Huey What a relief- the government did not shut down! Dewey: I wasn’t planning to visit a national park today. Louie: Maybe things aren’t quite what they seem; maybe the government shutdown crisis is a ritual drama that conceals important actions behind the curtain…
Let’s turn to Clifford Geertz, a famous anthropologist who died in 2006, and his 1981 book, Negara: The Theatre State In Nineteenth-Century Bali. Of course, Bali is a small island and the Balinese theatre state has nothing to do with our modern and magnificent American political system. We’re so much smarter. I imagine Barack Obama, John Boehner and Harry Reid all arm wrestling – they have six arms so they could form a triangle with Obama arm wrestling both Reid and Boehner simultaneously.
Geertz saw something that has escaped analysts like Wolf Blitzer, Tom Friedman, Bill O'Reilly and David Gergen. Geertz wrote about the 19th century precolonial government of Bali, how the king appeared to be powerful while fronting for the big landowners and that most of his actions served to reinforce myths and symbols that stabilized the state and distracted peasants from the grinding inequality of their daily lives. His job was to put on a good show.
Of course, we are sophisticated today. We attend to the show via modern digital media, and wait for the important cues from Facebook... President Obama has chosen the lofty role of great compromiser, but his compromises fatten up Big Finance. He reminded us of his December tax cut for the rich, but forgot to mention the fact that it was coupled to punishing tax increases for the poorest Americans (because the Making Work Pay tax credit was abolished). Whether democratic or Republican, we slide into the “loneliness at the top” view of Obama, which as Geertz commented, always points to deception behind the curtain. Crying John Boehner seems shrill; he desperately pulled out a last minute compromise- or was that desperation scripted? Inept Harry Reid seems to have a minor part at first. Whose factotum is he? Maybe there’s a clue in his fervent thanking Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donahue last night. Now the COC didn’t want a government shutdown (bad for business you know) they want tax cuts and reduced social spending- keep your eye on that ball to see if they get their wishes.
Questions about who won reflect the dominance of the sports page in American life. Important long-term issues like climate change and increasing inequality are kept backstage. Paul Ryan’s preposterous budget won’t get adopted but the train of tax cuts and unfunded social services will continue rolling quietly in the background and big finance will grow in size and scope – the policies which the COC quietly favors, a genteel version of tea party rhetoric, are now decimating Ireland and Britain but neither the media nor the voters want to pay attention to foreign affairs. After all our theatre state offers us our own lonely man (The Big O), our hardheaded small business paragon (Crying John) and our stumbling fool (Poor ole Harry).
Maybe the die was cast in December or even earlier when the Clinton economic class warriors were given positions of power in the lonely man’s government.
Dewey: Do you mean that the aristocracy won the budget crisis? Huey: stop talking about aristocracy, that’s so European.
Louie: The rich get richer and the Big O seems comfortable in his lonely man role.