Wondering where America’s “far, far better thing…” can be?
This morning I was thinking about Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. More specifically – I was thinking of Sydney Carton’s final words, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”
Pretty much everyone knows that last line. And, I got out my copy of the book to read it in context. What surprised me (and it’s been many years since I read the novel) was a few paragraphs earlier… “I see… long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument [the guillotine], before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.”
How can one read that and not think of today? What happened then was the old oppressors (the aristocracy) were replaced by the new oppressors (the revolutionaries) who were just as brutal and unscrupulous when they gained the upper hand as the artistocracy before them. (Reminds one of Lord Acton’s comment, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corruptly absolutely.”)
Now we have such bitter and hateful struggles going on within American politics. Last night I listened to an interview on GOP Obstructionism http://video.msnbc.msn.com/politicsnation/47682411 and was struck by the fact that lost in the milieu are the vast majority of Americans who just want to live their lives – work, play, raise their families, enjoy life.
Yet – as in the French Revolution (much more so than the American Revolution) – the lines of division are so sharp, immovable, and unpenetrable – that there seems to be little hope that (politically) either side can have rational and productive dialogue with the other. And so “we, the people” suffer with unemployment, insufficient healthcare, homelessness, and hunger (yes – the breadbasket of the world has men, women, and children who are starving… amazing…) – because grown (supposedly intelligent) men and women are so married to their political parties & biases that they cannot remember they were elected to serve ALL the people justly.
The flames of this destructive path we’re on are being fanned into an unquenchable conflagration by the Media – which I honestly think is not just the devil’s advocate, but sometimes the devil’s own hand tool. And, the devil is a fickle master – aiming the firestarter at whomever crosses his path with the most flammable (at the moment) issue – be it public or personal – past, present, or (imagined) future. No slip up, no moment of human error, no incident is too insignificant for the Media to blow up into an out-of-control wildfire.
Where does this leave the common man? My heart aches for us… caught in the crossfire.
I really long for the day that Carton envisioned – the “brilliant people rising from this abyss” – and the “evil…wearing out.” It cannot come too soon.
