Written by V   

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Those iconic words from Charles Dickens in 1859 opened “A Tale of Two Cities”. It is there where we meet Madame DeFarge and experience her knitting. Madame DeFarge is the wife of Monsieur DeFarge, the Wine Shop keeper who is also a leader in the underground just prior to the French Revolution. His wife’s knitting keeps the record of the grievances of the common people against their “betters”. When the terrible retribution comes, it is her knitting which calls forth the guilt.

The event around which the story revolves is the rape of a peasant girl, the killing of her husband and the stabbing death of her vengeful brother by two young brotherly spawn of “the Nobility”. The event takes place some 20 years before the time of the story. Dr. Manette was called by the noble brothers to tend to the victims two days after the incident. He found the girl dying from the trauma, her mind gone to gibberish and her brother dying in the barn with a vicious festering sword wound in his gut. When Dr. Manette reported what he found to the authorities, the “Noble” brothers had him beaten and thrown into the Bastille, themselves walking away unscathed. They were much too important to be held accountable for their peccadilloes.

While in the Bastille, before he totally lost his mind, Dr. Manette wrote of his experiences and hid his writings in his cell. After the fall of the Bastille, Monsieur DeFarge recovered the writings and used them to charge Charles Darnay, the exiled son of one of the brothers and husband of Dr. Manette’s daughter Lucie, with the crimes of his father. Darnay had denounced his birthright to his uncle’s face years before and had left France because he saw the horrible inequities of French Society and wanted no part of them. It mattered not. Darnay is held accountable and the story climaxes with the ever approaching day of Darnay’s reckoning with the Guillotine whom the newly freed citizens of France referred to as “the Barber with the close shave”.

Consider:

• A black man drives down the streets of Miami on Memorial Day weekend firing shots randomly into the crowd. The cops surround the car and execute the perp.
• A banker drives his Porsche down a sidewalk killing tourists and he gets an ankle bracelet in his parent’s condo in Ft. Lauderdale. He atrophies in luxury while he takes visitors at his whim.
• A harmless homeless man is beaten to death in the streets of Seattle by the police for reasons which are still unclear.
• The pretty girlfriend of the CEO of a pharmaceutical company is found naked and dead hanging in the stairwell of his “historic” San Diego mansion her hands and feet bound with electrical wire. The suicide note is in someone else’s handwriting. It’s official. It’s a suicide.
• With what appears to be malice of forethought, Bankers decimate the economy of the entire country with the knowing blessings of the political leadership from both sides of the aisle.
• When questioned before Congress, Lord Blankfein, the Marquis of Goldman Sachs looks perplexed and bewildered that he should be questioned at all.

The stories pepper the fringes of mainstream news, stories which are reported, but just never quite rise to their needed place in the national psyche as we examine ourselves in the mirror. In these United States, where children are hassled by the police and city authorities for lemonade stands, where people are arrested or brutally beaten for filming police officers as they commit their crimes on the citizens they are sworn to protect and serve, it makes perfect sense that the wealthy should get a pass. They steal everything. No one is arrested. No one goes to jail. They are much too important to be investigated for their annoying peccadilloes.

“At bottom, usury was the cancer of the Republic. [...] seldom had a people sunk so low. Bereft of religion, morality and all the social virtues, the dole-fed masses wallowed in vice. Luxury begot brutality and brutality licence; licence led to celibacy, and childlessness became more and more prevalent. To these degenerates, licence, spelt liberty, but to the plutocrats, liberty spelt power, profit, and an unlimited scramble for wealth, until money became the sole link between man and man.”1

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, it is the age of wisdom it is the age of foolishness, it is the epoch of belief, it is the epoch of incredulity, it is the season of Light, it is the season of Darkness, it is the spring of hope, it is the winter of despair, we have everything before us, we have nothing before us, we are all going direct to Heaven, we are all going direct to Hell - in short, this period is exactly like the past.

“Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious licence and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind".2

The words haunt, they will not go away. Where is Madame DeFarge? Is she keeping her knitting? And the barber, is he sharpening his blade? Shall he be the one who collects the debt? It would be nice to think we have gotten beyond the sharp blade of the Guillotine. It would be nice to think the feverish madness of crowds will not stir the blood lust and wild baying for fierce retribution.

When the accounting comes, and it shall come, what are we to do? Are we to call upon the Barber of the Bastille to give the villains a close shave? Have we progressed beyond that? What shall the bottom rail do once they find they are on top?

All one can do is watch as the storm clouds gather and the bolts of lightning strike. We are left with nothing but to wonder what is to become.


1) A Military History of the Western World by Maj. General J.F.C. Fuller page 177 referring to Rome in 62 BC.
2) A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, Book 3, Chapter 15