[Erin] The fall of the house of Usher

I'll be very surprised if those bids turn out to be serious offers.

Long ago, when people went through midlife or other crises, they used the time for introspection, grappling with tough philosophical questions about the meaning of life. Later, these crises were assuaged through the purchase of fine luxury automobiles. Now, it seems, the way to handle such crises is to give American television producers ideas for new reality t.v. programs. Which reminds me of Sorokin's ideas about the ideational, idealistic, and sensate cultures--but I'll get to that during the week.

You do realize that you are generalizing from an outlying particular, don't you?

But no, I'm not seriously arguing that the devolution of midlife crises from one stage to another proves anything about society other than the "Just when you think you've heard everything..." notion.
Posted by: Erin Manning | June 22, 2008 11:45 PM

That's good to know. I'm something of a Traditionalist on this - I bought a Miata.

How the heck does a rug store assistant have a $420,000 house? Right now $.95 U.S. = $1 Australian, so it's not like the exchange rate makes a whole lot of difference in what those numbers mean.

Do they have sub-prime mortgages in Australia?

It's possible that Mr. Usher's job is a downsize, too, along the lines of Kevin Spacey's character, Lester Burnham, in American Beauty: "I want something with as little responsibility as possible."

As for Mr. Usher's story itself, the only unseemly part of this is the publicity he has brought on himself. But the move to downsize, lighten one's load, sell one's possessions and start anew is totally understandable. I wish him well.