(10/10)
(This is the third and last in a series
that began with “Scary Economic Stuff” and “Scary Economic Stuff:
England
”.)
The word
“progress” has always had a somewhat nebulous meaning. Just what is “progress”?
Is it the steam engine? Is it Twitter? Is it bovine hormones, hundreds of TV
stations, Nike shoes, MRI’s, cloning, refrigeration, Smart Bombs ---? Is there
such a thing as “progress” or are we the same tortured imbeciles we’ve been for
thousands of years, in spite of all these hand held devices we peck away on
incessantly? There are even those who claim, with good scientific reason, that
we were a healthier, more vigorous, more fulfilled species before the advent of
civilization.
I’ve now spent
almost 2/3 of a century growing up and living in the western world. Although
I’ve traveled extensively, I’ve probably spent something like 99.999% of my time
on this planet in the western world, or what I like to call “Occidente”. I am a
western man. Western man believes in “progress”. Very few people can completely
escape the original root of their formation and I am not one of them. Although
I am in conflict with my culture’s modus operandi and its blueprint for human
fulfillment, I still cannot shake this idea of “progress”, this idea that the
human condition can improve.
In spite of being
Post Consumer Man, my western formation still demands a certain degree of
material well being. But it is a material well being that would be enhanced by
contracted not expanded possession. It is Post Consumer Man’s belief that our
material well being, and, even more importantly, our emotional-spiritual well
being, would be improved by needing less. But he believes fervently in the
material things we really need.
As I return to
the first person, I shall now try to explain, after almost 2/3 of a century
honing in on it, what I consider to be true “progress”: progress is when a
society can provide the most people with at least the minimal amount of material
well being to live in a dignified manner. If, even at that minimal level, this
human dignity can exist, then a reasonable degree of social mobility will take
care of itself, without even mentioning the general feeling of security and
harmony that will pervade such a society.
What are these
things people really need? Where should that lowest level go no lower?
When a human
being has access to decent housing, proper nourishment, necessary clothing,
adequate educational formation, both employment and enough free time for
relaxation and recreation, the most important necessities of human fulfillment
are being provided. The society that can provide these true necessities to the
most people is making “progress”.
For those of us
who believe in progress, one of the finest examples of such occurred in
Western Europe in the post WWII era. A whole continent
had to rise from the ashes left in the wake of a delinquent military
conflagration --- but it was also a kind of blank check to start anew.
That check was
provided by the
United
States of America
in the form of the
Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was less an altruistic act of charity and more
a necessary medical operation meant to cure the battered body of Western Europe
so that it could healthily oppose the threat caused by a victorious
Soviet Union.
It worked --- but
the leaders of
Western Europe were pragmatic
enough to build their new society with ideological ideas from both the right and
the left. One must remember, the Communist world to the east was also a great
social experiment meant to provide a dignified amount of material well being
for the most people. It eventually strangled itself in a noose of its own
rigidity. The American social experiment in free markets, or what the Europeans
refer to as “savage capitalism”, is beginning to show similar signs of decay
through rigidity. However, it is a rigidity not caused by ideological dogma,
but by selfish interests out to maintain their privilege at the expense of
others. It uses “ideology” as a smokescreen for abusive exploitation. Whereas
the Soviet experiment died from the inertia of its rigidity, the American
rigidity on the right is leading to a form of moral bankruptcy whose end result
is still to be seen.
On the contrary,
the Western Europeans tried to find a proper balance. They cherry picked the
best aspects of the failed Communist experiment and combined it with the
broader swath of private commercial activity that has characterized
“Occidente”, beginning with the Renaissance in
Italy
and reaching its fruition with the Industrial Revolution in
England
,
France
,
Germany
and the
Low Countries. The Western Europeans, after WWII, by
accepting some of the ideas of the Marxist experiment, created a Social
Contract that blunted the sharpest edges of capitalist abuse, without changing
its dynamic essence. It not only created a good deal of wealth, it created a
dignified minimal standard quite higher than what the Soviets did, and more
universal than what now exists in
America
. What
America
has to show for this selfish right wing
intransigence, is a substantial underbelly of undignified poverty that
Western Europe exhibits in more minimal quantities.
But the usual
suspects at the tip of the human pyramid, those quasi-oligarchic bankers, financiers,
investors and such, are always trying to undermine this progressive Social
Contract and they see a great opportunity to do so in the rubble of their
economic disaster (see previous essay, “Scary Economic Stuff: England”). It
goes something like this: their reckless greed wrecks the economic system, the
rest of us pay for their idiocy and make them whole again, and now there is
supposedly no money left for the Social Contract. It’s a lose-lose situation
for “us”, and a break even-win situation for “them”. They are back in business
and they get to throw a straight right hand directly at the jaw of their most
hated institution, the people’s Social Contract.
And the excrement
has begun to hit the fan. The “necessary” cuts are being made, but the popular
classes in
Europe are not going to take it on
their butts. Massive demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience have already
rocked
Greece
and
France
, and will surely surface in
Spain
,
Portugal
and perhaps
England
too. Curiously enough, what I’ve most learned from these massive protests in
Europe is just how brain dead the popular classes are in
America
. They
are not just apathetic in the face of their exploitation, they are so confused
and ignorant that, more often than not, they vote for those most opposed to
their interests. The current Tea Party fiasco is a perfect example of this. The
movement, disguised as a popular uprising, is funded by a few billionaires who
usurp this popular energy. They’ve convinced the participants it is the
government that has caused their economic woes and not them and their
irresponsible business practices. And the bait has been taken.
America
’s rank
and file is like an abused wife that continues returning to her husband. Why is
this so?
In comparing the
popular classes of Europe and
America
,
the historical DNA of each place is relevant. Let’s begin with
Europe.
Even Sarah Palin
knows Europe has been inhabited by Europeans for a long, long time, centuries
longer than the existence of
Wasilla,
Alaska. For almost all that time,
a well defined social hierarchy existed, one where a tiny group of Kings,
Czars, Emperors, Dukes and Kaiser Roll aristocrats invented the minuet and
filled their bellies with the mule labor of almost everyone else. The
Industrial Revolution was a catalyst for a more diversified social
stratification and --- slowly, painfully, stubbornly --- the popular classes at
the underbelly of society began to have more options in life. This trend
continues into contemporary times, but a millennium’s worth of stratification cannot
be taken away with simple stain remover. It has some indelible qualities. In
Europe, the popular classes know who they are, know who
the enemy is, and have an identity that is often defined in the word
“solidarity”.
The North
American experience is quite different. Most estimates I’ve come across would
mean there are now more people in
New York City
than there were indigenous inhabitants of
North America
when the white man blundered upon these shores. Once this small indigenous
population was thrust aside, a huge, verdant land was there for the taking. Its
appeal lay in the fact that it was nobody’s place, that anyone getting there could carve out their own destiny free from the social
restrictions so ingrained in European society. This has always been
America
’s
appeal, and rightly so. This idea of opportunity, gold in the streets, Horatio
Alger and the like, has become an integral part of American rhetoric, along
with the equality to accomplish these things. In
America
, a coagulating “solidarity”
amongst the popular classes has never really happened. In fact, nobody even
wants to admit they are a part of such a group. It is almost a stigma or
embarrassment to admit such a thing. Being a worker is a lowly, vilified position
--- a failure.
But guess what?
The rhetoric does not match the reality anymore.
North
America is now teeming with 350,000,000 people. Five centuries of
Euro-man domination have created fairly well defined hierarchies. There are generationally inherited popular classes and oligarchic-like wealth. While the
working class in Europe was using teamwork to slowly forge the security of
their Social Contract with society, the workers in
America
were being fractured and
divided by special corporate interests. While the masses in Europe stand
together in a common fight, their counterparts in
America
are not even comfortable
with their identity.
This is where the
phonies at Fox News would say, “Well sure, this is the way we like it. We’re
more individualistic, more free, this is what makes us
great”. I could agree with a small part of that by saying, “Sure, we’re free to
have this large underbelly of undignified poverty and degradation”. Can we
really say, at this point in history, there is more social mobility in
America
than in
Europe?
It’s doubtful, but if there is, it is so minutely different that this
underbelly the system it operates in has created is not worth it.
Europe’s
popular classes understand just who is to blame for this economic crisis. They
know the costs of their Social Contract were not the reason for this. They know
that malfeasance and stupidity at the top of the financial system is the
culprit here. They know this not because they are better educated or informed
with regard to all this economic Sanskrit none of us can understand, but
because they feel it in their gut, because they know who they are and who is
trying to get over on them. On the contrary, the Monday Night Football Yokels
in
America
,
if they even participate in the political process, have been led to believe the
government is the problem, that public spending is the problem, when it is just
the opposite. It is lack of government oversight of the financial system
that led to this.
The popular
classes in
America
are confused because they lack empathy for themselves. They cannot fight back
effectively because they refuse to admit their own identity. This opens the
door for Fascist demagoguery. In
Europe, the
popular classes are lashing out at government, but they know these governments
are agents of their old enemy, the oligarchic elites. In
America
, the
energy of the popular masses has been stolen by these elites. They’ve been
convinced to lash out at a sabotaged government that may have been on their
side, and to replace it with one that, in the long run, is offensive to them.
They have been duped. They are suckers.
