THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 2, 1996 TAG: 9605020007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: BY ALFRED B. ROLLINS JR.
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Much of the significance of the frantic Kennedy/Onassis auction has been lost in the sentimental simpering about how the people have taken Jackie to their hearts.
It is not much of a compliment to a distinguished first lady that the trivia of her life will now be scattered about the world to serve as conversation pieces at cocktail parties.
A rude joke among historians has long been that the ideal topic for a popular article would be Lincoln's wife's doctor's dog. Now perhaps we can begin to work on modern concerns, such as President Kennedy's wife's second husband's engagement ring, or JFK's daughter's hobby horse.
But the real significance of this moment may have little to do with the great lady and her family. This may be the ridiculous climax of the three-decade revolution in art prices that has turned great masterpieces ( and some very ordinary objects) into multimillion-dollar investments to be hidden away in bank vaults.
And it is certainly one of the most garish examples of the ``Conspicuous Consumption'' of which Thorstein Veblen warned us almost a century ago.
But what is to be made of this gush of wealth in 1996? One thing which seems clear is the fact that it is, indeed, another rush of surplus wealth, boiling over the dam at precisely the moment when institutions of culture, art, music and theater, which Mrs. Kennedy so much loved, are starving because of mean-minded ideological hangups and political manipulation.
It is one more example of how the economic and political policies of the past 30 years have radically redistributed wealth upward beyond the limits of our fantasies. And this at the moment in history when we have found it impossible to deal with enormous social and economic problems under our noses.
Perhaps Caroline and John will find a way to invest the profit from the trinkets in something useful - and that would be a real tribute to their distinguished mother. MEMO: Dr. Rollins, a retired history professor and author of Roosevelt and
Howe and other books about the New Deal and the Progressive Era, lives
in Norfolk. by CNB