First Turning "purge"

[pbrower2a]

(08-17-2020, 09:36 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(08-16-2020, 01:46 PM)RadianMay Wrote: There is an interesting article on the New York times commenting about how the current intense focus on racial issues may be a distraction for what Aldoph Reed argues as the more important issue of economic class and opportunity in America.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/us/ad...sContainer

I largely agree with what he believes in, and what has been written before here, that a lot of the racial problems we're experiencing can be explained by the economic stratification of society at this time, with Black Americans getting the short end of the stick. I think the most important thing, for me, in this article was the comment that the experience a person has is more closely tied to their economic situation now more than ever. A poor white man and a poor black man has largely the same experience compared to a poor black man and a rich black man, for example.

Of course, there are still many other non-institutional issues with racism, such as the very real problem of discrimination, which have to be tackled separately, but I think the point that race and identity politics cannot and shouldn't be applied to everything is very important. All the large companies donating millions to BLM causes masks the real exploitation and damage to our society these companies are doing. The executives can boast about how much "good" they've done to society with a clean conscience, while the public just buys all these donations as "progress", but in reality the root of the problem is unsolved.

The class argument has been made, rejected, made again and rejected again.  It's no less true, just hard to sustain.  As soon as the argument becomes one of rich and powerful v. the rest of us, the rich and powerful circle their luxury wagons, hire whatever legal, propaganda and muscle support they need, and squash the argument (and the arguers) cold. The best that occurs, and it's rare, is a retrenchment -- think both Roosevelts as prime movers.  But ultimately, the system is not outlawed, so it reemerges, just like the weeds in your lawn.

In more wholesome times, class is better defined by one's desires than by how much one has. Thus someone who prefers a sailboat to a motorcycle probably has a higher social class than the person who cherishes a motorcycle.  

Reflecting such a time is  book called Class by the late Paul Fussell, who split America (other than some Bohemian types who seem to have come to recognize that class identity is a sham) in which he sees nine distinct classes in America:

1. Upper out-of-sight. Old money involving very old inheritance, typically from the early-industrial era. Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Harriman. Of course, any surviving planter families of the Old South, as inheritance from the slave era. This class generally avoids publicity.

2. Upper. Newer, big money. More recent inheritance, perhaps from someone not living. Descendants of Sam Walton (even if it was from prole Wal-Mart) are in this category now. 

3. Upper Middle. This class really is rich, but it is still working to get rich. It may rely on a highly-successful business such as real estate or be at the professional apex as a physician, architect, college professor, or attorney. 

4. Middle. This is the class of lower-level professionals such as salesmen, engineers, accountants, dentists, teachers, clergy, and school administrators, and geologists. It thinks that it is getting ahead, but really isn't. Such people often have very rigid thought. Most have graduated from unimpressive colleges.

======== THERE IS NO REMAINING LOWER-MIDDLE CLASS ========

...and really there has not been one since about World War II. Having a solid eighth-grade education was once a valid means of doing better than blue-collar workers once invariably poor. As a clerk one was somehow 'better' than people who did labor. That is over. Clerical work pays badly, and it is now largely machine-paced as if it were assembly-line work. Most clerical workers are women whose class identity comes from their husbands  .

5. High prole. This is generally skilled labor, perhaps operators of very sophisticated equipment such as locomotives, aircraft, boats, and cranes or earth-moving equipment. Also included are contractors, blue-collar supervisors, cops, fire-fighters, and nurses. The craftsmen are here above all else. These people live well, often rivaling even the upper-middle class. But the distinction is not so much how much they earn as how they spend what they earn. This class buys the RV's, something that the upper-middle class would not go near. Its cultural tastes are generally hard to distinguish from those of 'laborers' with which they don't want to be confused. Only rarely are their kids "college material".  

6. Mid-prole. There are the semi-skilled machine operators and (when Fussell wrote his book) the largest class in America. It heavily works the assembly lines and drives the vehicles (as cabbies, truck drivers, or  bus drivers). The store cashier (one of the largest occupations) is mid-prole because of running a cash register or whatever it is now called. They commonly hate their work as 'too small for their spirits', in part because it is repetitive and under rigid, oppressive supervision. The clock (for a vehicle driver) or a machine paces their work and takes away their discretion. 

7. Low prole. Unskilled workers such as warehouse workers, cleaners, pickers, packers, and servants. They are badly paid and  face frequent lay-offs. But they do legitimate and necessary work. Their lives are unenviable to any class above them. But contrasted to what lies below them in the pecking order even they can be envied.

8. Destitute.  People who survive on welfare, disability income, charity, meager retirements, or suspect sources of income such as crime. They are often grossly ignorant and superstitious, which marks 'successful' gangsters.  They somehow avoid getting caught if they deal drugs or do prostitution.

9. Bottom out-of-sight. People incarcerated or institutionalized due to criminality, extreme incapacity, or senility. 

.....

Money seems to matter little, but vocational classification matters greatly. Education matters greatly, and so do consumer tastes. Sailboat (high) or motorcycle (low) even if the two items are similar in cost. Foreign travel is high, but driving about in an RV isn't. Culture does... so believing in lucky numbers isn't impressive. Relying heavily on television for entertainment is of course very prole.