Washblog || Joe The Liar

Joe The Liar

By dlaw
Thu Oct 16, 2008 at 06:23:05 PM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Alternative and Community Media

Joe Wurzelbacher, whose theoretical financial fate three otherwise-intelligent, professional, political people discussed ad nauseum probably isn't a bad guy. His aspirations are something we can all relate to. He seems like a pretty typical American. He's a liar.

It turns out that Joe is an unlicensed and unregistered employee of a small plumbing and heating company in suburban Toledo, Ohio. Not only would he not be allowed to operate the plumbing business he clearly can't afford, he's probably not even supposed to be doing the work he is doing. Even if Joe had the money and got the licenses, the business would doubtless be a disaster in the coming Bush Super-Recession. And it turns out Joe could use every dime of the Obama middle-class tax cut to pay off the back taxes he owes on the modest income he makes in the real world.

Joe isn't going to be made to "pay more than everybody else" by a "socialist view" because he's been so "successful". He's not successful anywhere but in his imagination and he is exactly the kind of person who would benefit from lower taxes, expansive fiscal policies and improved education - assuming Joe has any interest in educating himself. But I don't condemn Joe. To me, Joe is an American character - the Not-So-Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby was introduced to us as a gentle, charming, mysterious fraud whose implied financial misdeeds were done for love. He throws parties filled with people who don't know him in the hope his love will show up and give his life meaning and substance.

The Not-So-Great Gatsby is, in contrast, ubiquitous. He is the person for whom AppleBee's and "sports bars" and Hooter's are made. You cannot walk into a baseball game or football game or rodeo or fair without running into the Not-So-Great Gatsby. The big party that is American is not thrown by him, but seems to be thrown for him - or at least he always seems to show up.

The Great Gatsby's guests did not know him and the Not-So-Great Gatsby does not know the people who throw the American party. They do not associate with him and never will. He would be afraid to meet them. But like Gatsby's guests, the Not-So-Great Gatsby professes to admire the men who throw the party for him. In fact he associates himself with them, even to the point of imagining that he has their problems. `

Gatsby's guests became jaded as Gatsby's party became more fabulous, but the Not-So-Great Gatsby seems to become more and more loyal to his "hosts" even as the party gets crappier and crappier. And he not only gets loyal, he gets angry.

"Why are 'they' ruining the party?" he asks as the host runs short of drinks and appetizers. The host cannot be wrong, so it must be "they", although the Not-So-Great Gatsby has no more idea who "they" are than he has who is hosts are. He is angry on the behalf of the hosts. What if he, the Not-So-Great Gatsby, were throwing a huge party and "they" ruined everything - eating up all the appetizers and draining the kegs? He would really be mad. Boy, this is a world that really favors "they" no matter what "they" do and really discriminates against (would be) party-throwers like Not-So-Great Gatsby. Why just last week Not-So-Great Gatsby was going to throw a huge party (in his imagination) but he didn't because he knew "they" would just show up and ruin everything the way they always do.

He becomes so angry and so sympathetic to his hosts that he can barely hear them laughing.

< Saving the King County Fair | John McSame - Job Trader >

Joe The Liar | 2 comments (2 topical)

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