The memories raised by the Tea Party
No, not the anti-Vietnam supposed revolution, although it also was a party -- lots of people having lots of fun being angry angry angry ... but no revolution
And not the Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington, Nathaniel Green revolution they salute and play dress-up with their favorites...
No -- more like the French Revolution but not quite -- no tumbrels, no guillotine but somehow there's a ringing ...
So I listened to what they're saying (and as Eugene Levy used to say on the Second City Show: "Wow -- pretty scary, eh kids?") and then I realized why they seem so familiar --- I saw the movie a long time ago. It was Peter Brook's film of Peter Weiss' Marat-Sade,* specifically the song they sing when the shit-hits-the-fan and the inmates take over the asylum:
Not a perfect match but close enough for mob rule:
Here's that song (with some verses removed to make the point):
Four years after the revolution and the old king's execution
Four years after, remember how those on top took their final bow
String up every aristocrat
Out with the priests and let them live on their fat...
Down with all of the ruling class
Throw all the generals out on their ass
Why do they have the gold?
Why do they have the power?
Why why why why why do they have the friends at the top?
Why do they have the jobs at the top?
We've got nothing, always had nothing
Nothing but holes, and millions of them
Living in holes, dying in holes
Holes in our bellies, and holes in our clothes
Marat, we're poor and the poor stay poor
Marat, don't make us wait any more
We want our rights and we don't care how
We want our revolution... now
--- the fact that our Tea Party folk flew in on planes or drove to the conference in $60,000 cars doesn't change the fact that they FEEL poor.
And, as with the inmates' complaint, even now, the righteous anger is being co-opted, stolen, sold and packaged into something that will allow the same old same old rich old white boys without ideas to steal the ones the Tea Party is putting forth and pretend they're actually feeling it.
Meet the new boss -- NOT the same as the old boss -- he IS the old boss
*-- Full title: The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade.
And not the Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington, Nathaniel Green revolution they salute and play dress-up with their favorites...
No -- more like the French Revolution but not quite -- no tumbrels, no guillotine but somehow there's a ringing ...
So I listened to what they're saying (and as Eugene Levy used to say on the Second City Show: "Wow -- pretty scary, eh kids?") and then I realized why they seem so familiar --- I saw the movie a long time ago. It was Peter Brook's film of Peter Weiss' Marat-Sade,* specifically the song they sing when the shit-hits-the-fan and the inmates take over the asylum:
Not a perfect match but close enough for mob rule:
Here's that song (with some verses removed to make the point):
Four years after the revolution and the old king's execution
Four years after, remember how those on top took their final bow
String up every aristocrat
Out with the priests and let them live on their fat...
Down with all of the ruling class
Throw all the generals out on their ass
Why do they have the gold?
Why do they have the power?
Why why why why why do they have the friends at the top?
Why do they have the jobs at the top?
We've got nothing, always had nothing
Nothing but holes, and millions of them
Living in holes, dying in holes
Holes in our bellies, and holes in our clothes
Marat, we're poor and the poor stay poor
Marat, don't make us wait any more
We want our rights and we don't care how
We want our revolution... now
--- the fact that our Tea Party folk flew in on planes or drove to the conference in $60,000 cars doesn't change the fact that they FEEL poor.
And, as with the inmates' complaint, even now, the righteous anger is being co-opted, stolen, sold and packaged into something that will allow the same old same old rich old white boys without ideas to steal the ones the Tea Party is putting forth and pretend they're actually feeling it.
Meet the new boss -- NOT the same as the old boss -- he IS the old boss
*-- Full title: The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade.
posted by Saintperle at
6:27 PM
