The Pendulum

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE
Vol. III – Issue #36 Nov 2008

THE PENDULUM
(is starting to slice and dice)

Watching the mad scrambling of our incoming President, as he attempts to gather a crew of erstwhile experts to help him develop ways and means to deal with the mounting array of economic woes, and the massive infusions of bail-out funds they’ll need to deal with them, reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe’s –The Pendulum -. The one where, bit by bit, its sharp blade kept coming closer and closer to an ultimate slicing doom. It remains to be seen if our President-elect will come up with the right moves and formulas to prevent that.

In the process, he seems to be reaching back and plucking out mostly former Clintonian stalwarts of one kind or another, along with an assortment of what can only be described as former denizens of the extreme Left within his party.

What we’re seeing, therefore, is the political pendulum swinging back from the extreme Right of its recent transit, towards the opposite Left extreme of it. It foretells that, beyond the economic circumstances driving its immediate policy decisions, this incoming Administration will be doing its utmost to forge as many shackles of collectivism as it possibly can, while in office. And once such things are in place, it will be very difficult to reverse them.

How that might revive our ailing economic machinery, or, improve our social and political interactions is hard to say. More importantly, the real question is….once the worst of the economic impacts from this crisis period have been dealt with, will the American people accept such constraints? Probably not. It’s neither their nature, nor the traditional system by which they have lived.

Such extreme pendulum swings of political outlook are the antithesis of what America is all about. Slight oscillations Left and Right of Center are its true values.
That, is what has given it its stability as a polyglot nation. A long track of stability few other nations in the world have ever had.

This extreme pendulum movement in our political affairs will, hopefully, just be an aberrant one. If not, America, must surely end….as America….and become something else. That is not a fate one would wish for it.

CENTURION