FEAR AND LOATHING IN WORKING CLASS AMERICA - MAKING BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW
by David Fierst
“You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”
Exodus 5:7-8
How else to describe the new (2001) administration’s legislative agenda - elimination of the inheritance tax, revision of the bankruptcy laws, the repeal of safety regulations in the workplace, easing of restriction on monopoly, etc. - except as an act of class warfare? Not the aggression that Karl Marx and maybe Ralph Nader had in mind, not the angry poor sacking the mansions of the rich, but the aggrieved rich burning down the huts of the presumptuous and troublemaking poor.
Lewis Lapham
Harper’s (2001)
“F_ _ K the Doomed”
Richard Nixon character
as portrayed in the movie
“ Where the Buffalo Roam”
The corporate owned and so-called Religious Right inspired news media is perpetually eager to portray George W. Bush as a modern day Moses. Ever vigilant, the members of the Fourth Estate excite the citizens of Red States with reports of W’s grand plans to vanquish gay people and Social Security moochers living in the godless Blue States. Yet, for my money, W’s genetic predisposition to always side with the rich and powerful makes him a more likely candidate for the role of Pharaoh. Not the thoughtful, ponderous Yul Brenner Pharaoh of the 10 Commandments, but the paranoid Comidus of Gladiator. A brief survey of the Bush Administrations’s policies on wealth distribution, corporate welfare, and the spread of “freedom” reveals this to be the case.
Interestingly, in all the hoopla surrounding Jessica Lynch of Iraq war fame, the main point of this fine young woman’s story gets lost - namely - she joined the Army because she couldn’t even get a job at Wal-Mart*. Largely due to globalization, the richest 13,000 families in the United States now own as much as the poorest 20 million, which certainly includes families like the Lynch family**. Pharaoh Bush’s standard response to such statistics is to prattle on about the importance of an ownership society and “free” markets. It’s certainly an interesting perspective for a man whose father spent most of his adult life in public service and whose own personal fortune resulted directly from government action in taking over private property and turning it into the Texas Ranger’s baseball stadium. Somehow, it’s a free market out there unless government action can be used to further concentrate wealth at the top.
Likewise, the recent battle between Wal-Mart and a handful of California legislators illustrates the existing schizophrenia on the topic of “welfare reform”. To be fair, “welfare reform” existed prior to Pharaoh Bush entering office. Yet, in all Bush’s blathering about free markets, there is no mention, for example, of Wal-Mart employees in California being encouraged by the company’s management to apply for public assistance, including Medi-Cal, which is California’s healthcare assistance program.*** Wal-Mart, of course, supports a boatload of right-wing politicians who - you guessed it - support dismantling the welfare state, but don’t mind having the public help them enrich their already rich friends. I often wonder if I am the only one who finds such hypocrisy so brazenly breath-taking.
Not content to turn only the working class citizens of the United States into members of a 3d world society, it’s certainly natural for Pharaoh Bush to turn his attention to the Middle East. We now hear the superlatives being heaped on young Bush for the success of the Iraq elections and the spread of “freedom” in those far-off lands. Yet, I wonder whose brand of freedom we are so intent on spreading? With Bush at the helm, it’s not hard to imagine. If you want a vision of how Pharaoh Bush’s world would look like, read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Finally, since my hero Hunter S. Thompson recently took his own life, it is appropriate to reflect on the story of some of his adventures as depicted in the movie Where the Buffalo Roam. In the defining scene of this film, Hunter, played by Bill Murray in his first starring role, confronts the Nixon character in the men’s room of an airport. When Hunter asks Nixon “What about the young, the silly, the doomed?” Nixon replies, “F_ _ k the doomed.” If Pharaoh Bush was asked the same question, would his answer be any different?
* Sore Winners, by
John Powers, 2004, Random House, New York, pg. 138
** Ibid,
Pg. 148
*** “Down and Out in Discount America”
The Nation, Liza Featherston, January 3, 2005
