> > The conditions that gave rise to this outpouring of anger are in some ways > specific to this moment. Today’s business culture enshrines the > maximization of executive wealth and shareholder fortunes, and has > succeeded in leveraging personal riches > <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-rbg-election.html> > into > untold political influence. New communication platforms allow millions of > strangers around the world to converse in real time. > > But the currents we are seeing are expressions of something more > fundamental. We’ve been here before. And it wasn’t pretty. > > The Gilded Age, the tumultuous period between roughly 1870 and 1900, was > also a time of rapid technological change, of mass immigration, of > spectacular wealth and enormous inequality. The era got its name from a > Mark Twain novel: gilded, rather than golden, to signify a thin, shiny > surface layer. Below it lay the corruption and greed that engulfed the > country after the Civil War. > > The era survives in the public imagination through still-resonant names, > including J.P. Morgan, John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius > Vanderbilt; through their mansions, which now greet awe-struck tourists; > and through TV shows with extravagant interiors and lavish gowns. Less well > remembered is the brutality that underlay that wealth — the tens of > thousands of workers, by some calculations, who lost their lives to > industrial accidents, or the bloody repercussions they met when they tried > to organize for better working conditions. > > Also less well remembered is the intensity of political violence that > erupted. The vast inequities of the era fueled political movements that > targeted corporate titans, politicians, judges and others for violence. In > 1892, an anarchist tried to assassinate the industrialist Henry Clay Frick > after a drawn-out conflict > <https://www.britannica.com/event/Homestead-Strike> between Pinkerton > security guards and workers. In 1901, an anarchist sympathizer assassinated > President William McKinley. And so on. > > As the historian Jon Grinspan wrote about the years between 1865 and 1915, > “the nation experienced one impeachment, two presidential elections ‘won’ > by the loser of the popular vote and three presidential assassinations.” > And neither political party, he added, seemed “capable of tackling the > systemic issues disrupting Americans’ lives.” No, not an identical > situation, but the description does resonate with how a great many people > feel about the direction of the country today. > > > https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/opinion/united-health-care-ceo-shooting.html > > >
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