My dad was an amateur mycologist. Which is to say, he liked hunting mushrooms. He checked out a book, from the library, and read it thoroughly, and thus avoided poisoning himself.
He also, unintentionally perhaps, avoided having psychedelic experiences.
Back in those days, scientists didn’t fully understand that mushrooms can communicate with one another, through their complex underground mycelium network. We now know a bit more about that amazing fact, but we haven’t yet discovered what, exactly, they talk about. In particular, we know very little about what the psychedelic varieties talk about.
I’m betting they don’t talk about recessions.
If aliens are watching us from their spaceships, they’ve no doubt noticed that humans also communicate with one another, through a complex network of electronic devices. This is a fairly recent development — and I mean, “recent”, allowing for the 100,000 year history of Homo sapiens. Previous to the development of electricity and electronics, humans mostly communicated face-to-face — in most cases, arguing over the dinner table — but a limited amount of communication was facilitated by books, newspapers, and magazines.
Also, “miscommunication” took place. More often than not.
Miscommunication has continued with the development of ‘smart phones’. (An oxymoron, if there ever was one.)
As of 2023, books, newspapers and magazines have largely been replaced by YouTube, FOXNews, and Facebook, not necessarily in that order.
Of course, miscommunication can happen when you are face-to-face, arguing over the dinner table. But our worldwide web of electronic communication can deliver inaccurate information, practically at the speed of light, to almost any point on the globe. That’s what they call ‘progress’.
Much of the electronic communication, lately, has been about ‘recessions’. Generally, a recession is talked about like it’s a bad thing. But we will recall that psychedelic mushrooms were once talked about like they were bad things. So you really never know.
When I did a Google search looking for YouTube videos that discuss ‘recessions’, Google said there were 54 million such sites.
Too many to watch.
So I picked one that featured Elon Musk, because I have a lot in common with him. We’re both divorced, for example. And we both identify as ‘male’.
As of a month ago, Elon thought we would have a recession some time in 2023. In fact, we might already be in a recession, he said.
He says the ‘good economic times’ have lasted a bit too long, and when that happens, rich people start doing foolish things with their money.
As he himself knows very well.
“So at some point it just gets out of control, and you have a misallocation of human capital, where people are doing things that are silly and not really useful to their fellow human, and then those companies — well, there has to be sort of an economic enema, if you will … So, eventually, the economic enema does its job. It clears out the pipes, if you will. And the bullshit companies go bankrupt and the ones that are producing useful products are prosperous.”
I’m a big fan of clearing out the pipes, in most instances. Elon says this economic enema is likely to last 12 to 18 months, which seems a bit excessive to me. I’d rather see an enema that was finished within, at most, an hour.
But I’m willing to go with 12 months… or even 18 months. If that’s what it takes. As Elon says, let’s clear out the pipes.
I doubt the mushrooms will even notice. They probably have better things to talk about.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.