Like it or not, we are now engaged in a great civil class war. The rich are tired of paying taxes. They are the chosen class. Chosen to rule, and chosen to control the purse strings. They are the money makers. The rest are lazy, stupid, untalented, and unappreciative of the handouts trickled down by the rich. After all, if they were otherwise, they would do as their superiors and dedicate their lives to the accumulation of wealth.
Meanwhile, there are those of us who merely see money as a tool and not a birthright. We use it to care for our families, and to provide sustenance while pursuing those things that, to us, make life worthwhile. That should not be confused with unproductive. Our most revered cultural heroes are those who have denied themselves wealth for the benefit of the human condition. Jonas Salk did not patent his polio vaccine and sell it to the highest bidder. He turned it over freely to the entire world, to rid the world of a scourge readily destroying the lives of our children.
Being a former actor, I often tend to think of the creativity of playwrights in explanation of current events. Some works are timeless and often present themselves again to modern analysis. What continually runs through my mind in recent weeks is the great work of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd.
This 1965 musical hit features the characters Sir and Cocky. Sir and Cocky are partners in life, with Sir representing the upper class and Cocky representing the lower. What disturbs Sir the most is the negative way in which the world has changed in deference to the lower classes. Cocky lacks the kind of ambition that Sir prefers, content to enjoy the beauty that life has to offer, but is constantly locked into competing with Sir in "The Game" as defined and refereed by Sir. Sir believes that he, and he alone, knows the age old class secret of success.
When I think of the good things that life has to give,
I'm reluctantly forced to agree
That the number of people who know how to live
Is restricted, quite simply, to me.
The problem, of course, is that his secret is really no secret at all. It is merely a sense of arrogant entitlement and not a strategy.
For life is like cricket - we play by the rules -
But the secret which few people know,
Which keep men of class well apart from the fools
Is to think up the rules as you go.
Do-de-oh-do.
Currently this attitude is most obvious in the present power structure on the Supreme Court which has ruled that money is free speech. The more money you have to spend, the more "free speech" you get. Since November, the new rule is that you can’t give 70 billion dollars to starving people until you first give a trillion dollars to the rich – and both must be paid for by the middle class.
President Obama’s response to this reflects the attitude of Sir.
Ah, but why think of May in November
When December is all that you'll get?
Man lives with a lingering ember
And while there are beautiful things to remember
The ugly things one should forget!
What is it that Sir wants? He wants to return things to the great way things used to be. Like the modern Tea Bagger, he wants his country back, and to return it to those fabulous days before there was a middle class.
There are so many things I remember
From the deeply revered days of old
When living was gentle and gracious
And working folk did as they're told.
They were wonderful days, I remember,
When a feller could live like a king;
And children were working in coal mines
And life was a beautiful thing.
But the fortunes of mankind are changing;
Things aren't what they were anymore;
And although I'm in no way complaining,
By Harris and Tweed, I preferred it before
Ultimately the frustration is too much for Cocky. He steels himself and beats Sir at Sir’s own game. He proves, ultimately, that in any struggle it is character that wins the day. When the poor are blocked at every turn from merely enjoying life and living, they eventually rise up and change the rules themselves. Sometimes, not as delicately as Cocky.
This play is definitely due for a revival.