Wednesday, September 26, 2018

from The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, by Charles Dickens (1843-44)

[The main character, Martin, is visiting the United States for the first time, and the narrator makes the following commentary on the general character of the American men he is meeting in New York City.]
All their cares, hopes, joys, affections, virtues, and associations, seemed to be melted down into dollars. Whatever the chance contributions that fell into the slow cauldron of their talk, they made the gruel thick and slab with dollars. Men were weighed by their dollars, measures gauged by their dollars; life was auctioneered, appraised, put up and knocked down for its dollars. The next respectable thing to dollars was any venture having their attainment for its end. The more of that worthless ballast, honour and fair-dealing, which any man cast overboard from the ship of his Good Name and Good Intent, the more ample stowage-room he had for dollars. Make commerce one huge lie and mighty theft. Deface the banner of the nation for an idle rag; pollute it star by star; and cut out stripe by stripe as from the arm of a degraded soldier. Do anything for dollars! What is a flag to them?
* * *

I find this passage stunning. Recall that it was first published, in serial form, in 1843--175 years ago--yet it describes, almost exactly, the swamp we Americans still wallow in.

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