Zohran Mamdani claimed victory in New York City by taking to the stage to herald a new era for NYC: “a shining city for all.” His speech led with invoking Eugene Debs, the most prominent American socialist politician of the last century, before anyone knew of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). The mere mention of Debs, which would be an obscure reference to any average American or a New Yorker without multiple college degrees, elicited an immediate roar of applause and hollering from the crowd. Mamdani’s coalition knows exactly what he’s talking about, and they know the revolutionary energy this Ugandan-born heir to millionaire parents is channeling.
If NYC is the financial center of planet earth and the hub of global capitalism, defined by the lions of industry, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation, then truly the “Pride Lands” have fallen. The hyenas are in charge. Just a day before NYC went to vote, I rewatched The Lion King, the animated Disney classic that chronicles the murder of a king and the abdication of the throne by his rightful heir, Simba, to a sickly and treacherous uncle, Scar. Being a lion of royal blood and immense privilege was not enough for Scar. He felt unseen as the brains of the family and cursed with a “bad back” and a weak body. He allies himself with the resentful scavengers beyond the borders of the Pride Lands, the hyenas, and orchestrates a coup.
“We shall rise to greet the dawning of a new era,” proclaims Scar while assuming the kingship, “in which lion and hyena come together, in a great and glorious future!” The hyenas swarm the iconic Pride Rock, disrupting the delicate balance of life that ultimately sees every animal fed. A responsible lion is needed at the top to ensure the world is not governed by mere appetite, but Scar is a lion in name only, for he possesses the spirit of a scavenger.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from Ben Shapiro’s new book, Lions and Scavengers, is that you cannot identify either by looking within a certain group, class, race, or creed. Like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s line separating good and evil, this can only be determined within an individual’s heart.
Competitor Andrew Cuomo was no Mufasa, but when Mamdani roars to his audience that they’ve “toppled a political dynasty,” you have on full display the victory of scavengers in New York City, led by a mega-rich and highly educated ne’er-do-well whose first job will be running America’s most vital city.
Worse, the financial engine he will oversee is a system he intends to cut off at the knees. Capitalism has never been labeled, even by its champions, as the perfect system, but rather as one that has simply outperformed every alternative in meeting the most needs and rewarding the best ideas.
It’s no surprise that the people most opposed to this system, historically, are the most financially well-off and overly comfortable intellectuals who happily drink from the well but care little for how the water got there. NYC exit polls show clearly how Cuomo won the non-college-educated vote and Mamdani dominated among those with advanced degrees, as well as those with no longstanding ties to the city. Lifers went for Cuomo.
That didn’t stop Mamdani from claiming that power was now in the hands of the taxi drivers, delivery bikers, and line cooks, despite the winning coalition being defined by white, upwardly mobile women with multiple degrees.