One hundred years ago yesterday, The Great Gatsby was first published. The sordid tale of people corrupted by money who ignore the consequences of their actions, remains a timeless classic.
Read with contemporary eyes, it's natural to search for glimmers of Donald Trump. But such efforts are misguided. Rather, in today’s gilded age, it is our business leaders, media owners and Big Law partners who most resemble Jay Gatsby and Tom and Daisy Buchanan. They are the “careless people… [who] smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness… and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”
Tech and Wall Street titans spent months defending Trump when they believed it would benefit their bottom line, only turning against him when their personal stock portfolios suffered. Big Law firm partners betrayed our legal system to pad their own wallets. Media moguls compromised the Fourth Estate to ensure their lucrative mergers were approved.
When federal workers were fired, when critical government services were dismantled, when people were wrongly sent to prisons in foreign countries, these modern-day villains remained deafeningly silent. When Trump declared himself a king, they schemed to gain advantage rather than resist. Only when the financial markets fell did they put down their champagne glasses to consider the consequences of Trump’s actions.
To be clear, while the modern-day Gatsbys and Buchanans bowed down to Trump, others have stood tall and shown moral leadership. We owe them our respect and gratitude.
Unfortunately, it’s still too early in Trump’s four-year term to know…
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