"For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them."
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca
As my weeks in Switzerland turn into months I am beginning to wonder about the nature of wealth and how it affects society. With the rest of the developed world going through its socio-economic menstrual cycle (every 20 years we bleed out our brains) hanging with the Swiss is an interesting place to observe this phenomenon. These people have their whole little fairy tale world running like a well oiled clock and observe a delightful policy of aloof apathy towards the rest of the privileged peoples problems. They seem satisfied with contributing humanitarian aid and profiting from the misery of the rest of planet through banking.
I like the special existence these people enjoy in this unconscionable world of ours. It truly is a species populating a planet too absurd to even analyze sometimes, but I'll make my attempt non the less. Those in the North are bordering on complete panic about the fact that their era of excess is being threatened once again by economics, reality, and the structural insanity of modern consumer capitalism. The proximal populations, such as those in Mexico, North Africa and South West Asia, are suffering from endemic violence and upheaval that results from a world order that has ordained them to forever be subservient to needs of their powerful neighbors to the north. Farther south and east the struggle continues in a fashion as old as the ages; the perennial struggle for enough calories to live one more year and praying that the terrible threesome of war, famine and plague don't once again visit them.
In such a nonsensical narrative the Swiss simply go on putting bells on all their cows, hiking in their mountains, and enjoying the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that somehow bestowed upon them a serendipitous situation. At least they didn't have to colonize, conquer and kill to achieve it, which is something no other society on earth can claim. In a world that is increasingly a dark and devious nightmare who can blame these Swiss for living their gentle dream in their Alpine fortress of solitude.
"Fate is not an eagle, but creeps like a rate." -Elizabeth Bowen
