The Gilded Age
    [ 2007-05-22 11:32 ]

    Reader question:
    In this paragraph - It seems that inequality is greater now than it has been since the 1920s. There is a New Guilded Age of the rich in ever bigger mansions and the poor looking in through the gates (For Richer for Poorer, BBC Radio, May 16, 2007) - what does "New Guilded Age" mean?

    My comments:
    "Gild" seems to be in vogue right now. Last week, we dealt with "gilding the lily". Today, we'll talk about the Gilded Age.

    Yes, the Gilded Age, not the Guilded Age. Actually, I double checked the BBC website - they do have Guilded in print for Gilded and that is a typo mistake. And oh, how liberating, by the way, just to know that even the BBC commits spelling errors, lol.

    Anyways, the Gilded Age is in other words a golden era. The New Gilded Age for the super rich means simply that this is the time of the billionaire, not to mention the traditional millionaires - oh, poor dears.

    With globalization, the so-called free trade and what have you, international capitalism is running rampant at an unprecedented pace and scale. And as a result, people, a few of them that is, are piling up the big bucks.

    As the BBC story tells, "there are nearly 1,000 billionaires in the world, while millions live on less than a dollar a day." Apparently one of the terrible things the super rich do is that they make the rest of us look even poorer.

    But let's quit the rich and poor for a moment and talk about the Gilded Age itself. The phrase was coined by Mark Twain, who co-wrote a book of the same title with Charles Dudley Warner back in 1873.

    "This book", says the authors in the preface, "was not written for private circulation among friends; it was not written to cheer and instruct a diseased relative of the author's; it was not thrown off during intervals of wearing labor to amuse an idle hour. It was not written for any of these reasons, and therefore it is submitted without the usual apologies.

    "It will be seen that it deals with an entirely ideal state of society; and the chief embarrassment of the writers in this realm of the imagination has been the want of illustrative examples. In a State where there is no fever of speculation, no inflamed desire for sudden wealth, where the poor are all simple-minded and contented, and the rich are all honest and generous, where society is in a condition of primitive purity and politics is the occupation of only the capable and the patriotic, there are necessarily no materials for such a history as we have constructed out of an ideal commonwealth."

    Twain's sarcasm was unmistakable, and the Gilded Age, originally referring to the post-Civil War period in the United States, came to represent an era of rapid industrialization "characterized by ruthless pursuit of profit, government corruption, conspicuous consumption, and vulgarity in taste and manners", according to some.

    Twain might just as well be talking about today. The ruthless pursuit of profit goes on unabated, as usual. Spending on luxuries is certainly beyond historical compare. And vulgarity in taste and manners seems the rage as well, if you come to think of some of the stuff that passes off as news and commentary in cyberspace.

    Nevertheless, today does seem the Gilded Age in many ways (use your imagination), and not just for the super rich. The way I see it, it's the Gilded Age for everyone - make no mistake, it's the only age we've got.

    If you're poor, you should have a good time and leave the rich alone (I know most of you just can't do that). Enjoy your poverty while you have it and let your rich peers resent you for having nothing to lose. Don't let your poverty stop you from having some fun. After all, you've got your body, perhaps a soul too and, always remember, you've got a life.

    If you're rich, on the other hand, have a good time too and leave your poor peers alone (I think most of you do just that, not even lending them a hand). Don't worry that it's just the poor that has everything that money can't buy. Don't let your wealth stop you from having some fun. After all, you've got your body, perhaps a soul too and, always remember, you've got a life.

     

    About the author:
     

    Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

     
     
    相關文章 Related Stories
     
             
     
     
     
     
     
             

     

     

     
     

    48小時內最熱門

         

    本頻道最新推薦

         
      Spam or junk mail?
      Gilding the lily?
      On the ropes?
      Can't stick it on Korea
      Will Wolfowitz fall on his sword?

    論壇熱貼

         
      "去中國化"怎么翻譯?
      禮儀小姐,是哪個詞啊
      “戶型”怎么說
      快快加入“凈臉兩周年特別活動”
      英語點津開博客,大家覺得怎么樣?
      立此存照(4):上海市政府網站




    亚洲AV无码乱码在线观看| 国产AV无码专区亚洲精品| av潮喷大喷水系列无码| 最近高清中文在线国语字幕5| 人妻少妇偷人精品无码| 中文字幕无码毛片免费看| 亚洲最大激情中文字幕| 成人毛片无码一区二区三区| 国产AV无码专区亚洲AV漫画 | 免费中文字幕视频| 四虎国产精品永久在线无码 | 免费a级毛片无码免费视频| 午夜不卡无码中文字幕影院| 日韩久久久久中文字幕人妻| 中文字幕亚洲情99在线| 国模无码一区二区三区不卡| 中文字幕av无码一区二区三区电影 | 午夜不卡无码中文字幕影院| 免费无码成人AV在线播放不卡 | 国产aⅴ激情无码久久| 激情欧美一区二区三区中文字幕| 爽到高潮无码视频在线观看| 国产精品99精品无码视亚| 日日摸日日踫夜夜爽无码| 亚洲成AV人在线观看天堂无码| 中文字幕1级在线| 日韩人妻无码精品专区| 玖玖资源站中文字幕在线| 中文字幕在线视频播放| 久久ZYZ资源站无码中文动漫| 国产 亚洲 中文在线 字幕| 亚洲爆乳无码精品AAA片蜜桃| 内射无码午夜多人| 久久久精品无码专区不卡| 精品无人区无码乱码大片国产| 国产成人无码精品久久久免费| 国产av无码专区亚洲国产精品 | 中文字幕网伦射乱中文| 永久免费无码日韩视频| 中文字幕人成人乱码亚洲电影| 日韩精品无码中文字幕一区二区|