Stripped off nobility, You can still have dignity. That’s the difference. You and I have the latter while very few inherited the former. Not even Bezos or Zuckerberg. They might be able to “buy” the title “Sir” (Charlie Chaplin, Elton John and Paul McCartney earned it by their talents and fame). Once again, I scanned a David Brooks’ NYT column. He touched on the price tag of 4T, a not-too-arbitrary number – enough to re-gain respect for the working people of America. Call it a reparation fee, or a fine the top tier for indulging in Capitalism excess at the expenses of common people, whom we live with, who serve us Starbucks and Big Macs and turn around to be consumers of goods we produce. Makes the world go round.
Henry Ford used to pay his workers a wage that , in his opinion, allowed them to afford the very automobiles they were assembling. Today’s inflation and supply chain problems, off shoring and vaccine inequity ; a confluent that put us in an untenable situation: to re-shore some jobs (Intel investment). That is, if our Sinema from AZ would open the gate (all bottle neck through Manchin and her/him).
Meanwhile, here in Austin, people tossed molotov cocktail to the Democratic HQ in the hope of igniting further unrest (Who said President Johnson can R.I.P.). They used to burn themselves at the steps of the Pentagon in his days. At least, the only person harmed was themselves. Today, the unvaccinated and unmasked inadvertently elect to become covid carriers. A Jim-Jones suicide pact, without Jim Jones.. Just like the 9/11 terrorists, only exponentially. Currently we are at 700,000 deaths and counting. By the time we are done with boosters, vaccines for kids and the conversion of the unvaxx, we might be at the 1- million milestone.
Preventable deaths.
Preventable drama and subpoena ( Oath Keepers – whose leader, incidentally, wears an eye patch, a mirror image of the Taliban hardline minister), preventable government shut-down (now pushed to December- kick that can down further down the road) and preventable decline in infrastructure, climate and health care.
We are due for a course correction. Every four decades or so. Gas lines are long in Britain (back in the early 70’s, it’s the US). The top 1 per centers have their tax overdue (un avoidable with re-shoring of jobs and evaded taxes now that Pandora file wide opened). May workers find jobs, good jobs once again. Not gigs. Jobs. With a smile on their faces and paychecks in hand. Not “ghost work” (a merge between pro-sumersim and automation) that might help consumers catch up with inflation, but it eliminates many jobs (self-serve at groceries stores and Walmart).
We don’t wait to be re-born into nobility. We start today. With our own hands and our heads. Just look at the Haitians, the Afghans, the El Salvadorans. Why would they want to come? Hope is stronger than fear. They might come wading through waters but someday, they will be driving. Maybe not as groovy as in Motown days. But they will find a way to re-invent themselves, to prove not to the world, but to themselves, that given an opportunity, they can preserve and protect their dignity. Wait not for funerals or weddings. No Jimmy Hendrix (funeral) nor Romanov (wedding). Just be Happy Today. With their god-given talent, dedication and perseverance. That’s dignity. That’s divinity. To live productive lives and be buried under God’s Earth. Good Earth.
We have put so much emphasis on progress at the expense of tradition. We forget we used to respect the elders, open the door for the handicaps, protect our young and punish the unjust. Now, it seems like we worship a new neon god, the machine, technique – hard and soft wares. We are talking about a bail out. Too big to fail. But not 2008. This bail-out is the Mother of them all: the bail out of man’s dignity, not banking industry. Machines took away jobs (even picking grapes besides corn). Machines will have to pay us some compensation: so we can just sit, consume “misinformation” and other assembly-line products. Will have to teach them to be more “human” and more “socially responsible” (instead of the other way around: Un Temp Moderne, Chaplinesque – who – after punching out – still see work everywhere he went).
Maybe 4 Trillion is still cheap. Heck, Afghanistan will cost us 6.5 Trillion, when all said and done. How about American back to (trade) school, back to work (rural broadband), and putting transparency and democracy back in the Constitution and the voting booth. Give me a “d”. Give me an “i”…..you know the drill. We’re only as good as our next door neighbor. When his house burned, or Northern California forest burned – or oil spill in the Gulf or Huntington Beach (weakest link) we all get burned. Same with young man who tossed the Molotov cocktail, the Oath Keepers, An eye for an eye…Kansas or Kabul?
It’s one thing if we were royalty. But we are not (all got our humble start as Boat People, Mayflower that was). And Dorothy, you are no longer in Kansas. It begins to feel like Kabul. So Goodbye Yellow Brick Road… plenty like me to be found… that spark of divinity deserves more dignity, right now, while living, not when he/she is dead, by covid or what not. Who would be around to hear “don’t speak ill of the dead”, while he/she can appreciate a raise or a paycheck. You should have seen the smile on that homeless lady’s face when she saw it’s a ten (I split, since I had found a twenty). Money talks
“Mongrels who ain’t got a penny
Sniffing for tidbits like you”
Thang Nguyen 555 