Let me divide the country and give you half: I will take the wheat, you may take the chaff. I will keep the President, you the Chief of Staff. I will take the hoi polloi, you the riff raff. A fair trade, I think, and how I am versed in fair: I measure every angle with a carpenter’s square. My depreciation calculations include wear and tear. I never post editorials under my nom de guerre. I could reasonably claim to be the intellectual elite: I can explain in few words the kinetic theory of heat. Complex equations are no mental aerobatic feat. My bomb shelter is made of steel-reinforced concrete. So allow me just this bit of moral vindication: don’t mention King Solomon as we break apart the nation.
– Ross White
The third word in this poem sums up the main idea in this poem, division. The poem revolves around the speaker’s proposal to divide the nation, but the division is unequal. “I will take the wheat, you may take the chaff. I will keep the President, you the Chief of Staff.” Through the contrast of wheat and chaff and the President and Chief of Staff, the speaker acknowledges inequality in their proposed division. This shows the deeper societal issue of inequality in political power and elitism, where the people in control justify inequity with “expert” guidance. The tone of the poem adds a layer of sarcasm, with the speaker’s arrogance and self-proclaimed intellectual superiority critiquing hypocrisy and neglect in leadership. The unequal distribution of power emphasized in this poem shows how the elite unjustly have more political power, and thus the ability to propose unjust ideas. White also speaks on how the elite use intelligence and requirements in general to justify and assert authority in decision-making. “A fair trade, I think, and how I am versed in fair: I measure every angle with a carpenter’s square. My depreciation calculations include wear and tear. I never post editorials under my nom de guerre. I could reasonably claim to be the intellectual elite: I can explain in few words the kinetic theory of heat.” In these lines the speaker reinforces the idea that they are fair, attempting to cast the division as a fair agreement rather than a power grab. The presence of just one speaker shows how this is a one-way discussion, with the group on the other side of the split not getting the representation to fight back against the claims made by the speaker. White closes the poem with the mention of King Solomon. “So allow me just this bit of moral vindication: don’t mention King Solomon as we break apart the nation.” This line warns about the dangers of unchecked power and its ramifications. The speaker continues to create a fear of unchecked power with the mention of their steel-reinforced concrete bomb shelter. “My bomb shelter is made of steel-reinforced concrete.” The speaker being in power and having a steel-reinforced concrete bomb shelter implies that the speaker could cause chaos to some degree and be able to hide away in a protected area, while the common people would suffer and face the consequences of the elite’s actions. With that line, White is continuing his critique of hypocrisy in leadership and the unfortunate fact that people without political power do not get a say in decision-making, but oftentimes feel the consequences and take the damage for the actions of those in power. If it wasn’t already apparent, the steel-reinforced concrete bomb shelter displays the priority of self-preservation and detachment from the common people by the speaker. The speaker would rather save themself from fallout and potential chaos rather than devise a solution and deal with any chaos that ensues, as their job of being the leader of the people details. However, the speaker doesn’t care about leadership but rather simply power. The speaker’s priority of saving themself shows their selfishness in leadership, which due to the nature of leadership being built around selflessness, displays the incompetency of the speaker to be a just leader. In conclusion, White uses the distribution of power and wealth to highlight a reason for conflict and ineffective leadership, likely with the goal of opening the minds of people and telling a side of the story not often told. In this time of division, White believes that we shouldn’t trust the elite in leadership, and that successful leadership should be authentic and selfless.