blogger interrupted

I’m becoming way more liberal as I get older.  Some might say revolutionary.  I’d say I have good reason.  The Bernard Madoff scandal, which is essentially the greatest Ponzi scheme in the history of either Ponzis or schemes, is only the latest instance to bring a constant smile to my face.  

The building above is known as the Lipstick Building.  When I was in NYC the first three months of this year, I used to walk by that building on the way to the subway all the time, or simply on a stroll.  A friend of mine used to point it out and tell me how much money it cost to get a condo in there.  On the 17th floor was Bernie Madoff’s black hole.

I’m one of those guys who still dreams the big dreams, and I often walk by the palatial like a kid in a silent movie, wide-eyed and hoping.  I’ve had more than just a taste of that other side, even though most of my life has been spent on the fetid underbelly of the American equation.  So I know what it’s like to be in those buildings, belong there, and have access, wearing a fine suit, holding a long stem glass.

It is the rare person who both has access to this kind of wealth, and understands that the reason for their access is nothing but luck.  Blind, dumb luck.  Yet, all my life, I’ve been told by the people in my circle who managed to become filthy, stinking rich, that there was a reason they did, and I didn’t.  Merit.  Smarts.  Some of us are just better at what we do than others, many would say.  

The ones who understand their luck stayed my friends.

Bernie Madoff preyed on the others.  

The sweetest music to Madoff’s ears was likely someone telling him how smart they were, and that’s why they were giving him their money.  That meant Madoff’s work was done.  Which is why it is such a joy to see so many self-proclaimed winners of merit’s mythical game find themselves suddenly, well…….looking rather stupid.  And perhaps penniless.

It’s another of the myths perpetuated by Republicanism, and the financial mutation of it.  That somehow Republicans made America a true meritocracy, where the cream rises to the top because it is cream.  

No.  In Republican America, what rises to the top is the filthy lucky bastards who were already there, and they keep rising.  It’s built in.  No one else has the opportunity to get that lucky anymore, because the ones with the power have kept it, leveraged it, and bet their lives on the fact that they will forever keep it.

The self-appointed smartest people in the room have spent 2008 learning they aren’t so smart.  The rest of us are starting to learn we’re actually smarter.  Not sure the luck equation will change to make things any more fair, but hey, we can hope.  

Or in the meantime, simply enjoy the show.