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October 02, 2003

Devious Peasants

An old dear friend of mine and I are so much alike that it freaks me out every time we speak twice or three times a year. He and I are both entertaining visions of overbraining a light manufacturing or other blue collar business and employing our less educated bretheren for power and profit. We both kick ourselves periodically for going the corporate route. The other day we cracked each other up wondering about the fortunes of Master P, the ghetto fabulous multi-millionaire impressario whose son is a teen idol with a show on Nickleodeon and whose brother is a gansta [rappper] who just got convicted of murder. There is nothing that describes Master P so much as his film "I Got the Hook Up", the ghetto hiphop version of how to succeed in business without getting busted by the cops.

I'm currently reading the second section of Stephenson's 'Quicksilver' and am extraordinarily entertained by the misadventures of Jack Shaftoe. He's a Vagabond, and like his distant descendent in 'Cryptonomicon', exemplifies the ways and means of empircal wit. He runs for his life, understanding and never second-guessing that he will ever amount to anything. He is as anti-bourgie as any character can be, and so he is a soldier after what he can get his hands on. Fortuitously for the story and all us riveted readers, he gets his hands on plenty.

Shaftoe's world is that of illiterate peasantry who survive by hook or by crook. He is well versed in their argot and understands how to move through their milleu. Among the People of Quality, he knows when his capacity to work or fight is a liability and so becomes artful at deceptive appearances, covering his sword with wood to make it appear to be part of the [phony] splint tied to his 'lame' leg. Shaftoe's ways are the distilled best practices of castaways, and in 17th Century Europe, there are plenty of those.

I often look at the outcasts of American society with the very same eye I do of Shaftoe's ilk. That is with an appreciation of their cunning and consequently a disdain for their whimpering. It is difficult for me to assess whether or not this nation is adequately constructed to contain the masses of modern peasantry as citizens.

The news story that a 2 year old girl survived three weeks on her own abandoned by her mother in an apartment serves as a poignant reminder of both the harsh depravity of people and of our systems in stark contrast with the plush abundance of our nation and the survival instinct of our genes. We bourgie people are always suggesting that losers 'get a life', but they have life. How scary it would be if everyone recognized that.

On television, the premier episode of 'Cold Case' was an interesting exercise in part of the 'class warfare' which is our future. It showed how the mighty can be brought down by the crafty. The Clever are those where I stand, in the shifting sands of meritocracy. It isn't what we do so much as how we tread water by doing it. The peasantry are the Devious, and the People of Quality, those who play at court among giants are as they ever were. Crafty.

Part of the difficulty I and my friend have, as Clever buggers, is that we are also Americans and believe that we have a choice. We are not too far removed from the Devious, but have survived well enough among the Crafty to expect that we might graduate. Nobody but the Mighty can tell for certain if we are smoking crack. As time goes by and we lurch about the shifting sands of meritocracy, it becomes too late to become Devious and too late to become Crafty. Perhaps it is that recognition in both of us that we turn to exploit the Devious, knowing full well that they'll never match wits with us Clever. Easier said than done.

Topically, I'll end this with an observation about California. Our next governor will be Arnold Schwartzenegger, a bounder if there ever was one. He's definitely not Clever, and yet he has been touched by the Crafty, grudgingly accepted by the Mighty and elected by the Devious. I know he'll be Devious but never help the Devious be they God's Poor or the Devil's. But since he is one of them, he'll give them the disrespect they give one another. Only by beating up on the Clever and the Crafty will he remain popular. The question remains, what is the destiny of America and who should lead it there? Listen for the gnashing of teeth to come.

Posted by mbowen at October 2, 2003 12:48 PM

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Posted by: RDB at October 2, 2003 05:30 PM