Often I have noticed the thin veneer of service industry workers and blue collar workers. I have friends from all classes (except the 1%). And it dawned on me this very day, as a writer, poet, self-proclaimed money-hater, that what is, perhaps, behind this thin veneer of smiling bank tellers, smiling coffeehouse workers and movers, is essentially a modern dilemma.
What I mean by this, is that years ago, we were an agrarian/industrial nation (America), and that the Protestant and Self-Reliant (Emerson, of course) ethics were not questioned. But we live in a very modern climate where the weather is very rough and unsteady. We no longer are the superpower we were after WWII. We no longer build things ourselves, but are outsourcing the "builders" or workers that our very products we wear, eat, sleep on, and most everything depend on.
So, what do we have, technology, service, health care, and education. While these are our staple "goods," they do not have roots like wheat or iron like a hammer. They are dressed up service industrial models, and if you develop websites or nurse a patient or tutor a student, you probably will find that it is not unlike a business transaction, in which service is employed.
Class divisions fascinate me, because, in a lot of ways, people reveal themselves through their class, and this got the ball rolling and the guitar riffing for the ideas that are to follow. They relate with above in the sense that America has not only hit a global crisis, but it has hit a psychological one as well.
Example:
I was having a cig today outside a mall, when a man carrying a board--to build more onto the mall--said "excuse me, sir." And it answered all my class-system understandings. For my readers, I can't help but let you know that I grew up in an upper-middle class family, in a rather poor town. I even dressed down when I could to hide this fact, but you can't hide class. It's just there: in the language even.
Why did this dawn on me? Here we have someone who probably did not love his job, but loved the FACT he had work and made money so he could do whatever he was going to do the rest of the week. I grew up in a generation that felt (I believe it was my generation) that we could be astronauts, Presidents, Indian Chiefs, whatever we wanted to be, so long as we loved what we were doing. And perhaps, 50 or 20 years ago, this was just dandy. Now, no longer. Now, we live in a crisis, not only of the sort that is global in scope, but personal as well.
In the maturation process, we find out that survival is first, then goals can be achieved. But when I look around, what I see is a psychological dimension that is very unlike the kind I was raised to believe. This psychological model is not entrepreneurial, it is not start-up. If you want to start something, you have to use your imagination, but the imagination is a pipe dream to the realist.
Survival is the bread. Now, there is no butter for the bread.
The economic crisis, beyond my scope of understanding I know, has all but resigned people to their class and to Loving the Fact they have a job and can make ends meet. This is very much like the Great Depression, as I see it. Times are so bad, in a way, that, the spirit of liberty and pursuit of happiness are no longer pursued but a backdrop on which we stand. On which we hope the day will not come where we are on the street with our family.
Perhaps, these are my realizations in the maturation process, perhaps these are ordinary "you gotta do what you gotta do" type of "It is what it is," but it is very sad. And the drudgery I have seen now makes more sense. Because in the back of that pizza kitchen, the pizza kid is smoking a joint. Because after the photographer puts down her camera she gets lost at the theater. Because, at the end of the day, the drunk and addict fend for change, just to escape a very real phenomenon; that is, the loss of stability and security in not only their lives, but the organizations around them.
Just about every corporate scheme and tiny organization can be bought and sold, jobs being on the line every second. So that the corporate or worker monkey can keep the banana on his nose for the boss who has a banana on his nose, and so on. The thin line between something staying together and falling apart is a simple as time and damage.
We are all on "thin ice." And who knows what the leaders will do and say, who can statistically model the answer? I don't know. But the ethical model is no longer the same. Dreams come from the pipe. And the real story is the fact that fear drives us all to flip that burger, fire that person, sell our souls every fucking day--and anyone who doesn't sell out has enough money to wiggle around the world. Even though they don't know, they are still slaves to the fascist system, stemming from this corruption known as currency, I say. That may sound belligerent and unschooled, but from top to bottom and bottom to top. it is always a smiling green president staring you in the eyes. And we may ask ourselves, who really has any life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
What I mean by this, is that years ago, we were an agrarian/industrial nation (America), and that the Protestant and Self-Reliant (Emerson, of course) ethics were not questioned. But we live in a very modern climate where the weather is very rough and unsteady. We no longer are the superpower we were after WWII. We no longer build things ourselves, but are outsourcing the "builders" or workers that our very products we wear, eat, sleep on, and most everything depend on.
So, what do we have, technology, service, health care, and education. While these are our staple "goods," they do not have roots like wheat or iron like a hammer. They are dressed up service industrial models, and if you develop websites or nurse a patient or tutor a student, you probably will find that it is not unlike a business transaction, in which service is employed.
Class divisions fascinate me, because, in a lot of ways, people reveal themselves through their class, and this got the ball rolling and the guitar riffing for the ideas that are to follow. They relate with above in the sense that America has not only hit a global crisis, but it has hit a psychological one as well.
Example:
I was having a cig today outside a mall, when a man carrying a board--to build more onto the mall--said "excuse me, sir." And it answered all my class-system understandings. For my readers, I can't help but let you know that I grew up in an upper-middle class family, in a rather poor town. I even dressed down when I could to hide this fact, but you can't hide class. It's just there: in the language even.
Why did this dawn on me? Here we have someone who probably did not love his job, but loved the FACT he had work and made money so he could do whatever he was going to do the rest of the week. I grew up in a generation that felt (I believe it was my generation) that we could be astronauts, Presidents, Indian Chiefs, whatever we wanted to be, so long as we loved what we were doing. And perhaps, 50 or 20 years ago, this was just dandy. Now, no longer. Now, we live in a crisis, not only of the sort that is global in scope, but personal as well.
In the maturation process, we find out that survival is first, then goals can be achieved. But when I look around, what I see is a psychological dimension that is very unlike the kind I was raised to believe. This psychological model is not entrepreneurial, it is not start-up. If you want to start something, you have to use your imagination, but the imagination is a pipe dream to the realist.
Survival is the bread. Now, there is no butter for the bread.
The economic crisis, beyond my scope of understanding I know, has all but resigned people to their class and to Loving the Fact they have a job and can make ends meet. This is very much like the Great Depression, as I see it. Times are so bad, in a way, that, the spirit of liberty and pursuit of happiness are no longer pursued but a backdrop on which we stand. On which we hope the day will not come where we are on the street with our family.
Perhaps, these are my realizations in the maturation process, perhaps these are ordinary "you gotta do what you gotta do" type of "It is what it is," but it is very sad. And the drudgery I have seen now makes more sense. Because in the back of that pizza kitchen, the pizza kid is smoking a joint. Because after the photographer puts down her camera she gets lost at the theater. Because, at the end of the day, the drunk and addict fend for change, just to escape a very real phenomenon; that is, the loss of stability and security in not only their lives, but the organizations around them.
Just about every corporate scheme and tiny organization can be bought and sold, jobs being on the line every second. So that the corporate or worker monkey can keep the banana on his nose for the boss who has a banana on his nose, and so on. The thin line between something staying together and falling apart is a simple as time and damage.
We are all on "thin ice." And who knows what the leaders will do and say, who can statistically model the answer? I don't know. But the ethical model is no longer the same. Dreams come from the pipe. And the real story is the fact that fear drives us all to flip that burger, fire that person, sell our souls every fucking day--and anyone who doesn't sell out has enough money to wiggle around the world. Even though they don't know, they are still slaves to the fascist system, stemming from this corruption known as currency, I say. That may sound belligerent and unschooled, but from top to bottom and bottom to top. it is always a smiling green president staring you in the eyes. And we may ask ourselves, who really has any life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
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