A Cautionary Tale

Tunisia. Nicely done guys.

The first domino? Maybe. Now Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Iran and Lybia.

Who's next? Saudi Arabia? Jordan? Qatar?

We, in this country, think that these courageous people are fighting for their freedom because they see, in us, some sort of Eden, some sort of a Panacea.

Well, maybe that's true. Maybe the US is a place that is distinct from the tyrannical regimes of the emerging world.

Maybe people in these countries have been informed by the Internet that there is a better way. Maybe the boot on the neck approach of the dictators of the region hasn't paid off in the way in which those rulers thought it might.

But maybe it's just that enough is enough.

And maybe that is the point. Maybe that should be our "take away." And maybe, just maybe, we should be paying attention.

I live in a rather affluent community in the Northeast. There are plenty of millionaires and Mercedes and private lanes. They exist because of years of imbalance in the way in which our country functions.

If you have the money you have the power and influence. It is no secret that the rich in this country control Congress. We think we are voting for people who have our interests at heart when, in point of fact, we are installing puppets doing the bidding of their benefactors. How else can you possibly explain the legislation that is offered and enacted that benefits the wealthy and leaves the rest of us in the dust?

You can't. It's about who has the money and the power and who doesn't. Period.

That's what is happening in the Middle East. The powerful, rich despotic regimes of corrupt individuals have kept the masses down by use of coercion, force and deprivation.

The people of the region have no rights and no voice because they have no money, no education and no political influence. Emphasis on all three.

Paul Krugman got it right, as he often does, in the Times the other day when he commented on the fact that the cuts working their way through government will, as he put it, "eat the future."

We are sitting idly by while our country and our way of life is being systematically taken away from us by the monied interests of Wall Street, Pharma Boulevard and Missle Avenue. We are allowing our society to become underdeveloped, undereducated and underprepared.

That pain in the neck you feel is not the traffic or the weather or your teenager.

It's the boot of the oppression of imbalance and the army of the influence of favoritism and ignorance that is conspiring to deprive you of your rights to a high quality of life, liberty to be financially and emotionally free and the pursuit of a future of happiness and tranquility.

There may be uprising going on in the Middle East. It has less to do with the vision of a better world modeled on the democracies of the West as it has to do with the fact that the people just can't, just won't, take it anymore.

When your children are starving and your family is beaten and your dignity is stolen you become just a little bit crazy. You might do things that you would otherwise probably not do.

You might stand in front of a tank. You might throw a rock. You might be willing to die.

When too much is enough then it's "game over." When the boot is too heavy you might just jump up and bite the ankle to which it is attached.
Jack Boot...meet Jack Russell...

History is an interesting thing. If you are aware of it you are protected. "Once bitten, twice shy."

So enjoy your golf and your Porsche, your gated community and your cake. Soon enough that homeless guy you rebuffed on the sidewalk may be waiting to tee up.

And he might not be yelling "Fore!"