The Great Gatsby

For John, BLUF:  Lots of glitz, but, in the end, little hope.

Last evening my wife and I went to see the movie The Great Gatsby.  There was a nice review in The New York Times earlier this month. And, there was an OpEd by NYT Columnist Maureen Dowd, which cites this line from F Scott Fitzgerald's novel and from his headstone:

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Then she goes on to use this line:

...the decay of souls, the crumbling mythology and the dark side of social mobility.

I get the decay of souls and the idea of crumbling mythology, but I don't get the dark side of social mobility.  Are we now against social mobility?  And, the idea of a "Gatsby Curve" was debunked by the NYT Catherine Rampell here.

All well and good, but my take-away, my Lesson Learned, from The Great Gatsby is this:

Jay Gatsby was wrong.  You can't hit the "reset button".  You have to play the ball from where you find it.  And it is there because of everything that happened in the past.  You can't go back.  You have to go forward.

I call as my witness, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who learned you can't push the "reset button".

Regards  —  Cliff