This immediately conjured up Han Magnus Enzenberger's mesmerising poem ‘ A Short History of the Bourgeoisie’ , written in the ’80s: a poem I have always been fascinated by this poem and which I included in my anthology Scanning the Century: The Penguin Book of the 20th Century in Poetry. It reminded me of Brecht’s bitterly relished fables of the 30s (deliberately on Enzensberger's part, I’m sure).
But the poem never really sounded like then. It was an exaggeration for effect, like a grotesque caricature. It was in love with the excesses it created: “That was the moment when, without / noticing it, for five minutes we were vastly rich, . . .the flown-in Finnish wood blazed / in Tudor fireplace….Flights everywhere. Even our sighs / went on credit cards”.
Well, it duly came to pass. Perhaps this is what poetry does best: to divine deep currents long before they are fully realized. Unacknowledged legislators after all?