I have been as fortunate as an American can be to have missed the U.S. election coverage since July. I haven’t avoided it all, unfortunately, even from a safe spot all the way across the globe (damn you, Facebook!), but the endless tit for tat portrayed by a media run amok hasn’t been on my radar much.
My countrymen and my Facebook “friends” alike have been wringing their hands and lamenting the end of the world if their candidate doesn’t win. They’ve been very heartfelt as they’ve itemized every campaign slogan, assertion, and every half-assed slander pumped out by the party-sponsored gossip mills.
The world will survive. Hell, the rest of the world doesn’t seem to notice, much less care… it’s only the narcissism of the apple pie American Way-of-Life that entitles Americans to think anybody else gives a damned about our election in the first place.
There is one thing, and one thing only, that unites the entire world. It is the single thing that set Mankind apart from the Animalkind, and science has incontrovertibly shown it not to be opposable thumbs, language, or the use of tools.
Civilization did not rise up out of Mesopotamia because of animal husbandry or agriculture. Puny but aggressive Man did not slowly claw to the top of the Most Dangerous Predators list because of math or cuneiforms or abstractions.
Man is the top of the resources pyramid because of his obsessive and compulsive need to trade.
Every single human advancement has come about as a way to enhance our ability to trade: The wheel (move more, faster); Astronomy (get it there); Time (before it spoils); Laws (settle disputes); Money (a near-universal exchange for commodities); Bureaucracy (regulate and tax goods); Ships (move more, farther); Jets (move it faster); Infrastructure (free movement of goods)...
The list is inexhaustible.
The container ports I visit are all identical in every way. Same cranes, same docks, same trucks, same longshoremen, same scenery…. Same same. It doesn't matter if I’m in China, Pakistan, Longbeach, or Savannah- my world is the real world, and the cities that are built around the ports service it.
To work in shipping it to work for the man behind the curtain, backstage, where all the magic happens; the flavor of each city is merely pablum for the masses. The world's infrastructure is uniform. Efficient. Reliable. It is measured in Cubic Tonnes and TEU's, and it is moved with currency and displacement.
What isn’t the same, however, are the standards of living of the people in those cities that prop up the ports. American labor is expensive- which is why we have built all those brand-new, high-rise, mega-cities in China with American dollars while much of the infrastructure in American cities resembles that of the third world.
The same items are shipped. The same fuel is used. The same shipping companies move the goods. The same Logistics firms handle the bills of lading. The same insurers and reinsurers indemnify the whole apparatus. Even the prices of the items being shipped are roughly the same after exchange. What makes the cost of shipping between two poor countries and two wealthy ones differ?
Nothing but wages.
It is impossible for me to buy into the megalomania of the American media shitstorm that our elections have become when I have Pakistani longshoremen digging through every garbage can on my ship. Or when I watch the slaves of the walled city of Jebel Ali physically running to do their job. Or when I have to thread my way between the Sri Lankans sleeping on the deck because they earn $1.70 US a day if they are on the job for 24 hours in that day.
While Trump was grabbing pussies this election and Billy-boy turns out to still be an unapologetic, philandering man-hussy- the air quality over New Delhi is 87 times worse than regular, old “unhealthy” air. The river my ship is in right now, in the 7th largest city in the world, is an incomprehensible cesspool of biological waste, garbage, and every conceivable petrochemical ever made.
I have heard is said that “America has lost its way.” Gag me. The stupid bastard who said that has no perspective… he needs to do the same job as another man for 1/1000th the pay, get beaten with impunity by his employer, and live in a river of shit before he gets to spout ignorant bile like that.
The world is a brutal, hostile place and America has a comfy place in the top 20. We are not special. Our election is not a dramatic winner-will-preserve-The-Free-World-against-1000-years-of-darkness affair the carney barkers on the TV have sold for two solid years.
When the last vote is counted, the last advertising revenue received, and the proclamations are shouted from the rooftops, business will continue as usual. The economy will be static for 3 months (as always following the US presidential election) while the gears and the palms are greased. And the machine will run on.
No matter who becomes the chief baby-kisser at the end of the day, there will be Trade.
You can count on that.
My countrymen and my Facebook “friends” alike have been wringing their hands and lamenting the end of the world if their candidate doesn’t win. They’ve been very heartfelt as they’ve itemized every campaign slogan, assertion, and every half-assed slander pumped out by the party-sponsored gossip mills.
The world will survive. Hell, the rest of the world doesn’t seem to notice, much less care… it’s only the narcissism of the apple pie American Way-of-Life that entitles Americans to think anybody else gives a damned about our election in the first place.
There is one thing, and one thing only, that unites the entire world. It is the single thing that set Mankind apart from the Animalkind, and science has incontrovertibly shown it not to be opposable thumbs, language, or the use of tools.
Civilization did not rise up out of Mesopotamia because of animal husbandry or agriculture. Puny but aggressive Man did not slowly claw to the top of the Most Dangerous Predators list because of math or cuneiforms or abstractions.
Man is the top of the resources pyramid because of his obsessive and compulsive need to trade.
Every single human advancement has come about as a way to enhance our ability to trade: The wheel (move more, faster); Astronomy (get it there); Time (before it spoils); Laws (settle disputes); Money (a near-universal exchange for commodities); Bureaucracy (regulate and tax goods); Ships (move more, farther); Jets (move it faster); Infrastructure (free movement of goods)...
The list is inexhaustible.
The container ports I visit are all identical in every way. Same cranes, same docks, same trucks, same longshoremen, same scenery…. Same same. It doesn't matter if I’m in China, Pakistan, Longbeach, or Savannah- my world is the real world, and the cities that are built around the ports service it.
To work in shipping it to work for the man behind the curtain, backstage, where all the magic happens; the flavor of each city is merely pablum for the masses. The world's infrastructure is uniform. Efficient. Reliable. It is measured in Cubic Tonnes and TEU's, and it is moved with currency and displacement.
What isn’t the same, however, are the standards of living of the people in those cities that prop up the ports. American labor is expensive- which is why we have built all those brand-new, high-rise, mega-cities in China with American dollars while much of the infrastructure in American cities resembles that of the third world.
The same items are shipped. The same fuel is used. The same shipping companies move the goods. The same Logistics firms handle the bills of lading. The same insurers and reinsurers indemnify the whole apparatus. Even the prices of the items being shipped are roughly the same after exchange. What makes the cost of shipping between two poor countries and two wealthy ones differ?
Nothing but wages.
It is impossible for me to buy into the megalomania of the American media shitstorm that our elections have become when I have Pakistani longshoremen digging through every garbage can on my ship. Or when I watch the slaves of the walled city of Jebel Ali physically running to do their job. Or when I have to thread my way between the Sri Lankans sleeping on the deck because they earn $1.70 US a day if they are on the job for 24 hours in that day.
While Trump was grabbing pussies this election and Billy-boy turns out to still be an unapologetic, philandering man-hussy- the air quality over New Delhi is 87 times worse than regular, old “unhealthy” air. The river my ship is in right now, in the 7th largest city in the world, is an incomprehensible cesspool of biological waste, garbage, and every conceivable petrochemical ever made.
I have heard is said that “America has lost its way.” Gag me. The stupid bastard who said that has no perspective… he needs to do the same job as another man for 1/1000th the pay, get beaten with impunity by his employer, and live in a river of shit before he gets to spout ignorant bile like that.
The world is a brutal, hostile place and America has a comfy place in the top 20. We are not special. Our election is not a dramatic winner-will-preserve-The-Free-World-against-1000-years-of-darkness affair the carney barkers on the TV have sold for two solid years.
When the last vote is counted, the last advertising revenue received, and the proclamations are shouted from the rooftops, business will continue as usual. The economy will be static for 3 months (as always following the US presidential election) while the gears and the palms are greased. And the machine will run on.
No matter who becomes the chief baby-kisser at the end of the day, there will be Trade.
You can count on that.
Thank you for some much needed perspective, Forrest; it's largely AWOL right now.
ReplyDeleteWell, actually, they care quite a bit about a Trump presidency here in England and Europe collectively seems a bit wild-eyed over it as well. Having said that, because I, too, have worked in the shipping industry, I absolutely agree with you about trade keeping the whole societal ball spinning. Nice piece of writing, Sinbad. The Momster
ReplyDelete