In the Seventh Year
By ROGER COHEN
And in the seventh year after the fall, the dust and debris of the towers cleared. And it became plain at last what had been wrought.
For the wreckage begat greed; and it came to pass that while America's
young men and women fought, other Americans enriched themselves.
Beguiling the innocent, they did backdate options, and they did
package toxic mortgage securities and they did reprice risk on the
basis that it no more existed than famine in a fertile land.
Thereby did the masters of the universe prosper, with gold, with
silver shekels, with land rich in cattle and fowl, with illegal
manservants and maids, with jewels and silk, and with Gulfstream V
business jets; yet the whole land did not prosper with them. And it
came to pass, when the housing bubble burst, that Main Street had to
pay for the Wall Street party.
For Bush ruled over the whole nation and so sure was he of his
righteousness that he did neglect husbandry.
And he took his nation into desert wars and mountain wars, but, lo, he
thought not to impose taxation, not one heifer nor sheep nor ox did
Bush demand of the rich. And it came to pass that the nation fell into
debt as boundless as the wickedness of Sodom. For everyone, Lehman not
least, was maxed out.
So heavy was the burden of war, and of bailing out Fannie and Freddie,
and of financing debt with China, that not one silver shekel remained
to build bridges, nor airports, nor high-speed trains, nor even to
take care of wounded vets; and the warriors returning unto their homes
from distant combat thought a blight had fallen on the land.
So it was in the seventh year after the fall of the towers. And still
Bush did raise his hands to the Lord and proclaim: "I will be proved
right in the end!"
And around the whole earth, whi ch had stood with America, there arose
a great trouble, for it seemed to peoples abroad that a great nation,
rich in flocks and herds and land and water, had been cast among
thorns and Philistines; its promise betrayed, its light dimmed, its
armies stretched, its budget broken, its principles compromised, its
dollar diminished.
And it came to pass that this profligate nation, drinking oil with
insatiable thirst, could not cure itself of this addiction, and so its
wealth was transferred to other nations that did not always wish it
well.
Wherefore the balance of power in the world was altered in grievous
ways, and new centers of authority arose, and they were no more
persuaded by democracy than was the Pharaoh.
For Bush ruled over the whole nation, and so sure was he of his
righteousness that he did neglect the costs of wanton consumption. And
he believed that if the Lord created fossil fuel, fossil fuel must
flow without en d, as surely as the grape will yield wine.
Therefore, in the seventh year after the fall, with 1,126 of the slain
still unidentified, their very beings rendered unto dust, their souls
inhabiting the air of New York, it seemed that one nation had become
two; and loss, far from unifying the people, had sundered the nation.
For the rich, granted tax breaks more generous than any blessing, grew
richer, and incomes in the middle ceased to rise, and workers saw jobs
leaving the land for that region called Asia. And some fought wars
while others shopped; and some got foreclosed while others got
clothes. And still Bush spake but few listened.
Behold, so it was in the seventh year, and it seemed that America was
doubly smitten, from without and within.
And, lo, a strange thing did come to pass. For as surely as the
seasons do alternate, so the ruler and party that have brought woe to
a nation must give way to others who can lead their people to plenty.
How can the weary, flogged ass bear honey and balm and almonds and
myrrh?
Yet many Americans believed the exhausted beast could still provide
bounty. They did hold that a people called the French was to blame.
They did accuse a creation called the United Nations. They did curse
the ungodly sophisticates of Gotham and Hollywood and sinful Chicago;
and, lo, they proclaimed God was on their side, and carried a gun, and
Darwin was bunk, and truth resided in Alaska.
For Bush ruled over the whole nation and so sure was he of his
righteousness that he did foster division until it raged like a
plague. Each tribe sent pestilence on the other.
And in the seventh year after the fall, the dust and debris of the
towers cleared. And it became plain at last what had been wrought --
but not how the damage would be undone.
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