Not the Only Game in Town

One living in Hawaii for any length of time, will after a while, think that it is the only reality anymore, and that there are no other options but living in “paradise” -- even when the cost of doing so, seems prohibitively expensive. One is convinced that that is the “price of paradise,” thinking it is all cost and no reward -- and it is the rewards, that define a paradise.

There comes a time, when the costs (rewards) no longer justifies the rewards (costs) -- and there may be other places and other choices rather than being captive to the thinking that there is no other game in town -- when in fact, there were never so many choices, and one should feel free to shop among those choices (economies) until a better value is received.

Most people everywhere else realize that because they are less indoctrinated to believe they live in the only and best place in the world -- and the only other option, they are familiar with, are the crapshoots of Las Vegas, which is an amusing diversion, but in the end, one loses and expects to lose all their money -- as not an attractive, viable alternative. But there is much more -- if one chooses to avail themselves of those choices, rather than complaining that the choices they made, could have been better.

That’s not how economies and realities work -- that one wishes his choice was better, but still makes the poorer choice. And if one is not going to exercise any real choices, then they have made an overriding choice --that they have to live with, warts and all. Or choose differently.

Yes, the price of gasoline may be 10 cents a gallon less elsewhere -- but for practical purposes, that is totally meaningless unless one exercises the option of going there, buying all one wants -- and coming back. However, that is a very real and practical consideration if one chooses to move to Oklahoma and take advantage of a lower cost of living -- which is unique to every environment. But to pick and choose the statistic of one’s fancy out of context, is just deluding oneself that one knows anything of any consequence and value at all.

Communities become cheap and expensive relative to all the others, but it is especially true among the citizens of the US that they can choose to live in the community that gives them the greatest chances for happiness and success -- rather than to stay where they are, and moan and complain about everything that is wrong and not to their liking. That is merely immaturity and dysfunction, and when it becomes the predominant mentality and culture, they won’t succeed at much that they do.

Elsewhere, people will be resourceful and overcome every obstacle, and ponder their difficulties just long enough to solve and eliminate them -- rather than institutionalizing them as a way of life -- and proclaiming that the best of all possible worlds. Then, everything that is done, is to perpetuate that delusion above all else, manipulating the perception rather than the realities.

That manner of doing led to the terrible malaise and hopelessness of the ‘90s in Hawaii from which there was the beginning of a recovery only from the depths of despair of 9/11/01, in which even Waikiki became a ghost town.

Because of the bold and firm response of President Bush to the terrorist threats that had hung over the world for the last quarter of the 20th century, the civilized people of the world could emerge out of their bunker mentalities and live their lives in confidence and freedom from those anxieties and uncertainties. Economies everywhere boomed -- but those that did best and could build sustainable cultures on those foundations proved themselves, while others could not handle the flush of success and quickly worked to undermine their success because failure was all they knew and felt comfortable in.

And that endgame is now being played out.