Hit 'Em Where It Hurts

"Martin was anxious to hear the conversation of the busy gentlemen...It was rather barren of interest, to say the truth; and the greater part of it may be summed up in one word. Dollars. All their cares, hopes, joys, affections, virtues, and associations, seemed to be melted down into dollars. Whatever the chance contribution that fell into the slow cauldron of their talk, they made the gruel thick and slab with dollars. Men were weighed by their dollars, measures gauged by their dollars; life was auctioneered, appraised, put up and knocked down for its dollars. The next respectable thing to dollars was any venture having their attainment for its end. The more of that worthless ballast, honor, and fair-dealing, which any man cast overboard from the ship of his Good Name and Good Intent, the more ample stowage-room he had for dollars. Make commerce one huge lie and mighty theft. Do anything for dollars!" 

                                               —From Martin Chuzzlewit: Charles Dickens

 

Bam! Dickens nailed the essence of our American sickness well over a 150 years ago. Some 60 years after he wrote it, our government began to see the folly of unchecked greed and in came the anti-trust laws and the rise of the Unions. And here we are again, those guard rails of the mediated conversation between dollars and democracy torn down and the wild dogs of greed running through the streets unchecked and now storming the halls of power where they’re given a preferred seat. 

 

One of the maddening truths of living through this new regime is the way we’re all inextricably financially complicit. Every time we use our phone or drive our Tesla or post on Facebook, we’re feeding the shameless people flying into space or buying 500-million-dollar super-yachts to hide the big hole in their souls. So in the first wave of public resistance I’ve seen and will wholly participate in, I like the way they’re aimed at dollars. Not that any of these alone will make anything but the smallest dent, but it’s a good start. 

 

See you there!