Keeping the lower classes fighting each other...

[Ardent15]

Ever notice how "enlightened liberals" are fighting "religious conservatives", and vice versa? It seems like we can never get a breather in in a battle which religious people are pitted against non-religious people, illegal immigrants are pitted against citizens, gangs of different races are pitted against each other...take your pick. Oh, and Democrats and Republicans are enemies, too. Can't forget that.

I believe the "GOP Southern strategy" was not just about race. It was also about religion, and the North-South divide, and ESPECIALLY about class. The ruling class was using the divide-and-conquer strategy: divide working and middle class people by race, region, religion, etc. and pit liberals against religious conservatives, who are especially powerful in the South.

While we were busy taking the bait on wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage and school prayer, the ruling class would keep going to the bank, deregulate business, instate "free trade", and destroy social welfare.

And it worked like a charm. The ruling class, of course, doesn't want social justice of any kind; not because they are religious or especially bigoted, but because social justice would EMPOWER the working people, and God forbid they feel empowered.

We should, of course, ALL be allied against the ruling class. But instead, we have debates about "personal beliefs", and Teabaggers, and Rush Limbaugh.

Let me ask you this: what good will getting your way about one personal belief, one wedge issue, in the short term, do when the existing power structure that leads to the conditions you personally oppose, is still intact?

Once we have power economically, social justice will be easier. The majority of working people and poor people are minorities of one sort, or the other. Once they are empowered, we will get social justice.

It is about power, and social control, and economic control for the ruling class-that's why homosexuals, racial minorities, illegal immigrants, women, the poor, etc. are disenfranchised. They are the ones who are the victims of this social experiment that the ruling class loves to play. And when there are victims and witnesses, there is EVIDENCE of a crime. No evidence allowed.

However, we can change things. We are the majority, and we can cut off the life support for the ruling minority. But it will take all of us. We must put aside minor personal differences (in the big picture) and help each other to undermine the system of control and fear and dominance and brutal competition.

That's my little rant for now. :)

[laughingliberal]

1. Big K & R. eom

[Ardent15]

2. Thanks. nt

[glitch]

3. K & R, stay ardent. nt

[MrMickeysMom]

4. Your rant is well received...

A big K&R, but also, this reminds me of the repeating story in the book I finally finished (A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn). The sway of economic power and the way one ethnic or social group is pitted against another is a repeating theme, all meant to squeeze the middle class from its proper evolution.

This seems to play over and over again and I'm so aware of it as I've never been before.

I think the excuse that one is not formally educated can no longer be the barrier. Anyone who reads can walk into a public library.

That was a good comment.

[Ardent15]

5. Thanks. Zinn was a big inspiration here.

He helped me see things a lot clearer. :)

[Starry Messenger]

6. k & r

[wildbilln864]

7. k&r! thank you! nt

:hi:

[Angry Dragon]

8. K&R

[William Z. Foster]

9. excellent rant

Thanks.

Important idea here:

"Once we have power economically, social justice will be easier. The majority of working people and poor people are minorities of one sort, or the other. Once they are empowered, we will get social justice."

For some reason, that statement will create no controversy, providing it is not then applied to any specific situations where it might conflict with or threaten to overshadow partisan political concerns. But taken in isolation, and supported by the writings of an unassailable liberal icon, it is safely encapsulated and embalmed so that it has no impact and no one will object to it. We are permitted to think these thoughts and have certain feelings about them, but we are not to go any farther than that.

[Ardent15]

13. Yep.

When you apply it to any situation, all of a sudden, people become hostile, trying to shut down discussion.

Good point.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

10. Well said. K&R

:kick:

[bettyellen]

11. the Brits called it "keeping Croppy down" when thy'd fuck over irish peasants

[bobbolink]

12. I couldn't agree more. That is why it hurts so much to see the bickering.

We do nothing but play into their game and let them divide us.

:(

[LooseWilly]

14. Cheers...

A fine rant.

[amborin]

15. biggest kabuki wedge issue: dichotomous thinking: dems versus rethugs: keeps ruling elite in power

[rhett o rick]

16. I am willing but there is a huge problem, The gullibles will never side with us to fight the ruling

class. They love the ruling class, they do the bidding of the ruling class. That's why they are called the gullibles.

[William Z. Foster]

21. of course they will

People's anger over what are mostly economic issues has no outlet, no one is speaking for workers rights, for example, as we just saw on a recent thread. They have nowhere to go now except toward right wing fake populism. That is because we are missing in action, not because they are.

I cannot imagine a more gullible crowd than us right here. Almost all working people know that "the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer," that the wars are "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight" and "say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss." In that, they are far less gullible, far more radical, and far more to the left than most people here.

Who is doing most of the work propping up the ruling class, who is doing the bidding of the ruling class? The people mowing the lawns, changing the diapers, washing the windows, driving truck, waiting counter, running the register, stocking the shelves, paving the roads, cleaning the offices, scrubbing the toilets, teaching the children, caring for the sick and the elderly, cooking the food, trimming the trees, growing the food, working the warehouse, laying the brick, wiring the building?

I don't think so. They are doing the real work that is keeping us going - "us," when I say it, means "the working class people" - and are invisible to most activists. They are underpaid, overworked, half crazed with anxiety and fear, and have no time for doing anything other than struggling to survive. And you would blame them from on high?

Many of the intellectuals and educated people - liberal or conservative - are the ones who are the most effective and powerful defenders and promoters of the ruling class, are the ones doing their bidding. They are the ones looking down on the working people and blaming them, while lecturing us all about "reality" and "practicality" and urging moderation and caution, defending the bosses and tyrants, promoting privatization and regressive taxes, apologizing for inequality and injustice, steering and dominating and controlling all conversations and always moving the discussions to the right on economics, pushing ideas that benefit the haves at the expense of the have nots.

If we continue to be led by those people - and they are leading us around by the nose - it is we who are gullible to an extreme degree.

[liberation]

31. I agree with a lot of what you say

I think the minute a real populist leader rises (if he or she is not shot and killed literally within minutes of gaining real traction) who is not stupid enough to frame his or her message in terms of "isms." That may be the time real change comes our way.

Also, two things: those so called moderate liberals who are always advocating for moderation and turning the other cheek... are just that: moderates, nothing progressive about them. I was once told by a wise old progressive that in order to make headway through a jungle, you gotta clear up a path with a machete or at the very least push the brush away with your arms... most definitively if you want to get from point A to point B through the thickest jungle, you don't stay put singing kumbaya to the forest spirits in hopes they will clear up a path for you.

In the same sense, there is no such thing as a "populist" conservative. The "conservative" in the right wing ethos refers to the "conservation" of traditional power structures. I.e. the same structures which use divide and conquer to keep the few haves on top, and the many have nots at the bottom. Thus conservative populism makes as much sense as atheist catholicism.


Another observation is that racism is so ingrained in our society, mainly because it is one of the most useful mechanism for dividing and conquering large amounts of people. If the typical racist white trash living in the trailer part and the blacks living in the ghetto... understood they have more in common among themselves than they do with the very rich whites or blacks (respectively), it would be pretty damned hard for the few at the top to keep large amounts of the population bickering at each other while they are being abused and robbed blind.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

17. Brilliantly said.

:thumbsup:

[Bluenorthwest]

18. How do you build this wall between economic and social justice?

It is absurd, wishful thinking. To deem an issue 'a wedge issue' because you fail to see how it is in fact economic in the most basic sense of things is part of the problem. You are trying to divide, by defining that which is important according to how you see what is important. Same thing you are complaining about.
As what you call a 'homosexual' let me just inform you that were it not for the bigoted laws of the class to which you belong, the heterosexual majority, my household would have a home paid for and savings instead of debt. So, tell me again how social justice is not economic. Feel free.

[Ardent15]

19. Uh...when did I say "social justice is not economic"?

I said that "economic empowerment leads to social justice."

They are tied together. I don't dispute that.

[William Z. Foster]

22. not quite

Matters of social justice become wedge issues only when we strip all consideration of power and economics out of the political discussion, which Democrats increasingly do these days.

In the context of justice and equality on matters of power and economics, the social issues become much easier to win. In a context of social issues with no context of power and economics, we lose on both fronts.

"I don't care whether or not a person likes me, so long as they do not have the power to harm me."

Liberals and Democrats have been led to making bigotry a matter of whether or not people like various persecuted groups, while ignoring the power and economics that are the tools for actually harm people - on whatever pretext. If the boss has no power to fire me for being gay, what do I care if he "likes" gays or not?

People here will say "don't get me wrong, I like gay people BUT..." which is then followed by support for something that can actually harm gays. Actually, the modern version is not "I like gays" but rather "I support gay rights." So it goes like this: "don't get me wrong, I support gay rights, (in some vague subjective internalized way) BUT now is not the time to repeal DADT (I will not be supporting actual efforts to promote gay rights that could actually protect real people right now from real abuse.) Then it is taken one more step - "and I defy you to claim that I am taking a bigoted stance when I support this bigoted position, because as I said - I support gay rights!" Persist in questioning them and they will say "I support gay rights, but the way you are going about it (connecting it to reality and to what I actually just said) is wrong and I can't go along with that. If you want ME supporting gay rights, you had best go about this the way I want you to. Otherwise you are alienating potential friends and allies."

All of that nonsense would be much easier to defeat, were we starting from a political context that tackled with power and economics. All of the people arguing the bigoted positions are also the ones defending the rich and powerful. That is the common denominator. Persecution and bigotry are just excuses, avenues for enforcing the social hierarchy, pretexts for dividing and conquering us, all for the purpose of protecting the wealthy and powerful and the system that put them there and keeps them there.

[readmoreoften]

24. Anti-gay and anti-trans sentiment is fostered by the capitalist class to divide the working class.

While same-sex romantic relationships have always existed, and transpeople have always existed (ritually in some cultures) capitalism at once makes gay identity possible by creating an urban industrial working class that lived outside the family (it's no mystery why gay political identity began to harden in port cities), but at the same time capitalism needs the family so it can outsource the cost of raising the next generation of workers. It has a schizophrenic/contradictory relationship to homosexuality: it has to be realistic in the market place (can't fire your best workers), but socially, the concept of the family is critical: without "family values" you've got no one to pay for colleges and medical bills except a socialized system. What's more, homophobia is a wedge that can be shoved within the working class to break down solidarity between workers/political actors. Same thing with the creation of racism in the 18th century.

I am not a part of a "homosexual class" or even a "queer class" and I am not oppressed by heterosexuals. That line of thinking led us nowhere in the Queer Nation years. Anti-gay sentiment and racism did not pop up out of a bubble or out of the evil hearts of straights and white people. It was generated out of economic power structures--the passing of wealth through bloodlines during feudalism, the breaking of solidarity between white and black indentured servants in the US after the English working class uprisings of the 1690s.

We are oppressed--economically oppressed as well as socially/politically oppressed. This is a proven fact. But it is not the heterosexual that is oppressing us. It's the needs of our economic system. The working classes--even straight, white, men--have absolutely nothing to gain from homophobia, racism, or sexism. As a group, it lowers their wages and standard of living. There is a difference between not experiencing an oppression and benefiting from it. That's not to say many straight white men have not sold themselves out and us as well. But it is not their birthright or privilege. It is a tragic stupidity on their part when they do so.

[William Z. Foster]

34. damn

Well said. Excellent.

[leftstreet]

20. K&R

[William Z. Foster]

23. excellent work Ardent15

Your analysis is very insightful and your writing is truly excellent. Keep up the good work.

[DailyGrind51]

25. Pitting the "Have littles" against the "Have nothings", so the "Haves" and the "have mores",

can eventually "have it all"!

[socialist_n_TN]

44. WHOA! Nice (and truthful) sloganeering

Grind. Kudos.

[tavalon]

26. We need to unite by class not these wedge issues

It's the how to get it accomplished that's the tough one.

[William Z. Foster]

36. simple, if not easy

We stand with all of our brothers and sisters in the working class who are being persecuted and abused, no matter the pretext being used to justify that.

[tavalon]

38. Then I would say, internet wise, the first step

is to reach out to Free Republic and try to form an alliance.

Yeah, I really said that.

[kctim]

27. Two things

"what good will getting your way about one personal belief, one wedge issue, in the short term, do when the existing power structure that leads to the conditions you personally oppose, is still intact?"

1 - We are split as to what the "existing power structure" is: Government or Big Business.

2 - We are split on what conditions we personally oppose and how to correct them: More government involvement or less government involvement.

These are the things that divide the people and if there really is a "ruling class" pulling the strings, they will not be dealt with until we close that divide ourselves.

[liberation]

30. In a corporatist state like ours...

... the distinction between "big business" and "big government" is purely fictional, and mostly a libertarian canard IMHO.

[kctim]

39. Good example

for making the OPs point.

You're OPINION is that this distinction is "purely fictional" and rather than face the facts, you label it a "libertarian canard" in order to simply dismiss this view.
If it takes ALL of us, as the OP says, then how do we put aside our minor differences and work together by doing that to each other? We don't.
In order to do what the OP suggests, people must respect and try to understand those who scream "corporatist state" and those who scream "nanny state."

[William Z. Foster]

37. yes, we are

The right wing says that Government is the power structure that needs to be overthrown.

The right wing says that less government involvement is the answer.

They speak for those at the top of existing power structure.

The rest of us take the opposite position, or should.

[kctim]

40. And they say

The left wing says that Government is who should be in control of everything.

The left wing says that more government involvement is the only answer.

That the left wing thinks they should speak for EVERYBODY because EVERYBODY needs them at the top of the power structure.

Come on man, that is the bickering amongst ourselves that the OP is talking about. I'm right, you're wrong. Leave me alone on this, make others agree with me on that. We are divided because of this kind of thinking and things will not change for the better as long as we are divided.

[BrklynLiberal]

28. Good rant!!!

[Riley18]

29. So true. If only we could unite and do something positive about it. I think

that is what I heard with the slogan of change we can believe in. I was hoping for a tax on capital gains and other rich people perks. So far the only thing happening is cuts in services and education.

[skeptical cynic]

32. This is America!

What lower class?
What ruling class?
What wedge issues?
What social control?
What economic control?

I think you have us confused with one of your intellectual elitist dystopian novels.

Everybody has or is going to achieve the American Dream.
It's one more Predator drone strike away.
Our military is composed of a broad sample of every social, racial and economic class in the nation.
We've always been at war with terrorism.
We don't occupy, we liberate.
We don't attack, we defend.
We don't exploit, we create opportunity for a natural aristocracy based on talent and ability without regard to economic and social class.
There's nothing standing between us and Utopia except divisive fringe elements who selfishly put principles ahead of pragmatism, foolishly reject the progress that comes from embracing the lesser of two evils as a good, and dare to dissent in a nation born of dissent.

It's so clear to me since I took the blue pill.

You took the red one, didn't you? Anarchist? Spoiler!! Progressive!!!

Good rant. Thanks!

[kiers]

33. It's a clever "strategy" K&R

by the ruling Class!

BOTH sides of the political spectrum AGREE about the Banksters: the left hated the bailouts of Goldman as much as the right. So what do they do....create street fighting...so they can continue to rule as is.

[JI7]

35. no, many people are just bigoted and being poor is not an excuse

[Ardent15]

47. Never said it was an "excuse"

[Romulox]

41. Most of the "New Left" is upper-middle class. They won't LET you discuss Working Class issues.

There's your answer, in a nutshell.

[tavalon]

42. kick for the morning crowd

[inna]

43. Great post. Too late to rec, but

a :kick: so may be more people will see and read this.

[pampango]

45. Trumka: "privileged and powerful people are using the same old dirty tricks of division, diversion

and distraction."

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/05/29/tens-of-thousands-protest-arizonas-immigrant-law/

The problem is that privileged and powerful people are using the same old dirty tricks of division, diversion and distraction to make people blame the least among us in order to keep us from seeing and solving our real problems.

Our wisest leaders have always understood that, here in America, on these shores, we must not fall for hate and fear and divisiveness—we must stand together for justice, unity and opportunity.

[handmade34]

46. little steps

move your money

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/activities/350t=homepage

[Mimosa]

48. Ardent, great minds think alike

I try to always respect the beliefs of others (as long as they are decent and sincere) even though I may not agree. Finding common ground is how people build bridges. Clinton knew that, which is why he was such a good politician.