Friday, March 29, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor

Do Middle Class Misfortunes
Spell Depression?

NOVEMBER 25, 2008 --

New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about middle class misfortunes, recently. His tone was typically neo-aristocratic: cold, sardonic, distant, superficially conclusory.

Brooks predicted that the current "recession" will create what he calls "the formerly middle class." If so, it would seem to LPR that we are at the opening phase of another depression, not a recession.

Brooks makes no mention of the gas spike that was tantamount to economic warfare against the U.S. He does not mention credit card cruelty. He does not mention any example of the predatory free enterprise that has assaulted the U.S., becoming more ferocious and out of control in recent years.

He does not refer, let alone extol,our founding legacy (and certainly does not mention Federalist 57).

Our leaders ignore the wisdom and counsel of Federalist 57 to our peril, not theirs. There was that moment Senator McCain cited the "common good" when he introduced Gov. Palin as his running mate.

Federalist 57 calls on our leasders to serve "the common good of the society," as pointed out here, many times.

The fact that Senator McCain used the term was, for LPR, a moment for pollitical celebration. That was the last time LPR heard the term.

Traditionally, aristocrats are unaware of peasant discontent until the discontent breaks out into revolution.

Consider, for example, the attitude of the aristocracy in the first act of Giordano's opera, Andrea Chenier. The aristocrats are oblivious to the sound of rumbling throughout the first act--oblivious up to the moment of revolution.

Perhaps Brooks hears some rumbling these days. His November 17 column suggests, however, that he has no idea as to its cause.

Perhaps he would gain understanding from Federalist 57, Then again, an anti-aristocratic document would not be acceptable to a neo-aristocrat.