A Wall Street friend from a top investment bank left a message this morning: he had an extra ticket to the US Open Tennis matches today. Fancy corporate pavillion, great food, champagne.
I never called him back.
I cannot bear to be with the American elite right now. I cannot abide their casual cruelty. If I heard one disparaging remark - and I know these Wall Streeters , it would've happened - about Katrina's victims I would not have been able to hold back.
I'm not trying to dramatize myself or this tiny act of resistance, at a moment when Americans are dying and others are trying to help.
But I AM trying to make a point. The elite in this country - hell, in every country - is colder than you could ever imagine. More callous, calculating and uncaring than you can believe. I have witnessed one locus of power - Wall Street - up close for years. I know the ethos well. These institutions are not content to profit from disaster (trading on volatility, insider deals, manipulation of markets). The people within them show their mettle (manhood, worth, belonging) by expressions of utter disregard for the vast mass of humanity.
I know some of us hope that the Administration's disastrous neglect may lead the elite to finally step in and force a change. And that may indeed be our only hope right. But I also think it unlikely. Bush has redefined the elite. Shrunk down to a tiny size and given it extravagant gifts. They aren't saying anything.
Everyone else in the upper tier is terrified about slipping... there's nowhere to go but far, far down. To those without substantial wealth, the financial abyss looms. They'll keep their mouths shut. For them, the price of complaint is far too high.
The Bush years have emboldened the tiny American elite. They now pay no lip service to American progress. They have taken on the trappings of feudal lords among serfs. Their popular mouthpieces - the New York Post, O'Reilly and so on - have literally JOKED about the plight of black Americans after Katrina. Sucking up to the elite, reflecting the elite's ethos.
I have always dreaded living in a society like this. Where lies and repression are the only means of maintaining order. Where cruelty is a sign of belonging and participation. Where crushing others is the essence of every social interaction. And yet it is here. This America in 2005. This is the Bush America.
God bless us, indeed.