I am talking, of course, about Disney’s 1967 adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s masterpiece of the same title. And in that treasure trove of fables there is that deep song, the Bare Necessities, recited by happy-go-lucky Baloo the bear, in which he tries to indoctrinate Mowgli, the innocent young lad, about his own view of life.
As the overcautious leopard Bagheera watches on, Baloo explains to Mowgli where life’s true meaning lies:
Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature’s recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life.
As the global economy tripped before our very eyes I found myself humming Baloo’s lyrics and wondering if the troubles of the capitalist system today could have been avoided if only we had concerned ourselves with the simple bare necessities instead of submitting to greed and materialistic binge. In a matter of days hundreds of billions of dollars evaporated from stock markets, once formidable financial institutions collapsed or sought emergency intervention by central banks and millions of people were on the verge of losing their homes, jobs and life’s savings.
The bubble had burst in an ugly way and the biggest economies on earth were suddenly listing dangerously. Panic spread like wild fire across the globe and an apocalyptical mood took over pundits and experts all over. It was difficult not to feel scared or concerned. Whether one was an investor, owner of a business, or just a working man, the specter of a world-wide recession or worse was haunting. And it was difficult to express glee or scorn because globalization meant that we were all joined together. If America was ailing so was everyone else on this planet.
The reverberations of the disaster that hit Wall Street were being felt in China, Japan, the EU and the Gulf. Soon the seismic waves will hit smaller countries. The proverbial house of cards had fallen and everyone was being dealt out. That is the nature of the capitalist system, which in recent decades had become even more greedy and hungry.
We may have been too busy to notice the warning signs; the successive financial crashes that took place over time in New York, London, and Tokyo only to have a knock-out effect over emerging economies of South East Asia, South America and elsewhere. Couldn’t we have made better sense of the warnings over climate change, the death of oceans, the killing of rivers and the stripping of ancient forests?
The writings were on the wall for some to see, but we had become so immersed in our consumer culture that we were borrowing money as if it was free, and destroying resources as if they were infinite. We now know that this is not the case; that money borrowed will have to be paid with interest and the natural resources we were using up were not replenished.
Still common wisdom suggests that the damage caused by capitalism and liberal economic doctrines can still be fixed, if only governments and big business can agree on major structural solutions. Be that as it may I believe unless we tame our avarice nature and somehow manage to become frugal in our lifestyles we will not be able dig ourselves out of the hole.
Jordanians can learn a lot from what happened. And they must. As Wall Street began to unravel we discovered that thousands of citizens, mostly from the provinces, had entrusted their life’s savings to shadowy brokers who claimed to guarantee up to 20 percent, or more, in monthly dividends. People sold land, gold, cattle and mortgaged their cars and homes in the hope of making it big. As it turned out most of these businesses went bust and people lost their money, an estimated JD 500 million!
America, the beacon of capitalism and its big dreams, had corrupted the world. We all became infected by this virus that kept urging us to spend, buy, consume and speculate. Now we pay the price. Today the liberal economic approach is on the run, with banks being nationalized in America and Britain, and western governments reclaiming their social and regulatory responsibilities. The invisible hand of the market has been amputated! There is a deep message here and I just hope that our government will understand it.
Whether we like it or not we now look for Baloo’s bare necessities and we will be lucky if we can secure them. With so many bills to pay, rising cost of essential goods, and inflation eating up about of a fifth of every dinar we earn, the bare necessities are harder to get our hands on.
A month or so ago I visited Holland, one of the richest countries in Europe, but I was surprised to find that a majority of the Dutch rely on bicycles to move about and that most cars on the road were at least five years old. Rarely would one see a luxury Mercedes or the latest BMW. An esteemed local journalist told me that the Dutch, especially those aged 40 and over, believe it is culturally inappropriate to flaunt wealth. I found such a trait admirable.
We may learn from all this and maybe take time to make sure that our sons and daughters also understand the lessons, and as we look ahead we should remind ourselves that after all is said and done nothing feels better than appreciating the simple bare necessities of life!