Holiday 2004: Dancing, Dancing, We Won't Stop!
Reported by Marie Therese - December 1, 2004
News Hound Editorial
During the Market Movers segment of Big Story with John Gibson (11/29/04), FOX News Senior Business Correspondent Terry Keenan discussed the disappointing November sales and weak holiday forecast by Wal-Mart. Keenan noted that low-end retailers like Wal-Mart are "scaling back expectations" due largely to the fact that the cost of oil "because it's regressive, cuts into the Wal-Mart shopper that is not spending as much as some of the luxury shoppers."
She continued: "And Wal-Mart has estimated it takes $7.00 a week out of the pockets of its customers - the gasoline prices - so that may be what we're feeling."
GIBSON: "OK. What about higher end stores?"
KEENAN (brightening up considerably, perky, smiling): "They're doing great! Were you shopping this weekend, John?"
GIBSON: "No. I stayed away."
KEENAN: "Oh. Well, you should go to the higher end stores. There's lots of beautiful things for your wife and loved ones."
GIBSON: "And lots of people in there tryin' to buy em?"
KEENAN: "Yeah. Those numbers look fairly good, because, not only do we have Wall Street back, the economy pretty strong here, we also have all the foreigners coming over, using their inflated euros, inflated yen, buying all those high ticket items. You know, they love the labels. They're buying the Gucci bags and the iPods and the like!"
GIBSON: "Well, for once it's good to see the "furriners" around!"
COMMENT
During World War I, Maurice Ravel was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev to compose a short ballet for the Ballets Russes. Although emotionally and physically drained, the ailing Ravel wrote "La Valse," an evocation of a glittering cotillion ball, with beautifully dressed men and women swirling to the strains of a haunting melody. The music gets faster and faster, louder and louder, more and more frenetic as a harsh, insistent countermelody arises from the subterranean depths of the bass register instruments. In the end the countermelody takes over, drowning out the lovely waltz theme. In "La Valse" Ravel brilliantly depicts the oblivion of the wealthy, dancing feverishly, in an effort to drown out the horror of the "war to end all wars." As history showed, World War I, with its mustard gas and massive casualties, tolled the death knell of the old European aristocratic "code of conduct." The final coup de grace was delivered on October 29, 1929, when the entire house of cards collapsed under the weight of corporate greed, fraud and "laissez-faire" governmental policies.
The strains of Ravel's lovely waltz ran through my head as I listened to Keenan speak faster and louder. It seemed to me that she was trying to drown out the sounds of the collapse of the American dream. Our once-lofty ideals are now used as come-ons by flashy shills masquerading as correspondents and analysts, spewing hatred of "furriners" (unless they have money to spend), praising the death of "the other" and hurling a constant barrage of insults at those of us who do not support their narrow-minded, xenophobic point of view.
As one of the millions of Americans who will not be spending a lot of money this holiday season (except for my youngest brother who still can't find a job), I'll grab a cup of hot chocolate swirled with a peppermint stick, curl up in a warm blanket with my four cats and watch a long train of syrupy Christmas movies that let me believe - if only for a couple of hours - that we actually do live in a world of kindness, gentleness, peace and light.
Gloria in excelsis Deo
Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis
Glory to God in the highest
And on earth peace to men of good will.
Here it is - 2000 years later - and human "good will" seems in awfully short supply, particularly in the halls of power and in the hearts of those who delude themselves into believing that God created two different classes of people: Us (the good guys) and Them (everybody else).
Until we abandon such a constricted world-view, I fear that we Americans will find ourselves blindly spinning in a dervish-dance driven by our own anxieties and hatreds, faster and faster, while the notion of "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" smashes on the rocks of indifference and falls with the loud thud into the sea of oblivion.
