Psalm 82: 1-8 (links validated 6/18/25a)

In his pitch perfect, best-selling novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe adroitly encapsulated and captured the spirit of the 1980s and particularly of the upwardly mobile “yuppies” who cashed in on that decade’s atmosphere of greed and acquisition. Stock market speculation, stock futures, junk bonds: it was all there for the taking. Wolfe depicted these corporate and stock market titans as inhabiting a world of deeply beveled oak paneled board rooms, mahogany tables, leather sofas, gilded everything—it all screamed “Money!” And as they sat around in these wealth-soaked environments Wolfe noted that they considered themselves to be no less than “Masters of the Universe.” Or perhaps as the poet of Psalm 82 would put it: they strutted around as though they were themselves no less than gods!

In his pitch perfect, best-selling novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe adroitly encapsulated and captured the spirit of the 1980s and particularly of the upwardly mobile “yuppies” who cashed in on that decade’s atmosphere of greed and acquisition. Stock market speculation, stock futures, junk bonds: it was all there for the taking. Wolfe depicted these corporate and stock market titans as inhabiting a world of deeply beveled oak paneled board rooms, mahogany tables, leather sofas, gilded everything—it all screamed “Money!” And as they sat around in these wealth-soaked environments Wolfe noted that they considered themselves to be no less than “Masters of the Universe.” Or perhaps as the poet of Psalm 82 would put it: they strutted around as though they were themselves no less than gods!

includes “Rise Up” | Words and music by Isaac Wardell, with the verse melody based on a melody by Evan Mazunik