by Mark Morford

Created on: January 06, 2009

Hello, Poetic Justice

O.J. goes to prison, CEOs beg and mope, Hummers as STDs. Where are we?

Baby, you gotta take it all in.

Firstly, the dark side. Plethoric and astounding are the horrors and miseries, twists and swings of a brutal recession, a nation in fiscal calamity. Job losses in the millions. Highest unemployment rate since the Plague. Retail in a tailspin. Retirement accounts gutted, portfolios evaporated, housing bubble now just a sad little puddle on the floor of your gleaming Formica dreams.

And then, the scenes. Shell-shocked stockbrokers holding their faces in their hands, choking back screams, like Edvard Munch with big holdings in Washington Mutual. GM stock as valuable as an old pack of gum. Desperate shoppers stomping each other to death at Black Friday sales to save eight bucks on a 29-dollar DVD player that will break roughly four minutes into the third time it plays that "Fred Claus" DVD bought for two bucks at the dollar store. Fun for the whole family.

Then again, it ain't all bad, is it? Bright sides are emerging. Upsides matter. They're just a bit, how do you say, "challenging" to see.

O.J. Simpson is going to prison for many, many years. Are you cheering? Are you raising an eyebrow? To most conscious humans who were of double-digit age around 1994, this headline comes about 14 years too late. No matter. Who among us lived through the white Ford Bronco phenomenon and didn't sense that somehow, someday, karma was going to nail that lumpish criminal to the wall? It simply took longer than we imagined.

Here is your first reminder: The gods care not for years. Neither do the dead. The devil has come for his due. Hell, for that matter, so have the angels.

Now, look over here. Note the meek and sagging faces of the formerly cocky, once-indestructible, private-jet lovin' CEOs from the Big Three automakers, sitting like baffled children before an equally baffled Congress, very large hat in hand, begging awkwardly for billions in bailout moneys just to stay afloat long enough for everyone to realize that no one really wants a creaky new Impala. Is this not a scene to behold?

Turns out the only reason we might keep these bloated, non-innovative companies alive is to stem the horrible job losses, to prevent unchecked misery in the populace. Good to know. Because it has nothing to do with how they produce something beautiful or good or of estimable value to the planet. Isn't that sort of odd? Enlightening?

It's also sort of refreshing. The truth comes out

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