In honor of the United States Congress, I’d like to present Bertolt Brecht’s acerbic little song with the grand title of “The Song about the Insufficiency of Human Striving.”
The video is followed by the German text, with my own loose translation after each stanza.1
Das Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens Continue reading
On-board GPS device.
I’ve read more than one news item describing how drivers sometimes place too much faith in their GPS navigation devices. Guided by the disembodied voice coming from the dashboard, some have doggedly followed dirt roads to nowhere, faced oncoming one-way traffic, or narrowly avoided driving over cliffs. The authority of the voice-in-a-box overrules common sense and years of practical experience.
Something similar seems to have happened to our political classes with regard to both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Our best-and-brightest launched these wars as part of a highly sophisticated, digitally guided, grand global strategy, more accurate and efficient than the mere paper plans of past wars. Ever since, and despite the skeptics in the back seat, our drivers have held the course in defiance of what their own eyes and ears and common sense revealed.
The moral compass never stood a chance against the GPS. We argue over the device’s accuracy, but not its programmed destination, which remains on a need-to-know basis. The map on the GPS screen bears no resemblance to the landscape we drive through. We keep going — and going — and we lengthen our wake of rubble, bloody rags, and body parts of uncounted souls.
Are we there yet?
So today the real Americans turned out en masse to protest “socialism,” government spending, middle-class tax cuts, taxes (period), and the election of a Kenyan Muslim as president of the United States. Not that we’re racist or anything. Just patriotic. You can tell by our “Don’t Tread On Me” flags and our use of Boston Tea Party symbols.
I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories. Still, these rallies remind me of past controversies (flag burning, the pledge) that have commanded media attention and stirred public passions without any practical result — except a widening of the gulf between Americans. It’s not hard to believe these episodes are designed — not by some central planning board, but by some one or other of the interests in favor of maintaining a shrunken, disunited electorate in a perpetual state of mild panic. The more we cut ourselves off from each other, the easier we are to control.
The cant about “socialism” is both deeply felt and absurd on its face. No one knows what effect the so-called stimulus measures will have on the economy. But Republicans in Congress have determined that no matter what happens, they can oppose the measures without fear of consequences. Even if the measures prove effective in hindsight, their effect will be gradual and difficult to separate from the effects of other events, both planned and accidental; therefore easy to obscure. If the economy comes roaring back in as little as five years, the Republicans will simply chalk it up to the virtues of the American people, which managed to bring us out of recession despite the stultifying effects of Big Government. And Democrats will fall over themselves to design a nice new tax cut before the other party beats them to it.
That’s assuming that we, the people learn nothing from our experiences with scarcity except fear and resentment. It’s a safe bet, if one I would prefer to lose.
In our panic, we seem determined to defend the Western tradition of taxing cottages and hovels while exempting palaces and castles. In uncertain times, you see, we peasants can take a modicum of comfort from the thought that our lords’ estates are still intact.
Working men’s dollars are to be taxed when earned and taxed when spent. Every dollar must be taxed; even pensions from the government are to be taxed upon receipt. But the earnings of our betters must be zealously guarded from “double taxation” lest our civilization come crashing down.
Got it?
Update: The evening news reports sixteen tea parties in Alabama today. Probably the largest of these was at the Hoover Country Club in metro Birmingham. Like the other “grassroots” events, this one was star-studded and drew surprisingly attentive media coverage (including syndicated radio celebs Rick and Bubba, “the sexiest fat men alive”). Degree of Madness has the details.
I just want to record an insight on politics from a discussion with our favorite American in Italy. (Call him Giacomo.) It is this:
Americans, taken by and large, are compassionate as long as they don’t have to talk or think about “compassion.”
“Compassion” is fuzzy-headed, ineffectual, improvident, and invites all kinds of trouble. It symbolizes vulnerability to lazy, dishonest, even cruel people who’d rather live off of others than contribute. People like that really make our blood boil. This is why some of us still resent “welfare” without realizing that it no longer exists.
This attitude also contributes to our vague sense that it’s always good to reduce taxes and spending. But few of us are ideologues about it. We’re willing to use government to help the poor, sick, and weak. It makes sense to do this, as long as it’s done right. Just don’t tell us it’s the compassionate thing to do.
