Everyone you know is upset over the $165 Million in bonuses that are to be awarded to the executives at AIG. That is, of course, after the Federal Government just laid out some $170 Billion in tax payer’s money to keep the company afloat. People are really pissed off. In fact, even some of our fair legislators are outraged, despite the fact that they did take tax deductible campaign contributions from AIG and floundering companies just like it.
Of course, there are those who believe they deserve the bonuses. Mostly these are AIG executives who want their reward for the once venerable company into the ground. After all, in the American vernacular of the modern age,they did their best. There are also those from other distressed companies who may perceive the public outrage over the AIG bonuses as an ominous sign that their unfair share of the nation’s wealth may also be in jeopardy. No dessert for you, this day.
There are also the conservative pundits who believe this is an encroachment on private enterprise and the free market. This is the government in coercion, forcing socialism and worse on the American worker and, consequently, the American spirit. This is the misuse of the law and a rotten precedent. This is excellent fodder for self righteous blowhards of every stripe to vent their ire on radio, television and publications throughout the nation. It’s a cottage industry. Corruption is in season. Get your say while you can.
I would be just one more of them. That is, unless I was concerned with a more universal aspect to this scenario. Something historical. I go back to my earlier notation that the public is really pissed off. In fact, they haven’t been this angry since O.J. Simpson was acquitted of killing his former wife. They haven’t been so miffed since the retailers ran out of Cabbage Patch Dolls at the height of the holiday season. I mean, this is big anger.
So what becomes of this anger? Does it grow being this issue, or does it fade away and we go back to watching American Idol? Does that good old American lynch mob mentality start to manifest, or do we end up suffering from ennui? Is our collective attention span still strong enough to allow this anger to galvanize behind the larger issues of corruption and irresponsibility among our fearless leaders?
Does someone finally channel this anger, so their is a voice behind it? Is it diffused by the multiple, myriad viewpoint talking heads that occupy our eyeballs and airwaves? These are are lot of questions, I know. But one night friends and I were chatting about this very thing. What does it take anymore to generate a Boston Tea Party? And the thing is about the Boston Tea Party, does it lead to revolution in one form or another. Probably not, but who knows.
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The conversation among friends, recalled the other revolutions turned catastrophic The American Revolution was fairly ethical and prudent, restrained overall. It was a revolution with established goals and once those goals were achieved, the rancor for the most part settled in to debate and some shouting until compromise was reached. We didn’t have a counterrevolution, and after the war was won and the exhausted British Army picked up its catcher’s mitt and went home, we didn’t lop heads. We set about to making a country. Most of us fail to realize how marvelous that is. How lucky we are. And despite aging into debt to buy cheap clothes from China and our scarfing down the Grand Slam Breakfast, how smart we have been.
Not the same with other countries. France had its revolution then a few counterrevolutions. Russia did the same thing. There were others. Castro’s Cuba was hardly gentle in its making. One wonders what is that about. Certain their is a different of opinion, which in turn leads to power plays and spurious opinions about how the ends justify the means.
But then maybe the slow rise of anger and the eventual mob mentality created instead a blood lust. Simply put, people liked watching heads roll out of the guillotine. Maybe the lynch mob mentality and the blood lust overtook the more civil side, the passivity that the motley masses, especially, tend to experience. Maybe once the anger rises, things can and do get out of hand. Then perhaps there is no way to stop it.
The American Revolution is the exception, in fact the anomaly. More commonplace is the satisfaction of blood lust and the desire to get even. After awhile, getting even is not perceived in just political terms but as a means of exorcising the personal demons. And then everyone becomes suspect. Minorities, gays, oddities, artists, all become fodder for the erratic and destructive sensibility. The innocent are sacrificed with and tossed on the pyre to accommodate the blood lusts.
Mind you, I don’t see that happening. Just yet. Or not at all. But that kind or outrage, if not addressed and quenched in its early stages, like a locomotive, is slow to get rolling and is awfully tough to stop. Nations have torn themselves apart over it. Enlightened nations.
So I guess that despite the media frenzy and the obvious statements of the obvious issues about corruption and greed, we should examine the larger picture. Before we get worked up, are we channeling that anger in the right direction. Are we looking for justice or in the mood for the Boston Tea Party? Or will we not be satisfied until we see the Reign of Terror supplant Mixed Martial Arts on pay-per-view? Now that’s what some might call a bonus.
