drug addiction, gambling or alcoholism. My parents never abused me although a nurse I had as a baby did hurt me. My father hit me twice through my entire life. My mother never hit me and nearly always supported me. The British psychiatrist Donald Winnicott said his work had been driven, "by the urge to find and to appreciate the ordinary good mother. " My mother wasn't a very warm person. Yet she gave me love and many gifts. She was a good mother.
In the world outside my sometimes unstable family, I was lucky too. For in the end I was living in very prosperous times. From the 1940's to the late 1970's, the western world went through one of the greatest economic booms in history. This boom in the end, at last lifted my family out of poverty again.
Then, too, in the 1960's, the federal Liberal government built up a welfare state. They set up a national medicare plan. a Canada Pension Plan for seniors, a Canada Assistance Plan that guaranteed five rights for welfare recipients and two other payment systems for the aged. Under prime ministers Lester Pearson and Pierre Elliot Trudeau the Canadian government helped build tens of thousands of units of social housing.
In Quebec the so-called 'Quiet Revolution in the 1960's, the Quebec government poured hundreds of millions of dollars into post secondary education. If they hadn't done that, I never would have gone to McGill University.
"The age of big government is over," U.S. president Bill Clinton said in the 1990's as he hacked away at programs that helped the poor and the lower paid working class. Yet in the 1960's when I was young governments all over the western world built up social programs. In the 1990's many governments tore holes in the social safety net. Yet the programs set up in the 1960's helped my survive and grow.
Another thing helped my immensely and that was the so called 'miracle drugs' that came on stream in the 1940's and later. Penicillin, streptomycin and the polio vaccines extended my life and saved me and many others from an early grave.
One thing has let me live to the age of 77 and it's not events from history.. It's just plain luck.
"It's better to be lucky than good," tennis instructor Chris Wilson played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers says in effect in Woody Allen's film 'Match Point'. At times I've tried to be good. Yet near my life's end, I realize how important luck is.
First off, both of my parents were nearly killed by German flying rockets in World War Two England. Yet luckily they weren't hit and they both survived. So I grew up with two parents. Not all children in post World War Two England were as lucky. Then for the first eight years of my life, I lived a middle class lifestyle and went to a private school. Soon my parents lost all their money. With me and two sisters in tow, my parents trekked across the Atlantic Ocean and through poverty stricken times in 1950's Montreal.
Yet even when we were poor neither my mother or father descended into drug addiction, gambling or alcoholism. My parents never abused me although a nurse I had as a baby did hurt me. My father hit me twice through my entire life. My mother never hit me and nearly always supported me. The British psychiatrist Donald Winnicott said his work had been driven, "by the urge to find and to appreciate the ordinary good mother. " My mother wasn't a very warm person. Yet she gave me love and many gifts. She was a good mother.
In the world outside my sometimes unstable family, I was lucky too. For in the end I was living in very prosperous times. From the 1940's to the late 1970's, the western world went through one of the greatest economic booms in history. This boom in the end, at last lifted my family out of poverty again.
Then, too, in the 1960's, the federal Liberal government built up a welfare state. They set up a national medicare plan. a Canada Pension Plan for seniors, a Canada Assistance Plan that guaranteed five rights for welfare recipients and two other payment systems for the aged. Under prime ministers Lester Pearson and Pierre Elliot Trudeau the Canadian government helped build tens of thousands of units of social housing.
In Quebec the so-called 'Quiet Revolution in the 1960's, the Quebec government poured hundreds of millions of dollars into post secondary education. If they hadn't done that, I never would have gone to McGill University.
"The age of big government is over," U.S. president Bill Clinton said in the 1990's as he hacked away at programs that helped the poor and the lower paid working class. Yet in the 1960's when I was young governments all over the western world built up social programs. In the 1990's many governments tore holes in the social safety net. Yet the programs set up in the 1960's helped my survive and grow.
Another thing helped my immensely and that was the so called 'miracle drugs' that came on stream in the 1940's and later. Penicillin, streptomycin and the polio vaccines extended my life and saved me and many others from an early grave.
Monday 10 June 2019
History May Be Partly Bunk: Pat Eight by Dave Jaffe
History May Be Partly Bunk: Part Eight by Dave Jaffe.
The great depression of the 1930's led to massive upheaval and great suffering. It also triggered the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and Japanese militarism. Both events led to World War Two. As the economy fell into a very steep downfall in the years 2007 and 2008 the U.S. government came to the rescue to avert a massive world economic downturn.
In 2009 the new Democratic president Barack Obama pushed his agenda of spending trillions of dollars to save the U.S. and the world's economy. Though Republicans balked at spending these massive sums, Obama and his Democratic government won the day. "They are too big to fail," some people in the U.S. said about the big financial firms that may have started the whole mess.
President Obama spent trillions bailing out these big firms and helping other big firms survive. For a time the U.S. government and the Canadian government owned parts of General Motors and the Chrysler auto giant. Workers in these firms endured savage cuts to their wages and benefits. Yet without government help these auto giants would have gone under and the North American economy would have been destroyed.
In Europe, the U.S.A also spent trillions of dollars and saved Europe from economic collapse. By 2010, the western economies started to move forward again. Yet the pain for many people still went on. Over 11 million Americans lost their homes. In European countries like Spain, youth unemployment stood at 30 per cent in 2018. "A whole generation of Spanish youth," one British economist pointed out, "have grown up and never have worked." The big banks just got bigger while ordinary citizens suffered. There's no doubt that the Great Recession - as the economic collapse was called- helped trigger the rise of the far right in the U.S. of A. and Europe.
Left wing groups in the U.S. formed Occupy Wall Street to protest the rescue of big banks and the great gap between rich and poor. On the far right in America, a massive Tea Party movement sprung up and denounced Barack Obama as a socialist.
As all this unfolded, I wasn't even touched by any of it. In fact I got richer. Every month after turning 65, I received three small government cheques . Small as they were, they far outstripped the tiny handicapped allowance I had subsisted on for the previous ten years. For the first time in years I started to save a growing amount of money.
"History is bunk," said Henry Ford whose Ford Motor company survived the Great Recession without any government help. Maybe Ford was right or wrong. Yet I managed to survive most of the great upheavals of the 20th and 21st century without being scarred or traumatized. I lived in what John Berger called "pockets of exemption" and I realize in the closing years of my life that I have been incredibly lucky. I also hope that billions of others have also been as lucky as I have been.
The great depression of the 1930's led to massive upheaval and great suffering. It also triggered the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and Japanese militarism. Both events led to World War Two. As the economy fell into a very steep downfall in the years 2007 and 2008 the U.S. government came to the rescue to avert a massive world economic downturn.
In 2009 the new Democratic president Barack Obama pushed his agenda of spending trillions of dollars to save the U.S. and the world's economy. Though Republicans balked at spending these massive sums, Obama and his Democratic government won the day. "They are too big to fail," some people in the U.S. said about the big financial firms that may have started the whole mess.
President Obama spent trillions bailing out these big firms and helping other big firms survive. For a time the U.S. government and the Canadian government owned parts of General Motors and the Chrysler auto giant. Workers in these firms endured savage cuts to their wages and benefits. Yet without government help these auto giants would have gone under and the North American economy would have been destroyed.
In Europe, the U.S.A also spent trillions of dollars and saved Europe from economic collapse. By 2010, the western economies started to move forward again. Yet the pain for many people still went on. Over 11 million Americans lost their homes. In European countries like Spain, youth unemployment stood at 30 per cent in 2018. "A whole generation of Spanish youth," one British economist pointed out, "have grown up and never have worked." The big banks just got bigger while ordinary citizens suffered. There's no doubt that the Great Recession - as the economic collapse was called- helped trigger the rise of the far right in the U.S. of A. and Europe.
Left wing groups in the U.S. formed Occupy Wall Street to protest the rescue of big banks and the great gap between rich and poor. On the far right in America, a massive Tea Party movement sprung up and denounced Barack Obama as a socialist.
As all this unfolded, I wasn't even touched by any of it. In fact I got richer. Every month after turning 65, I received three small government cheques . Small as they were, they far outstripped the tiny handicapped allowance I had subsisted on for the previous ten years. For the first time in years I started to save a growing amount of money.
"History is bunk," said Henry Ford whose Ford Motor company survived the Great Recession without any government help. Maybe Ford was right or wrong. Yet I managed to survive most of the great upheavals of the 20th and 21st century without being scarred or traumatized. I lived in what John Berger called "pockets of exemption" and I realize in the closing years of my life that I have been incredibly lucky. I also hope that billions of others have also been as lucky as I have been.
Saturday 1 June 2019
History May Be Partly Bunk: Part Seven by Dave Jaffe.
History May Be Partly Bunk by Dave Jaffe. Part Seven.
In 2007 I turned 65 years old. As this happened, the world economy nearly went into a death rattle.
It survived but only after drastic surgery. Meanwhile I hopped on a plane and flew into the growing city of Kelowna a few hundred kilometres east of Vancouver. Then after a few days under a warm sun, I drove home in a Greyhound bus.
On the bus I chatted with a young seat mate. "Things look bad," I recall telling him. "We'll see how it all works out." In fact the world economy was falling into its greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930's. Yet once again this economic collapse seemed to have no great impact on me. In fact my life improved. Once again I realized that I was living in what John Berger called " a pocket of exemption." Or was it true as Henry Ford once said, "History is bunk." ? In other words the great events written down by historians never had the impact on most people that the recorded histories claimed?
Wherever the truth lies, I realized soon enough that the world economy was in terrible shape. The big American banks stopped lending to each other and soon stopped lending period. Lehman Brothers a huge American financial institution went bankrupt. And millions of Americans lost their homes.
What caused this great economic crisis? Robert Reich, a U.S. economist and onetime Labour Secretary in the Clinton administration blamed the rising tide of inequality for the economic collapse. Others fingered the semi-fraudulent financial trades on Wall Street of worhless bonds that were made up of mortgages lent to low income people.
Yet whatever caused the crisis, the whole problem started on the U.S. financial centre on Wall Street in New York City, and then surged across the world. This is exactly what happened at the start of the Great Depression in 1929. In that crisis tens of millions of people suffered and lost their jobs. The newly elected U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt who won the 1932 presidential election tried to stimulate the American economy by bringing a whole swath of new government programs that he called 'The New Deal'.
"We tried the gold standard," Roosevelt told his aide Raymond Moley, "and that didn't work out. Now we may try the silver standard. And if that doesn't work we'll try something else." But Roosevelt assured Moley that in the end the U.S. government would finds a solution to the world's economic problems.
Roosevelt's New Deal only applied to the U.S. of A. Hit hard by the Great Depression, Germany ended up under the rule of dictator Adolf Hitler. Hitler prepared for war and the invasion of most of Europe. Japan embraced militarism and invaded China. In Italy the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini unleashed his air force against Ethiopia and then conquered it. All over Europe and parts of the Americas, racist and anti-Semitic groups flourished and grew. "The lights are going out all over Europe," said British diplomat on the eve of World War One in 1914. Yet he could have said the same 25 years later. The Great Depression triggered wars and preparations for war.
Would the same thing happen now in 20007 in the midst of what was soon called 'The Great Recession'? Time would tell.
In 2007 I turned 65 years old. As this happened, the world economy nearly went into a death rattle.
It survived but only after drastic surgery. Meanwhile I hopped on a plane and flew into the growing city of Kelowna a few hundred kilometres east of Vancouver. Then after a few days under a warm sun, I drove home in a Greyhound bus.
On the bus I chatted with a young seat mate. "Things look bad," I recall telling him. "We'll see how it all works out." In fact the world economy was falling into its greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930's. Yet once again this economic collapse seemed to have no great impact on me. In fact my life improved. Once again I realized that I was living in what John Berger called " a pocket of exemption." Or was it true as Henry Ford once said, "History is bunk." ? In other words the great events written down by historians never had the impact on most people that the recorded histories claimed?
Wherever the truth lies, I realized soon enough that the world economy was in terrible shape. The big American banks stopped lending to each other and soon stopped lending period. Lehman Brothers a huge American financial institution went bankrupt. And millions of Americans lost their homes.
What caused this great economic crisis? Robert Reich, a U.S. economist and onetime Labour Secretary in the Clinton administration blamed the rising tide of inequality for the economic collapse. Others fingered the semi-fraudulent financial trades on Wall Street of worhless bonds that were made up of mortgages lent to low income people.
Yet whatever caused the crisis, the whole problem started on the U.S. financial centre on Wall Street in New York City, and then surged across the world. This is exactly what happened at the start of the Great Depression in 1929. In that crisis tens of millions of people suffered and lost their jobs. The newly elected U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt who won the 1932 presidential election tried to stimulate the American economy by bringing a whole swath of new government programs that he called 'The New Deal'.
"We tried the gold standard," Roosevelt told his aide Raymond Moley, "and that didn't work out. Now we may try the silver standard. And if that doesn't work we'll try something else." But Roosevelt assured Moley that in the end the U.S. government would finds a solution to the world's economic problems.
Roosevelt's New Deal only applied to the U.S. of A. Hit hard by the Great Depression, Germany ended up under the rule of dictator Adolf Hitler. Hitler prepared for war and the invasion of most of Europe. Japan embraced militarism and invaded China. In Italy the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini unleashed his air force against Ethiopia and then conquered it. All over Europe and parts of the Americas, racist and anti-Semitic groups flourished and grew. "The lights are going out all over Europe," said British diplomat on the eve of World War One in 1914. Yet he could have said the same 25 years later. The Great Depression triggered wars and preparations for war.
Would the same thing happen now in 20007 in the midst of what was soon called 'The Great Recession'? Time would tell.
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