The Art of the Con

7/14/2006


INT. – Boardroom of the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan

In the aftermath of the death of the corporation’s founder PETER BAILEY, members of the board are meeting to decide if they should dissolve the institution or not.

MR. POTTER:

Peter Bailey was not a business man. That's what killed him. Oh, I don't mean any disrespect to him, God rest his soul. He was a man of high ideals, so-called. But ideals without common sense can ruin this town. Now, you take this loan here to Ernie Bishop. You know, that fellow that sits around all day on his brains in his taxi. I happen to know the bank turned down this loan, but he comes here and we're building him a house worth five thousand dollars. Why?

GEORGE BAILEY:

Well, I handled that, Mr. Potter. You have all the papers there. His salary, insurance. I can personally vouch for his character.

MR. POTTER:

A friend of yours?

GEORGE BAILEY:

Yes, sir.

MR. POTTER:

You see, if you shoot pool with some employee here, you can come and borrow money. What does that get us? A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class. And all because a few starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey stir them up and fill their heads with a lot of impossible ideas.

GEORGE BAILEY:

Now just a minute. Hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no business man. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. But neither you nor anybody else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was...Why, in the twenty-five years since he and Uncle Billy started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry to school, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter. And what's wrong with that? Why...here, you are all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You...you said that uh...what'd you say just a minute ago? They, they had to wait and save their money before they even thought of a decent home. Wait! Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken-down that they...Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about...they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book, he died a much richer man than you'll ever be.

MR. POTTER:

I'm not interested in your book. I'm talking about the Building and Loan.

GEORGE BAILEY:

I know very well what you're talking about. You're talking about something you can't get your fingers on, and it's galling you. That's what you're talking about, I know. Well, I…I…I've said too much. I... You're, you're the Board here. You do what you want with this thing. There's just one thing more though. This town needs this measly one-horse institution if only to have some place where they can come without crawling to Potter.

from It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

Isn’t it amazing that an educated “civilized” society can have the shared annual experience of watching the same wonderful movie every year, embrace that film as the ultimate “family experience” and yet have absolutely no clue about what it means or what it is trying to say?

Although it is not Christmas, this speech came to my mind today because I just received my monthly Con Ed bill. My monthly tab was practically double: $86.99 became $170.45. For those of you not in the New York area, Consolidated Edison is the local electricity pimp.

Since it has been beastly hot in the city as of late, I have been running the air conditioner so I suspected that the bill would be somewhat higher...BUT DOUBLE!!! Wait a minute. Let me get my glasses and read that bill again. Let's see...

MARY MOTHER OF GOD...
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY DOLLARS!!!!

OK. Keep in mind that this bill was not for some huge Mansion with a white picket fence and a Lawn Jockey set out front. Nor was it even for a moderately sized house with the abandoned '85 Dodge Charger out front.

No. My dwelling is one cut above a small flophouse. The kind of place where you can find an igloo cooler in the corner to "keep perishables" and a baseball bat by the night stand to ward off intruders. And at consistent intervals, somewhere off in the distance, the siren of an ambulance or a squad car cuts through the stifling hot summer air...

OK, I am exaggerating, but you get the point. I live in an undignified apartment which should not cost 170 some odd dollars to keep at a barely tolerable temperature.

The situation is, simply put, outrageous and I for one am not going to take this Bullshit anymore!!! In fact, I am so pissed off right now I just decided that starting tomorrow I am going to take my business across the street.

That's where Luigi the Candle Maker and Hand-Fan Artisan has a store.

And one last thing...

The next time you see some greasy politician or pundit on the TV making some kind of speech or laying down some diatribe about this or that, don't immediately turn them off like you normally would do. Go off the beaten path and actually listen for awhile. Watch their body language. Pay attention to their carefully rehearsed voice inflections . And most importantly, carefully consider their intense and overly dramatic facial expressions.

Now, after you have taken that dismal trip into the cesspool of double talk and gobbley-gook which passes for "populism" these days, ask yourself if you agree with my observation:

Although these clowns try their hardest to ape the passion, spirit and righteousness of the George Bailey character, in reality, the plans, the policies and the positions they advocate are actually much more in tune with the shrill, soulless, hateful world view of Mr. Potter.

Just one man's opinion on this Bastille Day...
A day which commemorates a true social revolution.
Larry