Yep, a stroll though any major city will reveal the fact that there are more and more of us who don’t own anything except the knapp sack and/or the cardboard box which is so obvious to those of us with eyes to see. Also, the idea that we are all Mexicans now reminds me of an old tenet I remember hearing years ago: “you are what you DO” (as in for a living, i.e. attorney, writer, teacher, cop, etc. But the truth of the matter is that when what you DO is something that you used to DO it can be a very devastating event whether one is Mexican, Black, White, or whatever. But let’s be real here: this phenomena is really not all that new to those of us in the “lower” classes. My dad was consistently laidoff from his low-paying factory job in Detoit back in the 50’s and 60’s—-for 5 years at a time—and regularly. We were ALWAYS poor; as kids, we just didn’t know we were poor because we had something on the table most nights for dinner. This recession, however, is the very first time in my memory where so many folks of all classes and stripes (especially white folks) have been so economically fucked over for such a long period of time, and there’s a very long time to go before it’ll get any better (whether or not Obama is president). There’s no joy in Mudville!
So “ownership” turned out to be an illusion in the end, didn’t it?
Really we were just allowed to be in debt. Our trappings trapped us.
Discussions of class are too close to the bone and as Joe wrote, only serve to reveal who is fucking whom and how hard and how often — such discussions won’t be allowed.
Because after all, some day I might be rich and I don’t want to regret saying something that might keep me from getting richer or offend those who might help me get richer.
Yep, a stroll though any major city will reveal the fact that there are more and more of us who don’t own anything except the knapp sack and/or the cardboard box which is so obvious to those of us with eyes to see. Also, the idea that we are all Mexicans now reminds me of an old tenet I remember hearing years ago: “you are what you DO” (as in for a living, i.e. attorney, writer, teacher, cop, etc. But the truth of the matter is that when what you DO is something that you used to DO it can be a very devastating event whether one is Mexican, Black, White, or whatever. But let’s be real here: this phenomena is really not all that new to those of us in the “lower” classes. My dad was consistently laidoff from his low-paying factory job in Detoit back in the 50’s and 60’s—-for 5 years at a time—and regularly. We were ALWAYS poor; as kids, we just didn’t know we were poor because we had something on the table most nights for dinner. This recession, however, is the very first time in my memory where so many folks of all classes and stripes (especially white folks) have been so economically fucked over for such a long period of time, and there’s a very long time to go before it’ll get any better (whether or not Obama is president). There’s no joy in Mudville!
So “ownership” turned out to be an illusion in the end, didn’t it?
Really we were just allowed to be in debt. Our trappings trapped us.
Discussions of class are too close to the bone and as Joe wrote, only serve to reveal who is fucking whom and how hard and how often — such discussions won’t be allowed.
Because after all, some day I might be rich and I don’t want to regret saying something that might keep me from getting richer or offend those who might help me get richer.