August 2, 2009
(The Swamp) - Do you remember "The Sorcerer's Apprentice?" The Disney version of Dukas' paean to Goethe's poem. You know, the one stuck in the middle of the psychedelic animated classic, Fantasia (1946)? It is the perfect allegory for our current situation.
The apprentice (a beautifully drawn Mickey Mouse) thinks he can do everything the wise old sorcerer can, but he is assigned to slopping buckets of water. By chance, Mickey discovers the wand of the sorcerer while he is out and charms up an army of brooms to carry the water. He shouldn't have started. He didn't know how to control it. And as Dukas' music swells, he is overwhelmed, only to be saved by the return of the wise old sorcerer who puts everything to rights.
Perfect.
Simply perfect.
The wise old sorcerer is the 1994 congress. Little by little, they are turned out by greedy voters and stupid media. Finally, the magic wand is left behind as conservatives and libertarians flee the magical hold. The pitiful moderates and progressives who have inherited the power of the wand make one mistake after another, bankrupting and destroying the very things they thought they could master. As the country dances itself into a death-fugue, the apprentice progressives and moderates realize they are screwed.
The scene can only end one of two ways: complete, bloody suppression, or the wizards must come back to the hold and set things aright.
The solution will be painful to all and humiliating to those who put their trust in the foolish apprentices.
Only the voters can make this tale come true.
Obviously, the answer is not the current Apprentice Mickey Mice.
- Dick Anderson
