I Just Don't Understand

Steinbeck's Lennie Accurately Describes Today's World

Rocks are started, two weeks to go. Digging Crepe Myrtle and Hydrangea “holes” are on the schedule for tomorrow. Ain’t it great to live here in the United States? Look a little around the world; chaos raises its ugly head in multiple places and all we can do is watch and work in our gardens but there’s something wrong with the blooms.

Steinbeck tried his best during the Great Depression to characterize Lennie as a very “large” imbecile who liked soft things. His constant companion George took matters into his own hands when Lennie overstepped his bounds but that wasn’t all Steinbeck was speaking about in “Of Mice and Men” was it?

Steinbeck reiterated his thoughts about a year after publishing his book Of Mice and Men:

“In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.” Wouldn’t it be a better world if we indeed tried to understand each other?

Steinbeck's characters are often powerless, due to intellectual, economic and social circumstances. Lennie undoubtedly possesses the greatest physical strength of any character. His intellectual handicap undercuts this and results in his powerlessness. Economic powerlessness is established as many of the ranch hands are victims of the Great Depression. All others, George, Candy and Crooks are positive, action-oriented characters, wishing to purchase a homestead, but because of the Depression, they are unable to earn enough money to fulfill their dream. Lennie can’t take care of himself, but the other characters would do this in the improved circumstances they seek. Since they cannot do so, the real danger of Lennie's mental handicap comes to the fore. It kind of sounds familiar to those who simply cannot afford to move forward.

Of Mice and Men can be associated with the idea that inherent limitations exist and despite all the squirming and struggling, the circumstances of one's existence limits their capacity to live the fairy tale lives they wish to. To me, it’s reflected in the world we live in as well as those who know not the troubles, economically and politically we face in today’s all to rapidly changing world.

Added To Short Russell Futures Position Today

Steinbeck wrote about the inevitable. He didn’t really have a history to follow as we do today. All he had was the here and now. Today we have history. We have the late 1980s as well as the Great Depression to look back upon. As stated in my “prior articles” I pick the late 1980s as what’s happening is more on point. The real choice is yours but keep in mind, neither are rosy.

I guess I would like to think that everything that wrong, macro and geopolitically, can be solved with the waving of a magic wand. George certainly hoped that to be the case in Of Mice and Men but down deep he didn’t think it would happen. I don’t either and sense neither do most on the street. Like George however they’ll be willing to disguise their inherent negativity until it’s too late.

I cannot guarantee that I’m right or wrong. I can only represent that this is exactly the way I think. Writing this article came to me as I worked outside in the yard. It’s really taking shape, like I said two weeks to go. I checked about how deep to dig the “holes” for the new bushes and trees then turned on the news. That was my mistake.

How in the hell is anyone with any sense of sanity long this market? Is everyone just a Lennie? Do they “not understand”? Again time will tell. John Steinbeck told it like it was. Let’s hope the imbeciles out there take notice and listen . The worst is coming.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope that every investor who is long the market makes money and makes me look like a fool. Chances are that isn’t going to happen but one never knows what the future will bring. From what I’ve experienced, from what I read and more so from what I listen to and hear, except for the rookies who think every problem solves itself, it’s time to short the Russell then short some more.