Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Their Daily Bread



In a moment that can be described as pure Grouchovian, Karl Marx pre-empted his namesake by observing that “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."  

When I read recently that the Delhi high court in India issued a ruling decriminalizing begging in the streets,* it occurred to me that Marx’s observation could be expanded to claim also that “The content of satire eventually repeats itself as reality.”

In what was his most famous satiric gem, Anatole France (1844-1924) noted:
La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.
(In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.)

Well, at least in this one case, the law relaxed its “majestic equality” and saw fit to remove the interdiction against the destitute begging in the streets. May we presume that it is still verboten for the rich? 

Actually, as we know from our own experience in the US, it would be hard to find on the streets of any great city a plutocrat with his hand out. That is not to say that the rich are not beggars; they are—but not on the streets and generally not in person. They do their begging in the corridors of power—and by proxy, employing those smarmy lapdogs known as “lobbyists.” 

*

What is it with the poor, who, Jesus said, will always be with us? 

I think I have a clue. “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime,” Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) asserted. The problem with the poor, it would seem therefore, is that they aren’t criminal enough.

***

* “Begging is their last resort to subsistence,” the judges ruled. “Criminalising begging is a wrong approach to deal with the underlying causes of the problem and violates the fundamental rights of some of the most vulnerable people.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/21/its-their-last-resort-delhi-high-court-decriminalises-begging




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