In case any of you haven’t fathomed why Western Civilization has collapsed, you might find the platitudes belched up by Barney Frank instructive. He is of the view that economic success is, by its nature, confined to a “privileged” few. There is “only a limited amount of space” available for creative enterprise, and “you’re being there means somebody else won’t be.” That the power to enact rules under which everyone is to live has been placed in the hands of such intellectually bankrupt buffoons, helps to explain the current plight of humanity.

Progressing along his line of reasoning, we might soon read of Frank’s interpretation of scientific discoveries or literary or artistic creations. Did Einstein’s “being there” (i.e., in America) provide him a creative advantage denied to other European scientists who died in two World Wars? Did “being there” in Stratford-on-Avon give Shakespeare a “privileged” position for writing Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and other plays, that was denied to Horton Blotto, who could just as easily have written such works? Or will the feminists now jump in and tell us that these plays – and other works – were actually written by Mrs. Shakespeare, whose husband forcibly took them from her? And what of Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel? Was this due to the luck of his “being there” one day when church officials put out a call for a painter?

Barney Frank may have generated an entirely new approach to the creative process. Perhaps it will be called the “Being There” explanation. Frank may be able to trace the lineage of his ideas back to the character Chauncey Gardiner, in the Peter Sellers film “Being There.” Frank’s thinking would certainly fit that of the movie’s character.

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