They tell a story about an old Jew who was living in Paris during
the French Revolution. A friend of his from Poland came through
for a visit and asked him if the unrest was affecting him
personally. “Are you kidding? They are chopping people’s heads
off with the guillotine left and right!”
“Are you afraid of becoming a target?”
“Nah. Who am I? A nobody.”
“So how does the guillotine affect you personally?”
“Because I’m in the hat business.”
Well, the French Revolution seems to be back with a vengeance.
This weekend people went out to the homes of executives of the
AIG insurance company to protest outside the gates, even leaving
messages in the mailboxes (a Federal offense honored in the
breach). Among the comments recorded by the press was one
gentleman saying there were no such opulent homes in his
neighborhood.
One lady said that returning their controversial bonuses is not
enough, they should volunteer for additional taxation and the
Lord will bless them. I suppose the same temperament which allows
people to allot the assets of their fellow citizens allows them
to distribute the Lord’s blessings in accordance with their own
dispositions. My own experience teaches restraint in the area of
apportioning the Lord’s bounty.
The larger point here is that we have lost sight of technical
matters like correcting fiscal problems, we have even lost sight
of volitional moral behavior such as giving to the needy, and we
have surrendered to the dictatorial dialectic of equality at all
costs. If we can’t all be equally rich then, dammit, we should be
equally poor. Let’s chase those rich folk to their lairs and take
from each according to his agility.
Granted it is poor practice to broadcast one’s wealth in a parade
of ostentation. The families which have maintained wealth over
the span of multiple generations tend to adopt circumspection as
a virtue. Certainly there are two breeds among the moneyed, those
who avoid the public eye and those who pop it out of its socket.
We might call them the Haves and the Have Snots. Still, the
offense of the vulgar ones is aesthetic, not essential. If they
got it and want to flaunt it, just turn the other cheek and look
away.
This sort of peasants-at-the-gates revolution is scary on one
side, but it is being mirrored on the right by the return of the
American Revolution in the form of tea-party rallies. Four
thousand people gathered in Fountain Square in Cincinnati (where
I met Bob Dole, Colin Powell and Ted Koppel back in ‘96) a
fortnight ago, and about five thousand came together in Orlando
this past weekend. No Mickey Mouse crowd that. Some of your
sleepily conservative homebody types are being roused by bad
loans to high interest in first principles.
This excites folks in the reporting business, because this is the
sort of fodder that pays allowance regularly. Covering
demonstrations is always fun. The side you like you build up with
clever quotes and camera angles that make the Chicago Nine look
like the Million Man March. The side you disdain you zap with
dumb quotes and pictures of three geeks holding pickets. That is
how to give ordinary citizens a proper gander at what is going on
out of eyeshot.
So will this all end in the streets? Has Obama pushed his revolt
to the extreme point where it can only be decided in the gutter?
Will the French Revolution square off against the American
Revolution in our streets with the new government health-care
squad standing by to do triage on the injured, and may the
best-manned win? None of this bodes well for our future. We
should have elected What’s-his-name, the centrist reformist guy
from Arizona. At least he believes wars are best fought outside
our own streets.
