One of the more curious aspects within our present system of identity politics is the assumption that a person is in agreement with all of those with whom they share demographic likeness. Someone who is Muslim and also against Donald Trump, while also spouting the hope of equality and fairness for “the people” should be my cup of tea, right? Wrong.
A cornerstone of democratic socialism, I suppose is the resting face of self-righteousness needled throughout any collective reallocation of wealth when it is based upon human similarity. To be sure, New York continuing to be New York is at least one of the few warm comforts left remaining to our United States. Since its inception, this city’s ethos (even when it was “Old” York in merry old England) has remained consistent: “these inhabitants are well-fit to be our servants, and they too comfortably and sit on a wealth that should be ours.” What were once the Scots to the Yorkers and Lenape to the Colonists, now we have New Yorkers to the invading throng of immigrants.
Of course, of course. This nation has been built with the sweat and blood of immigrants, and New York itself has never been more than just a pinnacle of greed infecting one group after the next. Maybe the issue is the democratic socialism rhetoric bubbling up during a time of pre-imperial Trumpism? Take something’s name and separate it from its function, and you are left with a roomful of worried lobbyists. After you sort through those who are there simply for their cut, a tired, lonely mass of perpetual optimists are all that remain.
Don’t blame them though. What has led to the rise of democratic socialism on the far left wing of American nonsense is partly due to the equally foul aroma of “Trump was right about everything” on the far right. As a spectator, today’s political melodrama is better than professional wrestling. However, as a citizen and a father, the continuing disagreement within our levels of governmental systems has me reaching for the history books.
If recent events have told us anything, it is that one must not put too much stock in the words uttered by an elitist speaking on behalf of the people. Though we have two seemingly different people in Zohran Mamdani and Trump, when we peel back their particular branch of used-car salesmanship, we are left with two people who lived in the half of New York reserved for the privileged. This is maybe why I still keep up with politics. It is as if the common people forget the broken promises and outright lies of our elite overlords every time one of them puts on a suit and asks us to “hope.” Though, as an epicurean and a cook, Mamdani’s election may be exactly what Greenfield needs.
Years ago, a man got me into the habit of smoking cigars. Though I didn’t keep up with it, one little morsel of potential fact-hood this man left me was the events which followed Castro’s rise to power in Cuba. In short, I was told that the most talented cigar makers actually left for the Dominican Republic, and it is there that the skill of cigar-making actually continued to flourish. Perhaps this was not true, though something similar was described to me after the rise of Mao in China. Though this time dealing with martial arts, I have been advised by at least one of my Kung Fu teachers that many of the skilled practitioners fled to Taiwan after China became “Red China.” As historians and academics could debate ad infinitum as to the facts and possible realities which led to these emigrations, we have, at least, reflections of the human mind which refuses to be set to standard.
When anything is “socialized,” it is made readily available and achievable by the meaty part of the bell curve. The drive for human excellence refuses the yoke of generality. If it didn’t, then why do the elite among us stock their refrigerators with grass-fed, raw cheddar and not with state-issued government cheese? This, my friends, is why I celebrate the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City. If this man is successful with his intended socialist policies, the world’s greatest bakers, chefs, and baristas are poised to flee to locales which have not enslaved them with regulation and mandate. I ask that the Greenfield City Council invite these future émigrés to our lovely city, if only to improve the flavor.
Ahmad Esfahani lives in Greenfield.