Basically, there is a cycle of what is important in society. At the (arbitrarily assigned) beginning of the cycle, people are interested mostly in family and friends. Toward the end of the cycle, financial gain and owning things is the most important to people.
During the "importance of family and friends" part of the cycle, humanity supports itself. If one person falls on hard times, say, because his crops don't grow in, his fellows help support him. This is what allowed middle- and lower-class America survive the Great Depression as well as we did. People realized that they needed to help each other out, and did so. Government follows what society sees as important (thus, my statement of "Bush is a symptom, not a cause"), aiding in such recoveries.
As time progresses, however, newer generations become more concerned with acquisition. At first, this may seem like improvement of society. Everybody gets their hands on whatever new technology there is, which makes life easier.
This gets out of hand, though, with people overstretching their bounds. In the past, it was represented by nobility demanding too much of their serfs. Today, it is more represented by banks offering amounts of debt that they knew they wouldn't be able to collect on, and people buying houses/other stuff that people can't afford.
Then, the system falls apart. Much like in the human body, chaos ensues as the illness is purged. Once the lower and middle classes (be they serfs or citizens) can no longer survive on what they have, they rail against their fate. Sometimes this is by actually rising up and fighting. In this case, it is mostly by simply not paying. People begin to remember what is most important in life, which gets them through the tough times.
There are, of course, people who don't fit in. These people are known as
counter-cultures. In the past, they were simply ridiculed. Hippies are an excellent example of a counter-culture. They realized that society's growing obsession with things and the fading importance of family and friends was harmful to society.
Using America as an example: Let's start today (end of the cycle) and go backwards. We are at the collapse. Go back to the 1929, and you find us at the Great Depression. From there, go back to 1849, and we have the Gold Rush. Because it forced westward expansion, we forget about the negative impacts of the Gold Rush, but it was a time of war and hatred. As the easy gold veins gave out, people went broke, towns disappeared.
The same scenario has played out in other countries. There are, to be sure, places where a physically strong ruler has managed to push back a revolt, or where society has figured it out before the cycle comes full-turn.
As I hinted at above, there have been people who have seen what was coming for decades. The hippies tried to derail the cycle entirely. As with any social movement, however, there was disagreement with how things happened. Some focused too much on drugs or "free love" to the full extent of its meanings. Others were militant in their methods. Without presenting a solid facade, the hippie movement couldn't stand up to society. Modern bohemians (artists and free-thinkers) have tried much the same thing (This is, by the way, what
Rent was about, though it was small-scale). It's continued, but the efforts haven't been concerted. When a small group of Buddhists, and a small group of Christians, and a dozen small groups of humanitarians, etc... all go up against a corrupt system individually, it's like throwing rocks at a brick wall. Only by working together can they do anything effective. The problem is that each group has to overcome its dislike of the other groups for this to happen. Pride is a difficult thing to forgo.
Anyway, sorry for the dissertation. Sensei's speech was much longer. I tried to paraphrase and use more example than explanation.
Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads 
