At the last World Cup, the team from Netherlands, who lost, cried.
Ten years ago, at the World Trade Center, women and men cried (white dust on black suits).
And last night, I cried, while watching The Best of Youth, an Italian saga of a family coming of age since the 60’s. So much idealism, and helplessness.
Men don’t share the pain, and are not supposed to cry ( King Harald V of Norway cried openly, and this got a mention in Newsweek’s “What Now Little Country” piece).
They might email, text and tweet but not tears.
But this near-double-dip Recession should make both men and women cry.
e.g how a push for sub-prime housing (NJNI , no job no income) turned the world on its head.
Now they are seeing an uptick in sub-prime auto loan (spreading out to 63 months).
When the unexplainable occurred, we blame it on the gods.
Archille. Made by the gods, and return to them.
Matteo, one of the main characters in the Best of Youth, exuded both gallantry and sadness.
He tried to carry the chip on his shoulders, at the neglect of his own well-being.
The uncompromising solution: jump to his death on New Year‘s Eve (most suicides are over the holidays).
His brother cried. His family cried. The entire Italian cinema viewers cried.
You had to be there to feel the force of emotion that had been built up from the beginning.
(the fireworks, the caller-ID rejects, the failure to pin down the bad guys who eluded justice, failure to de-institutionalize a friend…).
Last night, on PBS Nightly Business Report, a commentator was wise-cracked when suggesting we should have been thankful
that consumer sentiment ( euphemism for “when men cry”) was at its lowest just as it had been at the beginning of the Recession.
Turned out that his suggestions were not financially related at all.
He proposed thanking loyal customers who stuck around.
In short, gratitude as a substitute for economic incentives.
Meanwhile, another fresh face, the handsome man from Princeton, is to take over the top Economic Advisory post (First Harvard, now Princeton as long as they are from an Ivy League school).
Tough men don’t cry.
Only when the dream died (World Cup championship for instance).
This time around, just make sure the American dream lives on, flickering but not put out.
(At least, Henry Ford understood this when he decided on high wages for workers, who in turn, could afford to buy his model T’s).
That way, whoever imploded just went quietly. Don’t we wish an Italian-style on current malaise (where men are allowed to cry).
That way, they won’t go postal (or cut the grass violently w/ chain saw).
In today’s world, it’s hard to pin down who the bad guy is. Hence, no catharsis.
Except for one clear-cut case, this past summer, in Pakistan, when the world
agreed, that crime doesn’t pay. No tears were shed on that one, men’s or women’s.
Thang Nguyen 555 