Some scepticism has been expressed as to my reading of Piazzolla's opera 'Maria de Buenos Aries' as being a metaphor for the rise, fall and rise again of tango. Indeed there was one suggestion that I may have spent too long outside without a hat in the unseasonal sunny weather we are experiencing (*).
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| "What do we want? The free creation of silver money alongside gold! When do we want it? Now!" |
In my defence can I point to another example of the use of artistic metaphor. L. Frank Baum's 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' was written as a satire on the presidential campaigns of William Jennings Bryan on a Free Silver platform. The Wicked Witches are the East and West Coast bankers, the Scarecrow represents the farmers who were too stupid to avoid getting into debt, the Tin Man is the industrial workers who didn't have the heart to take action in support of the farmers, and the Cowardly Lion is politicians who were too afraid to intervene. Given that we're speaking of bimetallism the Yellow Brick Road and Silver Shoes need no explanation (**), not does it need pointing out that Oz is the abbreviation for ounce. I am less persuaded of the idea that Dorothy was meant to be Theodore Roosevelt, which seems to have been put forward on the somewhat tenuous grounds that their names are nearly anagrams (***)
* For those who don't me I am, although it is barely visible to the naked eye, starting to go a bit thin on top.
** I know they were Ruby Slippers in the film, but they were Silver Shoes in the book. The change was made, I believe, to look better in Technicolor.
*** It does, however, allow me to include something tangentially related to wargaming.
Well now, that all makes perfect sense to me - although I had no idea the Wizard of Oz was an allegory of something more serious! I guess the Wizard himself is the entire international capitalist and banking system - as IT is all smoke and mirrors designed to confuse and impress us in equal measure! I mean, the current US national debt is apparently $157 trillion or just shy of $1m per US taxpayer - but who do they owe that money to?? Who has that money to lend to the US government and where did they get it from? It is all bollox - which is why I never worry about what the Crown debt level is in little old New Zealand - it doesn't matter if we have "borrowed" billions of dollars, because really, we haven't - it's just made up! The money I owe my bank for the mortgage on my house is real - if I don't pay, the bank will take the house off me and sell it to get their money back - but no one can take New Zealand's assets and sell them to recover monies owed, far less the US or UK or France etc
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend 'Debt: The First 5000 Years' by David Graeber. It is, amongst other things, the book which I pulled off my shelf to double check my memory regarding the Oz metaphor. It also addresses in a lot of detail the question you raise about the reality or otherwise of debts and money.
DeleteRRoss, the banks can’t take the country away but they can refuse to lend more money. That’s a problem unless the government is raising more tax than its budget and may also affect foreign trade.
ReplyDeleteThat is a tad reductive, especially for a country, such as New Zealand, which has its own currency.
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