Around the glass table
long as the whole room
in black chairs
everyone
sitting
next to each other
pen in hand
paper for notes
reading glasses
ashtrays
cigarettes cigars
liquor glasses
Bobbie at the head of the table
a full turnout
Monday luncheon
eighth floor, One William Street
all Lehman Brothers partners
sitting
in dark suits.
They don’t miss a word
when the marketing director speaks
a nebulous being, with plasticized hair
whose eyes look like cellophane and his teeth of fiberglass.
But what charisma.
“Today I’d like us to consider together the verb: to buy.
To buy: what does it mean?
It means giving money in exchange for something.
This something has a value, the value is a price.
The price is the money you give me.
No more no less.
Perfect.
If you want people to buy
you have to tell them the opposite.
You have to tell them they aren’t buying.
You have to tell them: ‘you and I are not doing an exchange
because it’s you who are winning
I’m accepting this price against my will
but nevertheless, okay, I accept it
even if—in the end—I’m losing out.’
This is what’s new, gentlemen.
This is marketing.
To tell everyone that whoever buys is gaining
and whoever sells is losing.
Marketing is
to tell everyone that you’re winning if you buy
if you buy you triumph
if you buy you’ve beaten me
if you buy you’re number one.
Marketing, gentlemen
is to get folks used to the idea
that only those who buy win the war
and since we’re all at war
whoever buys survives.”
The Lehman Brothers partners
all sitting
in dark suits
don’t miss a word
they write
nod
smile:
the Lehman Brothers partners
around the glass table,
they like this idea.
“If we can get it into the heads
of the whole world
that buying is winning
then buying will mean living.
Because human beings, gentlemen
don’t live to lose.
Their instinct is to win.
Existence means winning.
If we can get it into the heads
of the whole world
that living means buying
we, gentlemen, will smash
that last old barrier which is called need.
Our objective
is a planet Earth
in which you no longer buy through need
but you buy through instinct.
Or if you prefer—to conclude—through identity.
Only then will banks
—and Lehman Brothers with them—
become immortal.”
Extraordinary.
Bobbie, at the head of the table, smiles.
And when Bobbie smiles it’s an event in itself.
For when his grandfather Emanuel and his brothers
founded the bank
they dreamed at most of a cotton empire
and when his father, Philip,
launched it on the stock market
he dreamed of trains and kerosene
but now
now the plan is quite something else:
here, folks, we are talking about eternal life
about giving a meaning to the world
if you know what I mean:
“I have a dream
yes
I have a dream”
and the dream is
nothing less
than immortality.
While the whole world
in these 1960s
is terrified
of some new nuclear bomb,
we Lehmans take a run-up
jump the ditch
and voilà
not only are we everywhere
but from now on
we will be
everlasting.
Lehman Brothers is betting on it:
“Votes in favor”
unanimous
“Votes in favor”
all sitting
“Votes in favor”
in dark suits
“Votes in favor”
around the glass table.
And onward then with the new marketing:
from now on
the watchword
is: play-act
yes, play-acting
pretend
that anyone can buy anything
that luxury is for everyone
that poor people don’t exist
that nothing has a price
and, if it has, it’s affordable
play-act
play-act
tell everyone
that every sale is a giveaway:
offers
bargains
discounts
installments
what’s important is to sell
what’s important is to fill the coffers
what’s important is that people buy
and if Standard & Poor’s
keeps the thermometer fixed under our arm
we too have a thermometer
—you bet—
and it’s supermarkets.
Superstores.
Megastores.
Billboards as big as houses.
And a torrent of money that flows every day
like a sea
a gigantic
boundless
ocean
of Coca-Cola flags
red
red
red as those of Russia
red as those of China
red as the envy
that consumes
—you bet—
all of that part of the planet
under the hammer
and under the sickle
that it cannot buy
“but I have a dream
yes
I have a dream”
and it is
sooner or later
to sell to you
sell
sell
sell
to everyone
wagonloads
home delivery
without preference
without distinction
whites and blacks
no longer any difference:
we are all the same
since we all have money
sell
sell
sell
with no firsts and no lasts
with no positions
men and women
no longer any difference:
we are all the same
for we all have a bank account.
“I have a dream
yes
I have a dream”
and it is that all money
from henceforth
is the same
under the sun
and
more than under the sun
for NASA has asked us for money
to send a man to the moon:
“I have a dream
yes
I have a dream”
and it is to make money up there too.
Banker’s euphoria.
What a great job to be involved in immortal matters.
Bobbie smiles:
Lehman Brothers forever.
Then he bites his lip.
Lehman Brothers forever.
Bobbie has gray hair.
Lehman Brothers forever.
But
after me
who?