Freeway to the Guillotine: A Tale of Two Americas
America’s Tale of Two Cities, Redux
by Robert Hunziker - CounterPunch
April 24, 2017
Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, required reading in secondary school, is the second biggest selling single-volume book of all-time at 200 million copies. 21st Century America is that story.A Tale of Two Cities is historical fiction. Dickens’ richly developed plot of complex relationships amongst Charles Darnay, Lucie Manette, and Sydney Carton, of redemption, rebirth, love, and violence layered over a background of Revolution embodying those same issues, as French peasants fight for freedom from the lingering shackles of feudalism.
Today, America's tale of two cities is depicted in pre-revolutionary France, especially metaphorically, as when Marquis Evrémonde kills a plebian child with his golden carriage.
The Marquis, displaying the typical attitude of aristocracy, shows no signs of regret but instead curses the peasantry and hurries home to his chateau.
That one cogent Dickensian scene says it all vis a vis America today, which is two separate economic and political worlds as exquisitely explained by Peter Temin, Professor Emeritus of Economics at MIT in his new book, The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy.