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I suppose, CEO sympathizers may say that the CEO is entitled to more than an assembly line worker—but do you really think this type of polarization of wealth is fair, and if so, why shouldn’t the worker even make a living wage? To me “wage slave”—as the above example illustrates, is the rule and not the exception around much of the world, hence hardly a hyperbolic term. When I recently mentioned this labor situation in the Dominican Republic to a friend of mine he thought it was somewhat unfortunate, but sort of dismissed it as the natural order of things, and couldn’t figure out why I really cared so much? I was actually made to feel guilty, or to feel that I said something wrong by raising this point. Naturally, I was a bit perturbed by my friend’s indifference and automatic corporate allegiance, and replied in the words of Jack London, “well the blood is dripping from their (the corporations) rooftops,” which my friend viewed as a fanatical statement, even though I said it very coolly and matter of fact. Due to indoctrination in pro-capitalist ways of looking at almost any reality, it appears the prison of the mind is a cell many people would rather live in. I just hope that cell is padded, and furnished luxuriously, because it may be a long time before someone or something breaks us free. Speaking of and to fanatics The true fanaticism in this country is not emblematic of those opposing the unjust status quo, as the media would have us believe, but rather of those who support it, or even just as guilt remain complacent in light of it. Those who delude themselves into thinking that turning a blind eye, or making an excuse for exploitation, or iniquity of any kind, is a healthy human response to gross human injustice. I am sure we can assume that if the middle class rug were pulled out from my friend (as it slowly is) and their own ageing parents could not retire, hardly surviving on .70 cents an hour, that they just may at such time raise some timid objections, if not scream to high heaven, but the middle class buffer in America is still robust enough, although the cartilage between our bones is wearing away due to constant systemic weights, and as a result of this weathering, we are starting to hear some of the system’s rusting machinery making that metal on metal sound, with Charlie Chaplin still wedged in the gears of these “Modern Times”, which in reality, should have been history by now. It still seems that many among the general public would rather take it easy and just see what happens, while relying heavily on doses of beta-blockers to suppress the anxiety of the “daily grind”, while letting the wealthy of the planet, who obviously seem to be lacking basic scruples, decide for us, which path of doom is the shortest to take. Following this script, the collective weight of our plethora of sins may land on the shoulders of maybe our great grandchildren; by then we will be long gone, and they can’t curse at us directly. In response to those who share the attitudes of some of my cynical associates, Eugene Debs may have said, “Now my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under the old ethic that man’s business on this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man.” Certainly Debs reaction to injustice and inequality is the healthy human response, and certainly not one of a man who has been so jaded by luxury, popular consumerist culture, meaningless education, or crippled by apathy that he has cashed in his humanity for a false sense of security, and a feeling of Darwinian entitlement. Americans back in Debs’ day certainly did not beat around the bush when they had something to say. Today our political language, thanks chiefly to television, has become tamer, “polite,” and therefore sterile in conveying truth or passion. There is no real need for Nazi storm troopers (at least not yet) because most Americans do a pretty good job of policing themselves, right inside their brains. As Dr. Christian Parenti notes, we live in the “soft cage” or the prison of the self, so it seems that just maybe those SS troopers live inside of our minds, hearts and central nervous systems more so than they do behind the walls. The Capitalist process of exploitation is actually quite simple, and very rational from the perspective of the owner whose primary goal is to maximize profits above all else for him/herself, or investors. Of course not all owners are bad people, but as the saying goes “sentiments play little part in economics”, and often as a result, very hardworking honest people, who can barely make ends meet are hung out to dry, when profit margins shrink for employers, economic stability falters, and financial consultants and wizards are called in to start working their magic markers, to eliminate potential risks, liabilities (translation: labor cuts) or anything that could hamper a “lean and mean” production, or become insurance liabilities due to the fact we are the only nation with employer based health care—great fun for us! In capitalist society, at least for the so called “unskilled” workers (which is one of my least favorite terms) the more one ages in the work force, the less valuable a worker is to the owner due to the fact you are less productive, less quick on your feet, usually less malleable to change, often wise to their ways, or present other costs and “rigidities” recommending termination. To some the word termination or “fired” has come to sound too harsh, especially to those who felt the trauma of what being canned really feels like, so the elites have purposefully hand picked a new, and more congenial term for firing you, which is called being “let go” as if now, when one is thrown onto the streets, instead they are being carefully placed onto a bed of feathers. Many of these new euphemistic terms have been slowly introduced into our language, with the intent to downplay their actual impact on the individual, and those who rely on them. Obviously, wisdom, foresight, and prudence aren’t valued characteristics to an owner that wants to be rich as soon as possible, so those old bags are thrown out on the streets to blow about, almost always perfectly invisible to the media, where hopefully none of their “hot air” will leak out onto our sweet children, who in any case would most likely wait until their video game session was completed before calling 911—assuming you were unlucky enough to have a heart attack in front of our little honor roll angels. This inhumane fact, coupled with our peculiar “folkways,” could be one of the reasons the elderly are treated like a giant inconvenience in American capitalist society, because they no longer produce enough surplus value, and therefore our dominant institutions treat them as dead weight. Inevitably that very attitude, reinforced by the constant assault of advertising proclaiming that newer is better, seeps out of the factory, office, call center, service establishments, or retail store, all the workplaces, and into the homes, where it seamlessly invades the hearts and minds of the youth, who in this country treat the elderly with great disrespect. In Japanese culture the elderly were once treated with great respect, but movies like Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikiru” demonstrate that even in a more subtle urban capitalist culture, the elderly are also seen as nameless burdens. Can we ever name something “good” that came about in a rush, or should I spare us the Tortoise and the Hare parable? And it doesn’t stop there. Today, the capitalist system feeds off the disasters it creates. In the United States, the oil, energy, and computer technology industries are the most lucrative, but what’s quickly rising to prominence is the private prison system. The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of humanity, yet according to the Justice Policy Institute, which advocates a more lenient system of punishment, America has a higher rate of incarceration than any other country, followed by Britain, China, France, Japan and Nigeria. In 2004, one in every 138 U.S. residents was in prison or jail; the previous year it was one in every 140. Further, 61% of prison and jail inmates were of racial or ethnic minorities. An estimated 12.6% of all black men in their late 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.6% of Hispanic men and 1.7% of white men. Could racism, deeply rooted despair, misguided and ultra puritanical laws about drug use, and pervasive poverty, have something to do with these appalling statistics? Does anyone doubt that if almost 13% of all white young men were behind bars there would an explosion in this nation? These are indeed troubling questions that point toward many uncomfortable traits in American culture, but shouldn’t a system that never quite manages to eliminate poverty in the midst of grotesque riches have to answer some hard questions, too?
Copyright © OpEdNews, 2002-2008 |
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