Perspectives

One last shot. I can’t do it anymore — write about the morass the nation is in. We’ve so many pressing issues and so little time to effectively change course. I am reduced to asking myself, “What’s the point?” We freely elect criminals to high office (see Florida governor), we’ve allowed our democracy to degenerate into a plutocracy and the electorate says, “gimmee more.” No empire is forever.

For a while at least, I bid adieu to politics and governance. Yet I offer one last warning shot across the bow of our waning democracy.

I recommend two sources, two perspectives on exactly where we are as a nation. First, Bill Moyers spoke at Boston University a week before the last election and summed up well the state of our democracy. (A link to that speech: http://tinyurl.com/BillMoyersBUspeech.) Moyers is so spot-on that that it will leave you shaking your head in despair. How can we have allowed America to degenerate so?

The other “complementary” vision will have you wanting to storm the bastilles of Washington and Wall Street with pitchforks and ropes. See today the documentary movie “Inside Job” directed by Charles Ferguson and narrated by Matt Damon. It provides a thorough analysis of the economic meltdown of 2008, with more than $20 trillion in losses. Folks, we’re being “royally” screwed. America’s financial system is corrupt, and we do nothing about it. Where are the heads on pikes? Where are the financial criminals hanging from the yardarms? This documentary spells out what happened and how. We’ve a corrupt financial/political system that is literally consuming America — eating us alive out of house and work.

We like to think America is immune to the forces of history. America has an economic elite, a “royal class” that is no less an oligarchy than the Romanov’s (Russia) or the Bourbon’s (French). Excess follows excess. Unless America regains its historical promise and its political will, the economic injustice and corruption that unabated grows will metastasize into such a cancer that it will ultimately consume our nation. Nuf sed. For now.

I’ve always liked the image of deck chairs on the Titanic as a metaphor for where the American people find themselves. Not steerage for gawd’s sake — first class, with a cushioned deck chair, a soft plumped pillow, a cashmere blankie to cut the breeze and a thin mint or two. Of course, the bottle of chilled California Schramsberg (thank you, Lee) within reach and a book or two or three waiting to be consumed.

Let us close on a high note of recommended books. Who can resist an author who writes, “It’s impossible to be ethical and religious.” Historically true, yes? English author Howard Jacobson was awarded the Booker Prize for his “Catch-22”-like exploration of what it “means” to be Jewish in Britain today. His book, “The Finkler Question”, is an intelligent, challenging (in so many ways) and worthwhile read.

I also recommend Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom” and Keith Richards’ (lead guitar of The Rolling Stones) autobiography, “Life.” Actually, the “message” of these two books just might sync, except Richards is an unapologetic and unrepentant free spirit.

All great deck mates for these times.

May I fluff your pillow? “One more wafer thin mint, America?”