Weimar Transforms

The Weimar Republic has been making unusual reappearances in the news of late. Some fairly random examples from Google News... Weimar America? March of events that began with Black Tuesday La Clique, Hippodrome, London Proto-Fascism in the United States: Campaign Reflections Economic destruction 101 This blog has also included several mentions of the Weimar era -- most long before the current electoral runup and financial meltdown. Too Rite - March '06 Serendipity - June '06 Delusional Systems - Sep '06 Fascists By Any Other Name Would Still Smell - Aug '08 Could there be some connection here? I know it's a hard question, Sarah. But c'mon, put on your Thinking Cap! Changing gears only slightly... Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) is a Weimar-era musical by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. The Wikipedia entry says in part... Premiering on August 31, 1928, at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Die Dreigroschenoper offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Wikipedia, which just keeps getting better and better imo, once again amazes with its insightful entry on the lead song, Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife). The rarely heard final verse -- not included in the original play, but added by Brecht for the 1930 movie -- expresses the theme, and compares the glittering world of the rich and powerful with the dark world of the poor: German English translation Denn die einen sind im Dunkeln Und die andern sind im Licht Und man siehet die im Lichte Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht There are some who are in darkness And the others are in light And you see the ones in brightness Those in darkness drop from sight It's interesting (to me, anyway) how the song has morphed to serve other purposes over the ensuing decades -- and how, in the final entry below, it's returned to its proper roots. Go Slut! Original Brecht (singing) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QXJ3OXWaOY American Triumphalist versions Sinatra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezy710P97cE Darin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZmk4g_uRc Anka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1k8EjD8D4k Jazz / Ironic? Armstrong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My9B4uQYJn4 Fitzgerald http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouF4J45Mn5s Just Plain Weird Liberace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD7dw_BW_UI Arty & Embarrassing Sting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cerNY7wR-8M Nick Cave http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhqpH8oogzM Back to Weimar: A contemporary cover Slut http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdaGpJNVODQ Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne und die trägt er im Gesicht und Macheath, der hat ein Messer doch das Messer sieht man nicht. And the shark, he has teeth and he wears them in his face. And Macheath, he has a knife, but the knife, one never sees. ~literal translation by RB

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you don't need a weatherman

The New York Times today ran a story called The Reckoning: Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy. The basic theme of the piece can be deduced from this... "Clearly, derivatives are a centerpiece of the crisis, and [Alan Greenspan] was the leading proponent of the deregulation of derivatives," said Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego and an expert on financial regulation. Now, what I know about financial regulation wouldn't cover the period at the end of this sentence. But I do know a little something about Alan Greenspan. Even before reading the article, I knew it would at least touch on his lifelong "intellectual" relationship with Ayn Rand. And sure enough... A professed libertarian, he counted among his formative influences the novelist Ayn Rand, who portrayed collective power as an evil force set against the enlightened self-interest of individuals. In turn, he showed a resolute faith that those participating in financial markets would act responsibly. So hey, in the aftermath of the biggest clusterfuck ripoff in the history of the republic, let's hear it for Virtue and Responsibility and Freedom. Would you like fries with that?

have you seen your mother, baby, standing in the shadows?

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