(2PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
I have been thinking for some time now about the reasons the word “poor” is all but excluded from American political discourse. What I came realize is that this is a brilliantly calculated maneuver of peasant control. The same reason that the upper class in America, Republicans and Democrats, can so successfully fool people into voting against their interests is the same reason we never hear the words “working class”.
This is because it is beneficial to the upper class that everyone below them believe that they ALL are middle class.
Since the official burial of Marxism we aren’t supposed to use the term “class war” anymore. However, what the American elite seems to understand is that politics in this nation is ALL about class war. But, just as in the American tradition, this war is being waged on the lower classes not with bullets but with a silent, concentrated campaign of misinformation and division. I won’t try to bore you with the statistics for I am sure you all know how fucking backward the tax structure in this nation is. I just would like to explain how I believe this system is able to exist without nary a significant challenge. It is devilishly simple and, unfortunately, keeps coming back to that old Specter…Marxist Theory.
The greatest indicator of all this is the disappearance of “the poor” from EVERYTHING in America. They are not talked about because the elite want you to believe that there aren’t any poor in America…there are just middle and upper classes. If you are middle class you have something to loose. When you are poor you have nothing to loose. Why would you ever risk your car, job or chance at the dream for some silly pathetic revolutionary action? America loves the idea that ANYONE can become a billionaire and the narrative is that if you work hard enough and go to school America is the only nation that will reward you with a comfortable lifestyle. Maybe you will open up a chain of pizza restaurants and you can become like that asshole Papa John on TV who brings free pizza to MIDDLE CLASS homes. You all know that the more likely scenario is that your chain will be crushed by Papa John and you will end up cleaning his floors for 7.25 an hour. For every mild success story in America there are five hundred shattered dreams. The American elite has masterfully shackled the lower classes with rhetoric to that vision of a lifestyle that they have made you want for yourself.
I was told all my life that I am middle class. I have a Masters Degree, a car, a place to live, a cell phone and a bank account. Those things should make me at LEAST middle class right? Well for how many of you is the following scenario true? One minor catastrophe in your life is enough to crush your chance forever at doing okay in America? One illness, one accident, one arrest, one misfortune of any kind. If there are two incomes in your house and you lose ONE of them how fucked are you? If it would be catastrophic for your family congratulations…you are poor. I know I am. I went to the hospital for complications with my Lyme’s disease and it cost me 9,000 dollars. After getting my useless degrees this was most of my savings.
America doesn’t look after its citizens enough for those of us in this situation to adequately recover from the fucked up shit that happens in life. Why don’t more of us realize this? Because they believe they are middle class and should have enough to get by. The poor work in coal mines and live in the inner cities…They don’t live on your cul de sac. And even though you never hear about them you believe they exist because THERE JUST HAS TO BE SOMEBODY YOU ARE BETTER THAN.
It is the oldest political tool in the world…Compliment the poor into complacency with an impossible dream. Both parties do this. Republicans and Democrats stand shoulder to shoulder on fighting change to Americas tax system. They are successful in this because they never tell you that you are poor and that for many of us the American system isn’t working. That is the elites greatest fear….that the unwashed masses will discover that for many of them, this just isn’t going to work.
That is when real change will come. That is when people when making demands of their political leaders will start ending those demands with the phrase “or else”. Provide us with a decent government health care program…”or else”. Force these corporations to treat workers fairly…”or else”. Kick wall street the fuck out of our elections…”or else”. Do something about our sickening income inequality…”or fucking else”.
So I say that if you are poor do not shirk behind the label of “middle class”. When enough of us realize that the middle class is rapidly loosing all of the political power they had gained since 1900 something will have to be done. The one bright spot is that I believe that the elite in America seriously underestimate just how precarious this situation has become. They can’t perpetuate these lies for ever. They could if the status quo always remained as it is now. But things will get worse. And they more obvious the rape of the American lower classes becomes the harder the lies will be to hide.
I realized this week that I am poor. And you know what? It is kind of refreshing…
Marx was right about one thing for sure…Western capitalist societies will eventually eat themselves. Let’s make sure that when it starts to happen here that we are ready. We can begin by realizing that the American dream isn’t right for most of us…and that it is alright to be poor.
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Take your eyes off the real killer….
for being so damn lazy, of course, right? You knew that, right? 😉
you’ve got it. exactly!
you’ve put into words (& ver ver well may i say) what i’ve been thinking for some time & could not express.
Thank You!
(care to cross-post?)
what’s so maddening is how counterproductive this is. And it reaches into all facets of American life.
Want a job? Check your credit rating. If it’s low, too bad for you, bub — you’re fucked.
Just got out of prison? There’s no such thing as having paid your debt to society. Again, no one will hire you. Getting a second chance is almost laughably absurd — even the concept of it.
The wealthy and fearfully entitled of America have created and are enlarging by the day a vast underclass that gets larger every day. And who cares about consequences to themselves and others? We can have half of America living in tent cities as far as D.C. cares.
Whether someone with a place to live and a car and a cell phone are “poor” by some Congressman’s definition isn’t the issue — it’s that the concept of helping people help themselves has gone by the wayside. Your point that if you lose your job and your house, it’s almost impossible to recover is right on the money.
Author
This is bullshit because I have never before written an Essay for this site…
Thank you all…Thanks NPK…
But seriously…
organize…
The democratic party is first…
Before we go after the right……
I’ve used the phrase “or else” or its equivalent many times. Hasn’t worked. Problem is, I don’t have an “or else” to wield. Keep in mind, Marx said, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.”
To that effect, he didn’t just say it. He led the International (the first only gets labeled first when there’s a second). His forces were active in actual fighting movements.
Marxism only took power due to the organizing abilities of Lenin. Now it gets testy. Lenin was authoritarian, he was angry, he ruthlessly pilloried his critics. He created the Bolshevik Party.
Here’s part of why Marxism got buried. It was popular to the extent that it evoked that grandfatherly old whiskered guy who thought great things. But due to the legacy of Stalinism, those who would be Marxists have shied away from engaging the real issues of organization and power. They are tough issues. But if you shy away from them, you may as well look for the leadership of the likes of Chris Bowers.
I applaud your breaking the ice. Let’s continue.
Author
and he posted it on FDL…
Without permission I should say…
His permission will come as a swift kick to the ass…
It is alright though…I don’t mind.
So am I.
But also do want to point out we’re not in true poverty either.
I’ve seen real poverty. In Belize for instance I visited the family of a Garafuna dancer I met, that lived in a Quonset Hut of rusty corrugated metal in the rainy season. One of her younger sisters had polio (due to the vaccine). They invited us to the hut–it was just as wet in there as it was outside. Water inside was around 8-12″ deep. And it was dripping down the metal sides. They had laid some 2×8 planks on the floor, so you could kind of get around. It was heartbreaking.
Anyway, yes, we should call ourselves poor not middle class.
at the expense of other people in the world. You know the ones that shocked us – they burned the flag and rioted in the streets. How, how could they do that – said my 17 year old grey cells. Well, turn that # around – 71 – okay I get it but it took a long time.
With the dawn of the third way, neoliberalism – whatever – and globalization (or the elites’ version of globalization) – the ruling class sees they really don’t need us anymore, and they have joined hands with the elites of those countries who have already sucked the life out of their people. Oh, they may need the occasional plumber or carpenter, but really – they don’t need us. We are taking money and food from their grandchildren’s mouths (not to mention – cars, vacations, second, third homes, etc.) with our reliance on SS, Medicare. We are drones. So, we are getting the shaft like those rioters I watched on tv burning our flag.
So – isn’t it pathetic that we are slowly sinking into the oil muck of greed with a sad smile on our faces instead of a sense of resolve and purpose to take action. I can only assume that the manipulative history we learned in school of our total awesomeness here in the States was oh so successful.
Meanwhile, some senators got the picture and are filling their pockets, polishing their resumes to join that ruling class and live the good life. They disgust me –
Not only am I poor economically but poor in hope (ironic, no). I know the “leader” meme of history has lost its cache – but we do need a person of charismatic and intellect to emerge soon so we can win the struggle. We are losing big time.