THE 1%

I'm not very good with statistics, but I'm guessing there's always been about a 99 to 1 ratio in history between us and them. The record suggests that while 99% of us go through life working and hoping, about 1% of them are working and controlling. Yet the 1% rarely make the headlines...!

Headlines are for the obvious -- big crimes or celebrities or exceptions. The 1% don't -- and don't want to -- qualify. It doesn't take a Dan Brown novel to suspect who the 1% are. On one side of this 1 are the masters-of-the-universe who ride in limos, jet in Lear's, convene secret board meetings, and gather at exclusive spas throughout the world. The 1% are almost always above the law, above the recessions, and above the regular playing fields of life. About the only thing the 1% share with the 99% are death and taxes (and usually not that many taxes).

On the flip side of this 1 are covert agents of governments working 24/7 to monitor these masters. Those intelligence and counter-intelligence agents operating in shadows armed with wire-taps, code-breakers and hired guns. All privately assembled to bring down these masters-of-the-universe whenever they look like they're going to become even bigger than the governments which are willing to co-exist with them so long as there's enough pie for both players.

Hollywood loves to model movies after these cynical plotlines. It's art imitating life imitating history. A recent example, the Clive Owens & Naomi Watts hit "The International," ends with that now-patented what-the-
hell's-the-use fadeout. The new genre in which the good guys lose while the bad guys just keep winning. If, that is, you can even tell anymore who's good and who's bad. Or if it even makes a difference anymore!

Maybe it still does. Just so long as we believe it does....