Somebody said it again this week.
And I found myself smirking in that way that has been pissing off family, friends and ex-wives for nigh on sixty years now.
It came at the end of one of those verbose answers from one self professed economy expert or another to a question asked by one self professed media watchdog.
Or another.
“The issue of executives at AIG being given millions of dollars in bonuses even though the company took billions of dollars in bailout money has to be considered in context. There should be no rush to judgment for this matter, like so many issues involving our troubled economy require careful study and thoughtful examination because …”
…wait for it…
“…these matters are very complicated.”
Every time I hear the words complicated or complex spoken on a news channel these days, I honestly expect Groucho’s duck to drop down and pay the mouthpiece a hundred bucks.
(For those of you born after, say, 1965, you’ll want to wander over to You Tube or Hulu a little later and look for old video clips of “You Bet Your Life”. That last line will be a lot funnier after you do.)
More than once, people in my sphere have offered up the opinion that I’m an over thinker.
Fair point.
Although I would offer that doing what you can with what God gave you simply comes naturally.
Ann Coulter spews venom.
Jessica Simpson shakes her ass.
Nancy Pelosi clings to control like grim death.
I over think.
Just like breathing, baby.
Here’s the thing, though.
I’m not overthinking AIG.
Because there’s nothing to overthink.
The issue truly is not, at it’s core, complicated or complex.
AIG is, simply, a symbol of the battle.
And not the battle between conservative and liberal.
Or Republican and Democrat.
Or even believers and non. (Fill in your own denominational inclination.)
It is the oldest battle in the history of humanity.
The struggle for control between our inner demons and our better angels.
(The less poetic would offer up that it boils down to “right and wrong”, but I think I said that in a much more entertaining and dramatic way, n’cest pas?)
Each one of us is faced, each day, with a dozen, nay, a hundred different choices between the virtuous and the selfish, from “should I let that guy merge over into my lane” to “should I hide the remote so we can watch Sportscenter or commit an act of giving by surfing over to HGTV?”
And each one of us is subject to doling out love to our fellow man with our right hand while we take care of number one with our left.
We’re all tempted. We all struggle.
Those who usually opt for the selfless side are banking on an E ticket to that mansion on the hill.
The rest of us are either still wandering in the desert or hoping that a Hail Mary pass in the last two minutes will get us safely over the line.
There is nothing complicated about it.
And the only thing that should be surprising to anyone about the fact that the bill that got passed that gave AIG the billions came with a loophole that assured the desert wanderers their bonus money is that anyone should be surprised.
Because the struggle between the inner demons and the better angels runs twenty-four seven in a theatre of morality near you.
And in the material world, the voice of the better angels is usually soft, loving and barely audible above the din of the ka-ching.
The voice of the inner demon is somewhere on the audio scale between Gilbert Gottfried and Rosie O’Donnell.
Congress passed the bill with a loophole because Gilbert and Rosie were in full voice.
And the AIG “execs” want the money because they cant hear anything over the din of the ka-ching.
Yes. It is selfish and greedy and even beneath contempt.
And it is almost unfathomable to accept for any of us who aren’t AIG execs.
But it’s really not all that hard to understand.
Because it’s really not all that complicated.
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