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We are white mice participating in a great historical experiment.
The idea of completely untrammeled, frictionless capitalism has only
been a theoretical construct till now, but we are almost there today.
There are basically two -- untried -- theories of how this would play out.
On one hand the free market liberals believe that, if not interfered
with, the markets will bring mankind an endless cornucopia of good things
that will lift all boats.
On the other hand Marx believed that left to its own devices, the system would tear itself apart.
Us white mice have front row seats at this experiment, rather like crab lice at the birth of Jesus.
All over the world and increasingly in developed countries like the USA, this metastasizing process of anarcho-capitalism that I call "stateless-imperialism" is producing a hardening mass of misery, which in America is known as the "working poor": an intractable class of unemployed, or underemployed human beings, or if they have work (often needing several jobs to get by) they are invariably overworked, over exploited, always underpaid, socially excluded and in general, politically inert. These are America's untermenschen, living in what is said to be the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world. A place which fills its mouth with phrases like, "all men are created equal" and washes it down with the greatest levels of inequality on the planet... even greater than in India.
Once again Indian metaphors arise, and this is because the Indians have been working on codifying this social stratification for thousands of years. So looking at their caste system will give us a clearer idea of where we are headed.
On the other hand Marx believed that left to its own devices, the system would tear itself apart.
Us white mice have front row seats at this experiment, rather like crab lice at the birth of Jesus.
All over the world and increasingly in developed countries like the USA, this metastasizing process of anarcho-capitalism that I call "stateless-imperialism" is producing a hardening mass of misery, which in America is known as the "working poor": an intractable class of unemployed, or underemployed human beings, or if they have work (often needing several jobs to get by) they are invariably overworked, over exploited, always underpaid, socially excluded and in general, politically inert. These are America's untermenschen, living in what is said to be the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world. A place which fills its mouth with phrases like, "all men are created equal" and washes it down with the greatest levels of inequality on the planet... even greater than in India.
Once again Indian metaphors arise, and this is because the Indians have been working on codifying this social stratification for thousands of years. So looking at their caste system will give us a clearer idea of where we are headed.
Everybody has heard of "untouchables", but many people that are
unfamiliar with the workings of India's ancient caste system are
probably unaware that there are categories way below the untouchables called the
"unapproachables" and the "un-seeables". That is to say human beings you cannot
share open space with and other human beings you cannot even lay eyes upon without being polluted.These last two categories are most applicable to today's gated-community, America.
"We've got the message. But my college kid, the babysitters, the nails ladies -- everybody who's got the right to vote -- they don't understand what's going on. I just feel like if you're lower income -- one, you're not as educated, two, they don't get how it works." guest at a Romney Hamptons fundraiser (hat doonesbury)
And paradoxically, America's affluent usually choose members of this underclass to
take care of their children and cook their food. However, except for
that strange intimacy, the wealthy have put as much mental and physical space as they can between themselves and this mass of suffering humanity, denying them even a decent education and healthcare...
This in the richest and most powerful country in the history of the
world. No high caste Indian could be colder or crueler then then
America's wealthy, not even get close. India is our future, nearly our present, not some exotic oddity.
Martin Luther King, America's most successful social activist's greatest influence was Mahatma Gandhi, so, not so indirectly, Gandhi may be one of America's most influential thinkers
King took as his model Gandhi's tactics and more importantly, perhaps, Gandhi's seamless infusion of political activism with a spirituality that allowed King to connect on a deeply emotional plane with Americans of all colors and creeds just as Gandhi did with Indians.
Today, in great part thanks to Martin Luther King, America's "untouchables" are no longer so rigorously color coded, however these days, many who once sat comfortably at America's groaning table now have become familiar with the humiliation of un-aproachibility and invisibility, to add to their precarious hardscrabble existence without adequate healthcare or education.
In many ways Dr. King was more successful than Gandhi, that an African-American sits in the Oval Office today is the living proof of his success.
Today what is missing from the left is the emotional energy that came from MLK's Gandhian infusing of activism with spirituality.
In his 2008 campaign Barack Obama showed that Americans are still moved by the beauty of our English language when it invokes social justice... That there was little practical follow up to the "soaring rhetoric" in no way invalidates the revelation that many Americans are hungry for another social leader like Martin Luther King. For me that is the challenge that faces the American left in defending what should be its natural constituency, America's working poor. DS
5 comments:
Then We, the people should be ACTING to draft And EFFECT an American "Declaration Of Inter-dependence" among US 99% in order to depose the DESPOTUS' 1%.
OWSt.!
A few years ago you were shopping Huckabee as such a man with a spiritual bent, though he strikes me as simply a huckster. He has his own show on Fox but is not mentioned in even idle commentary, while Glen Beck, too toxic for Fox to keep around, reigns on internet TV. Spirituality in America is now full-throated, paranoid delusion. Yesterday I drove by a local Catholic church whose marquee out front (an interesting concept in itself) exhorted passersby to "pray and work for religious freedom", something no christian in this country has to waste one nanosecond worrying about. What the exhortation is really about is the diversion of public funds from public schooling to benefit private religious schools. To paraphrase Marlon Brando's character in "A Dry White Season", spirituality and social justice in this country are distant cousins no longer on speaking terms. Faith is about belonging; surrounding oneself with like-minded individuals to better cope with threats from those outside the belief system--love your brother as long as he shares your beliefs, sexual preferences or other tribal touchstones.
The soaring rhetoric needs an airport so its ideas can deplane and get to work. For the time being, I don't see how current America's rather demented take on spirituality will supply the person with the torch to lead the plane to its gate. As you say, this isn't the Sixties.
One of the things that impressed me about Huckabee was that he used no code words for racism and I don't think he has a racist bone in his body... It seems that, like Jimmy Carter, his faith leads him to behave in a "Christian" manner. Also he is in favor of treating drug addicts as a health, not a criminal problem, which is also not racist, black people like him and voted for him in Arkansas. To top it off the "Club for Growth" hates him. In short, my question is why is this man a Republican?
It's interesting that you should mention Carter. There was a bit in the news today about the eradication of guinea worm disease as a result of the effort spearheaded by The Carter Center. This, of course, will be sneered at, but Carter does seem to be the only high profile Christian acting on his beliefs for all people, with an emphasis on the neediest. Huckabee's focus seems narrower, with an emphasis on the right-to-life crowd; a standard social conservative Christian now selling a video series, "Learn Our History", targeting a young audience that he feels gets only a "blame America first" bias from government education and the liberal media. He hosts trips to Israel pushing the born-again emphasis on this important ally. Obamacare is socialized medicine, taxes are evil; an eye-glazing stream of one-dimensional political thinking. He may not be a racist, but he is no Carter, who has never worn his faith on his sleeve when helping others. The working poor do not yet seem to realize who profits from their misery and hardship. This new Jim Crow may well last a very long time while the untermenschen waste their energy on abortion, voter fraud, thieving immigrants and barbarous Muslims. Spirituality in America today is at the service of those who see no wrong with the American way of life, only with the socialist Obama from whom they need to take the country back.
My interest in Huckabee centered around the nuances he was bringing to the debate.
Carter on the other hand is "a man in full".
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