Existential Ennui

~ Searching for Meaning Amid the Chaos

Existential Ennui

Daily Archives: September 7, 2009

Laboring Through My Confusion

07 Monday Sep 2009

Posted by Sherry in Abortion, Barack Obama, Bible, Democrats, Economy, fundamentalism, Gay Rights, GOP, Health care, Jesus, poverty, Psychology, racism, religion, social concerns, Sociology

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Democrats, fundamentalists, GOP, labor, Labor day, poverty, racism, right wing, social issues, unions

DiegoRiveraToday is Labor Day, and most Americans are busy doing the last hurrah of summer. Whether at the beach, the lake, the baseball stadium, or in the back yard, folks are cooking the brats and ribs and burgers, trying to pretend that the inglorious summer is not at an end.

That is how most people respond to Labor Day. It was once a day to celebrate labor and the working man, woman and child. It was an extra day of rest for the laborers who with sweat and muscle, make America go. It was in some sense a recognition that the little guy mattered.

Like most of our national holidays, it is seldom remembered as it was envisioned. It has become but other occasion to make potato salad, buy an extra few six packs, and loll around the back yard “enjoying” the day. It has always been, in reality, a day when women cooked more than usual, kids went wild to the near insanity of parents, and dad tried to snooze undisturbed by any need to mow or weed whack. Men and kids always get the better end of the deal.

In truth, I don’t recall as a child finding it any different than it is today. I grew up in a working class neighborhood, in GM town, otherwise known as Flint, Michigan. Most all our parents were factory workers or at least workers in service industries to GM. They were union folk. They were Democrats.

If my father was true to his classification, most didn’t think of themselves ironically as working class. We were taught that America was a classless society, and we believed it, no matter how untrue that was. We knew that in general, USA excepted, there were the rich, the middle class, and the working class. Below that were the poor. 

The poor were a foggy group of misfits. Mentally and physically disabled, the drunks, those raised by unfit people who were never properly educated or socialized. The lazy, all those who were just “different” and unable to cope. The homeless, and all who through some unknown, unnamed catastrophic occurrence  found themselves down and out, riding the rails, not able to hold down a “steady” job.

The poor were so far out of sight, that being working class was not acceptable. After all, the economic elites had historically insulated themselves from criticism by making sure that we all got that concept of “work ethic” somehow attached to the Protestants. They shamelessly appropriated Darwin’s “survival of the fittest.” Together, both concepts diverted attention away from their excessive greed and self-designed right to live in extreme largess while huge portions of the world suffered terribly from want.

The average working class person had it drummed into their head that if they were not where they wanted to be, they had no one to blame but themselves. They hadn’t worked hard enough or frankly, they were not smart enough. Add racism to the mix, and the working class began to feel downright middle class, though they were never that.

Nothing has changed much. Racism has, if anything, enlarged. It’s almost okay to blame blacks again, since its so easy to mask it by hatred of that commie Obama. But there are others now. Latinos are fine targets with their immigrating ways. Muslims are even better, with their actively violent ultra right wing.

The economic elites have continued to be successful in turning inward the natural economic desires of the workers. It’s still all their own fault. The elites still have a right to own six homes and gild everything they own with gold just cuz it looks nice. Anyone who tells the worker differently is nothing but a low down scummy intellectual elite, which is just code for liberal Democrat.

Somehow they manage this while all the time going to those same elite schools and getting that same elite education. But they don’t use their education for the betterment of mankind, no they use it in the good old American way–to feather their own nests with excess. They sleep at night just fine, thank you very much, because they actually have bought their own rhetoric.

And the workers cling to God (but only their fundamentalist version) and don’t see that their version of racist/social conservatism is diametrically apposed to everything Jesus taught and died for. They are appalled when you suggest it. They can point out the verses you know, the ones they like a lot, that tell them that they are doing right to question the right of the so-called poor to be helped. They can find that in the bible, that there are poor and then there are lazy, and the lazy can get a job. God wants people to be prosperous, so if I got mine, I worked for it, like I’m supposed to, and you should work for yours. Cuz I found this verse in Timothy, or in Proverbs. I forgot the ones in Galatians and the ones in Isaiah, and the ones in, oh you get the idea.

And the workers are no longer Democrats so much any more. Their fundamentalist visions have been co-opted by Republicans who dangle the bait of abortion reform, stopping the perversion of gay rights, and all those other sexual things, and they now vote against their economic interests. They do this quite happily. They are right you see. Obama is the anti-Christ. He is not a Christian. He is not patriotic. He is not a citizen. He is a dirty, low down, Democrat, socialist, fascist, communist, baby killing, Muslim. He must be because they are white and they are right, and something has gone very wrong in Smallville USA.

They don’t see any of this of course. They munch the hotdogs and pop a top, and grin as the kids run through sprinklers, and wives yell out the back door, “is the charcoal ready yet?” It’s Labor Day. Oh it’s good to be middle class.

Bookmark and Share

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Who We Are

Thinking non-stop since April 15, 1950. We search for meaning amid the chaos.

Giggles

Laugh as Long as You Can

Subscribe

Subscribe in a reader

Donations Joyfully Accepted

Calendar

September 2009
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  
« Aug   Oct »

Follow Me!

Follow afeatheradrift on Twitter

Facebook

Sherry Peyton
Sherry Peyton
Create Your Badge

Words of Wisdom

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die. ~~Sen. Edward M. Kennedy~~

Recent Posts

  • We moved to Blogger
  • Moving to Blogger
  • Christianist Doublespeak
  • Next Week I’m Gonna Start Biting People
  • Time to Report for Retirement
  • The Best Little Whorehouse in Boulder? Or How I Loved to Learn Republicanese Gangsta Style
  • The Power of the Post
  • The Exceptionalism of the United States of America
  • Can We Stop With the Illegals Shit?
  • I Laughed, I Cried, I Spat Epithets, I Chewed the Rug
  • *Temporarily Asphyxiated With Stupid
  • Are You Having Trouble Hearing? Or is That Gum in Your Ear?
  • Collecting Dust Bunnies Among the Stars
  • Millennial Falcon Returning From Hyperbole
  • Opening a Box of Spiders

A Second Blog

  • Extraordinary Words
  • What's on the Stove?

History Sources

  • Encyclopedia Romana

The Subjects of My Interest

Drop the I Word

We Support OWS

Archives

The Hobo Jesus

Jesushobo With much thanks to Tim
Site Meter

Integrity

Twitter Updates

Tweets by afeatheradrift

World Visitors

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Existential Ennui
    • Join 2,453 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Existential Ennui
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: