The Pyramid Scheme and the President

The votes have been counted and the pundits have made their cases. Nancy Pelosi claims a victory because she has saved (or created) two congressional votes: one in California and one in New York-23.

Hannity sees the election results as an omen for the 2010 elections when the GOP will win back the House and the Senate.

I am thinking of how, in these results, our youth actually have suffered the greatest loss. Depending on how you look at it, their absence at the polls cost the Democrats two governorships. For me the election has brought forward memories of “pyramids.” How strange!

When I was in my youthful twenties, the “Pyramid” phenomena had just hit the neighborhood in which I lived. I met several people who had already made several hundred thousand dollars and who were eagerly promoting the $500 pyramid.

I was told that all I needed to do to make my $100,000 was to put in five hundred dollars, and then find two other people to buy in behind me. Then, I would be invited to my first “pyramid” party.
There were over 200 crazed people there — so many, that not all of them could “buy in”. I proudly looked at my name written at the bottom of the pyramid of names, in thick black felt pen, Carolyn: $500.

The promoter of the pyramid told me that the next party should be at my house. A few days later the pyramid had indeed come to my home, as well as 300 guests. When the very convincing promoter made his inspiring pitch, I expected to have the same occurrence happen again: that is, not enough room for everyone to buy in. However, after the crowd-pumping sales pitch, instead of a feeding frenzy, there was silence — no one even stood up — and there I sat at the bottom of the pyramid, my five hundred dollars… lost… lost forever…wondering, ”what happened?”

What happened was that people started to get worried. The police had started raiding pyramid parties. Someone started doing the math. The pyramid scheme was over — and my so was my youthful naïveté.

Since that time, every new fad, every new money scheme, every popular book, every popular TV show, when introduced to me has been met with a cautious skepticism. Even a new apostolate, a new popular priest, new apparition sites… well …lets just say, I rarely get on board until they have been given the gold medal by someone I trust.

After the Democratic Convention in 2004, all I heard about was a young senator who happened to be black. I listened to his speech, and I could see why he would motivate an audience. I, however, could not get on board. He was not pro-life, and women’s “reproductive rights” to him were a top priority. I recognized that the passionate words he used actually meant abortion, contraception, and probably euthanasia. I turned him off. Permanently.

A few years later, a few of the Catholic kids I knew wanted to take me down the Obama road again, and I flat out told them, “I am not interested under any circumstances.”

Trying to persuade me they said: “Obama wants LESS abortion.”

I said, “Careful, watch what he does, not what he says.”

They would continue again: “He supports Catholic ideals.”

“No thanks,” I replied.

Again and again, I was bombarded with arguments about “just war,”… about how there had been a “higher rate of abortion under Bush’s term”… about how I was behaving like a “racist”… blah, blah, blah.

I recognized when reading the election results that I have “been here” before. I thought about the “Pyramid” for the first time in years. I remembered that in the early ‘80’s I had dragged two friends to buy in behind me in the pyramid scheme. This time, like my smarter-than-I-was guests all those years ago, I hadn’t bought in. Now Obama has officially been lumped in with all of the other, “say one thing and do another” politicians.

Trying to revive his popularity, he struggles. Why?

The authorities are starting to question him, people are doing the math. He is duplicitous in his enthusiasm. The pyramid scheme is over, and but for a few hangers on, a generation’s naïveté is officially gone.