Not too much has changed in human nature and in politics. The virtuous people get the shaft and the artful dodgers get more pie. There has always been group think and wormy acceptance of public frauds and their policies. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is very much like Jack Wilkes.
Jack Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, was journalist/demagogue of the 18th Century, who used radical rhetoric to become a political icon and autocrat. London was a pest hole of corruption vice and gang-violence. "Wilkes and Liberty!" was the shout of the day and murders were as common as flies on an uncollected corpse.
Dr. Samuel Johnson was a lexicographer, poet, scholar, wit and Tory. A Tory was a conservative who believed in God, King and Country. Tories arose from the Cavalier Party which took the side of the Monarchy over Oliver Cromwell's progressive dictatorship. In modern sensibilities, President Obama is much akin to Oliver Cromwell. The word Tory comes from the Irish word - tóraidhe; - which means Outlaw.
How's that for irony?
If you believe today that abortion is murder, you are an outlaw. If you believe today that marriage is between a man and woman, you are an outlaw. If you believe today that the sweat of your brow is your capital, you are an outlaw.
Jack Wilkes as Mayor of London encouraged an Occupy Movement that railed against King George, his wars in America, and Catholics. In 1778 and act to end anti-Popery Laws in England against Roman Catholics ( which were not unlike Obama's HHS Mandate), angered the 18th Century MSNBC-like pamphleteers and they the mob. The words King Mob became the 99%ers of London. The Gordon Riots against Catholics, the King and the Bank of England broke out in 1780.
Guess what; when the Mob ( 99%er OWS of London) marched on the Bank of England, Rahm Wilkes ordered the militia to fire of the crowd.
Dr. Johnson wrote of his London:
Besides, with Justice, this discerning Age
Admires their wond'rous Talents for the Stage:
Well may they venture on the Mimic's art,
Who play from Morn to Night a borrow'd Part;
Practis'd their Master's Notions to embrace,
Repeat his Maxims, and reflect his Face;
With ev'ry wild Absurdity comply,
And view each Object with another's Eye;
To shake with Laughter ere the Jest they hear,
To pour at Will the counterfeited Tear;
And as their Patron hints the Cold or Heat,
To shake in Dog-days, in December sweat.
How, when Competitors like these contend,
Can surly Virtue hope to fix a Friend?
Slaves that with serious Impudence beguile,
And lye without a Blush, without a Smile;
Exalt each Trifle, ev'ry Vice adore,
Your Taste in Snuff, your Judgment in a Whore;
Can Balbo's Eloquence applaud, and swear
He gropes his Breeches with a Monarch's Air.
Those are Chicago Values, kids!
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/london.html
http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/summer03/wilkes.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Riots
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