When did America become a goddamn homeland?
Charlie Ehlen & Joe Bageant
Mr. Bageant,
Your Bass Boats and Queer Marriage is a great article about the American "middle class", whatever the hell that is.
I am an old working class person, a human being. I had working class parents and grandparents. It is all I ever was or wanted to be. I remember an old definition of the "middle class", way back in the mid 60's, my high school days. It all had to do with income, of course. Not sure what the numbers were back then, but it was above working class pay, for sure.
I had four years in the Marines and a tour in Vietnam. Then, I went back to being a working class guy. Got married, bought a house, had and lost a child, then lost the wife to brain cancer.
Now, at 62, I am permanently disabled and alone. But, I had a pretty decent life. I am still working class, goddamn it all. I am so damn sick of what has become of this country we now call a "homeland". What the hell? When did America become a goddamn "homeland"? Yeah, I know, W. Shrub and "Five Deferments" Cheney. They gave us that goddamn Nazi Germany/Soviet Union term for what used to be America.
So the "middle class" is being lost. Well, tough shit. What did the "middle class" ever do for anybody except its own selfish self? The "middle class" were the managers or maybe, sometimes, they were actually the employers if you worked for a small machine shop, as I did for many years. The "great middle class" is a joke that never really existed, yet so many thought they belonged to it. Bullshit, they never had a hope in hell of ever being "middle class". They refused to be working class as that sounded too much like the damn socialists. Damn fools, if they would have admitted to being working class they could have joined together and held national strikes like they used to do in Europe. They could have realized that ALL the working class folks out numbered the managers and big banksters. We could have got together and restored the old constitutional republic. Screw the mythical "middle class". Let them all rot with their pals the "too big to fail" banksters. Screw their hyper expensive bass boats also.
Stupid is what this country has become for damn sure. Big difference between stupid and ignorant. Ignorance can be overcome by learning. Stupid, well, there isn't much hope in hell for stupid. Faux Noise and the "two party" system are for the stupid.
Thank you for your time reading this rant. I usually blow off steam at my "corner" of this internet. Go to: http://bear47.blogspot.com/
Thanks for your article.
Charlie Ehlen
Pineville, Louisiana
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Charlie,
I'm with ya brother.
Dumb hillbilly that I was raised, I had to struggle do get into the so-called middle class, and do time in it twice twice before I figured out what a useless bunch of spineless little shits most of them are. The selling of the lie of the mythical American middle class is one of the most socially destructive humjobs ever perpetrated on Americans. Like any humjob, it felt good to the recipients, but it destroyed solidarity and did much to establish the current attitude of "every man for himself."
It's gonna be a long walk back, brother, and if we make it to the end of the road (which you and I will not by virtue of our age) there won't be much smug self-deluding talk of a "middle class." Those left standing will know for damned sure what class they are in. Either the working class or the elites who own their asses lock stock and beans.
In art and labor,
Joe
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Source: http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/01/when-did-america.html
Illustration: http://freespeech.vo.llnwd.net/o25/pub/images/HomelandSecuritySS.jpg
