By Gabor Steingart in Washington
The amateur detective dreamed up by Agatha Christie, based on her grandmother, is equipped with more than just a sense of humor and an understanding of human nature. She also has experience with the obvious things that no one believes possible -- until they happen. In the 1950 novel "A Murder is Announced," Christie looked into our future in comic fashion.
The story goes like this: One morning, citizens read the following message in the classified section of their local newspaper: "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m. Friends please accept this, the only intimation." At the appointed time, half the village gathers at the house where the murder will supposedly take place. The warning is treated as a frivolous joke, one that no one would want to pass up. Sherry is served. The group contracts a collective case of the jitters. Promptly at 6:30 p.m., the lights go out.
"Isn't this wonderful?" breathed a female voice. "I am so thrilled."
When the lights come back on -- to everyone's surprise -- a murder had been committed. And now we, like the guests at Little Paddocks, are standing around, whispering, getting a case of the jitters, waiting to see what happens next. And no one seriously believes that an actual crime is about to take place.
"Everybody was silent and nobody moved. They all stared at the clock. … As the last note died away all the lights went out. Delighted gasps and feminine squeaks of appreciation were heard in the darkness. 'It's beginning,' cried Mrs. Harmon in an ecstasy."
A Future Sold
Anyone who hopes to get an early warning should simply expand his or her range of vision for as long as the lights are on. America's credit card companies are not in a significantly better position than the banks. They too have sold the future and even a piece of the period after that.
The American auto industry is also seriously stricken and is having trouble extending its credit lines on the open market. The industry has lost more than 300,000 jobs since 1999. But what good does that do if the managers -- and not the workers -- are to blame for the crisis? America's enormous oil bill -- about $500 billion (€345 billion) -- is currently being paid for with money borrowed from China. Every business day, America's foreign debt grows by close to $1 billion (€690 million).
Probably the bitterest pill to swallow in America today is that private households are not managing their finances any better than corporate executives. They see their mirror images in Wall Street bankers rather than some distorted picture of themselves. "I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men," Alexis de Tocqueville noted 170 years ago.
The long-overdue conversation between the government and the governed has yet to materialize. It would have to be a conversation about the relationship between the economy and values, about regaining what has been lost instead of expanding. The word frugality -- which disappeared from the vocabulary of the Uninhibited -- should be reintroduced.
But there is no sign of any of this happening. Today's America is too American to survive in its current form. But today's America is also too proud to realize it. The faithful will hardly allow themselves to be converted.
And so our understanding of the events continues to get less and less clear. A dangerous game with time has begun.
"The ping of two bullets shattered the complacency of the room. Suddenly the game was no longer a game. Somebody screamed... 'Lights.' 'Can't you find the switch?' 'Who's got a lighter?'…'Oh, Archie, I want to get out of here.'"
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
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