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DREAM and ESSENCE

8/29/2011

 
Dream and Essence
    Le Combat Antique (The Ancient Battle), is a two-man mime piece by the French master,
Etienne Decroux. It depicts a battle between an old  warrior and a young one, which the young one wins. James Joyce, after the death of his father and birth of his grandson, wrote a short poem, Ecce Puer (It’s a Boy). Here it is:
    Of the dark past / A child is born; With joy and grief / My heart is torn.
    Calm in his cradle / The living lies. May love and mercy / Unclose his eyes!
    Young life is breathed / On the glass; The world that was not / Comes to pass.
    A child is sleeping: / An old man gone. O, father forsaken, / Forgive your son!
    Both works spring from the same theme; each new generation displaces the one before. It
has a special meaning in the U.S.A. where each new generation expects to surpass the one
before, unlike countries where people can be born into a status or caste with no hope of escape. Immigrants to our shores learn with amazement and gladness that their kids can do better. It’s the core of the American Dream.
    It bloomed after World War 2, with returning vets, then their kids, the Baby Boomers,
and theirs, Gen X, even Gen Y. But with Reaganomics came trickle-down theory and huge tax
breaks for the rich. But the theory was false; wealth trickled up instead of down. Fewer and
fewer grabbed more and more. Today, for the first time, children have less opportunity than
their parents.
    Economics, for good reason called “the dismal science,” offers no solid proof for or
against trickle-down, so theories grow from ideologies. One bunch blames it on too much
government, another on corrupt incompetent government. Nut cases get into  the act, but they can be smoked out, especially after hurricanes.
    As this is written, Hurricane Irene is sweeping New England after having given New
York City a brush.  There’s flooding, trees down, power out, no subways. Yet people had been alerted, were stocked up on essentials, and shelters were open. The city and the state, ably captained by Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo, supported by a ready federal
government, coped well.
    In shocking contrast stands New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina, when a drowned and
helpless city was abandoned by a care-nothing administration who dispatched troops not to
rescue and minister, but to look upon victims as potential terrorists.  If there’s no lesson to be learned from these contrasting attitudes and what followed, then the American Dream has a dim future.


Paul Daniggelis
8/29/2011 03:35:35 am

Stuart - Your blog is NOT balanced. You credit Bloomberg and Cuomo for Irene but fail to condemn Blanco and Nagin for Katrina. If the Fed fell short in responding to Katrina you need to blame the "first responders" first.

el' possible'
8/29/2011 05:25:50 am

these are people not gods; nature has its own agenda and force. blaming man for a hurricane and its aftermath(or any disaster) is ridiculous.....this is what makes AMERICANS IN PARTICULAR-look naive, almost silly.
if communism, or liberalism-as you think it should be;(fairness,"equality") could not sustain itself through force of system (china,russia)- how could it possibly even be considered an alternative?
the constitution does not provide for a livelihood-but rather, the freedom to pursue one; not ideally, but as a open possibility.

CH
8/29/2011 06:43:38 am

What odd comments. Why should this blog be "balanced?" Further, I didn't see any blame of mother nature, however the aftermath is NOT mother nature, it's institutions and politicians.

On the other hand, Mr. Bloomberg seemed to be looking for his "Giuliani moment," which I found a bit distateful. And the media's over-focus on the 5 boroughs (where the rich folk live), and neglect of upsate poor communities, (Catskills), not to mention prison populations and homeless/mentally ill was more than a bit disgusting.


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Author (Yuma, AZ, 1944)

    Being 90 years in this world,  with great kids,  great grandkids, great wives (two, one at a time) and great memories, I wonder why some people seem to have stopped loving the U.S.A.? I will wonder in print right here. If you wonder too, or can provide some answers, please comment.
                                   Stuart Hodes

    Picture
           With my friend, Nero.
                   April, 2012.
        Photo by Ray Madrigal

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