Wherever There's A Fight

Scene from The Grapes of Wrath, 1940 

starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad 

and Jane Darwell as Ma Joad.

YouTube video posted by garfrain

Excerpt from Paul Krugman's Op-Ed piece titled Losing Their Immunity from the October 16, 2011 edition of the New York Times:

"You see, until a few weeks ago it seemed as if Wall Street had effectively bribed and bullied our political system into forgetting about that whole drawing lavish paychecks while destroying the world economy thing. Then, all of a sudden, some people insisted on bringing the subject up again.

And their outrage has found resonance with millions of Americans. No wonder Wall Street is whining."

. . . . . . . . 

From the Reader's Recommendations of comments to Mr. Krugman's writing, a Mr. Paul Schmidt writes:

"When events of the magnitude of the great Recession come along, there’s always a familiar arc.

Act I is always The Bailout Phase. In this phase the Masters of the Universe call in their chips with their bought and paid for politicians and the public fronts up the money.

Act II is the We Got Away with IT phase. This phases always lasts 2-3 years. In this phase history is re-written, the politicians declare it was all a mistake and the Masters of the Universe make sure no form of control is successfully implemented.

Then comes Act III. Act III always lags Acts I & II by two to three years. This act always surprises both the politicians and the bankers, as 2 to 3 years later in both professions is a life time. What they don’t understand is that Acts I & II are only possible because the public still has faith in its institutions – they believe justice will be done.. eventually. When its clear that it won’t, 2-3 years later - then the people mobilise, usually lead (of course), by the young and silly.

So now Act III begins. Expect to see police brutality, prosecution of a few small fish (and lots of protesters of course), while the Masters flail around impotently and their political employees up the propaganda and try to portray Act III as something that its not, an attack on democracy or whatever.

The fina is always Act IV or The Great Dawning. Here politicians suddenly realise that Act III isn’t going to go away and that unless they abandon the Masters they’ll lose their jobs as well. Act IV is characterized by politicians furiously swapping sides as fast they can re-write history and we suddenly discover they were all secretly on the public’s side all the time.

Under Act IV the political classes at last act like adults, regulations are passed, laws are enforced and the public see justice at last (until the lessons of the past are unlearned yet again, say in another 50 years).

So roll on Act III, or as we sometimes call it, 1937 Yet Again."