LFS 12-08
Change in the Air
Bob Zanotti

A new year is at the door, a new president is about to take office in Washington, the world is in a financial crisis, and Switzerland is not immune to it. Change is definitely in the air. But what, exactly, is changing and why?

Years ago I made the acquaintance of a woman by the name of Margo Kirtikar, who had just written a book about change, and the inevitability of change. According to this long-time resident of Switzerland, but citizen of the universe, the Age of Aquarius was on the way and would hit us like an express train, ready or not. She and other highly spiritual people I came to know over the years discussed how cosmic change is part natural law. All things in heaven and earth are subject to it, and to resist it is useless. They all described how, when it is time, the Universe intervenes to bring Creation back into equilibrium. But this process is often violent. One metaphor is when the Universe decides it’s time, it picks up the playing board with all on it and lets it drop. It’s not a subtle, gentle or painless process. 

There are other expressions of this: “What goes around, comes around”; As you sow, so shall you reap”; The Law of Action and Reaction”; The Law of Karma; or Retribution. There are others; just take your pick

I think everything we see going on in our sick world today is part and parcel of this, whatever term you choose to use. The excesses and greed of oil interests, speculators and business gougers, unbridled capitalism, environmental destruction, war and terrorism - it’s all part of the same thing.

2008 seems to be the year when the Universe decided it was time to act. “Change” was the battle cry of Barack Obama, and the American People responded positively. It was also the year when Swiss politics and society began getting shaken up out of its complacency, and realized that this country was a country like all others and was not an island. Scandal in high government circles and the near collapse of the UBS all shook the nation. Switzerland had been hit by the global economic crisis like everybody else, and could no longer claim “special status” and immunity from world affairs as it had in decades gone by. The Cold War has been over for nearly 20 years, and Switzerland is no longer the intriguing, protected scenario for the novels of Ian Fleming. For the first time in memory, the government had to step in to save an icon of Swiss and world banking from collapse. And equally amazing was the unprecedented speed of government intervention. This represents the end of another myth: that in Switzerland, everything takes a lot of time. In the case of the UBS bailout, it took a matter of days, not years to do.

As we enter the festive season, I hope that we all may get a welcome, although not necessarily deserved, respite from the stress of the current world situation.

Above all, let us hope that all the rhetoric about change that is in the air will have some substance. But thinking of another friend, historian Aubrey Diem, I am reserved in my euphoria. For as he and history record: we never seem to learn from past mistakes.

Still, let us celebrate the season with the joy and optimism that it deserves, and hope that through “collective consciousness” - to quote the Swiss psychologist, C.J. Jung - we together can makes things happen for the better.

I can’t help but think of one of my all-time favorite stories: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.