fishing for something

Since early childhood I’ve been aware of a maxim that I sssumed was from Buddha
or Confucius, which came to mind when I was reading about the Occupy [name of
city] movement – “the young at times run straight where wisdom has built a winding
path” – even as a child I was struck by the paradoxical symmetry of that, since
it could be offered in support of either attitude. This morning I Googled
it and was delighted to find that the author was our own Theodore Sturgeon,
who penned it in 1951, in “The Skills of Xanadu.”

Not a deep observation, but it’s a truism worth keeping in mind. I arrived
at it via a thought that is also about as deep as a puddle: I don’t really
“see” capitalism. I’m aware of arguments against it, and in an abstract way,
think they can have merit.

But I was born into capitalism, grew up in it, and to some extent have prospered
within its mild – to me -- strictures. But it’s as transparent to me as water
is to a fish.

The comparison doesn’t end there, either. It nourishes me and gives me an environment
to move through; it provides me something like oxygen.

So what are the people, mostly young, who make up the Occupy troops? Are they
like rudimentary air-breathers, struggling up onto a post-capitalist shore?
Or are they fish out of water?

Both, I think. History will tell us whether they were a turning point or a
footnote.


Joe