I had a powerful week and have been spending most of this morning trying to sort it all out – thinking maybe there was some way I could write about the thoughts spinning around in my head. And just now the thought came to me that the theme going on is related to class struggles in the US. I can’t really pull any other theme together, so I thought I’d write about my week chronologically and maybe that act, or discussion that follows, will help calm down some of this noise in my head. So, here’s my week:
Sunday
I’m watching c-span book tv and Lewis Lapham is being interviewed. They show a clip from a documentary he made a few years ago titled The American Ruling Class. It looks real interesting so I go to look for more information about it and find a clip on youtube from the movie.
In the clip, Barbara Ehrenreich (author of “Nickled and Dimed”) schools a young Yale grad about the reality of the lives of those in the “other America.” When he talks about the philanthropy of the ruling class, she responds by saying:
Philanthropy…Don’t tell me about philanthropy Jack. The real philanthropists in our society are the people who work for less than they can actually live on. Because they are giving of their time and energy and talents all the time so that people like you can be dressed well and fed cheaply and so on. They’re giving to you.
Monday
I work for a small non-profit that is in the midst of a $1.8 million capital campaign. This means occassionally having meetings with the “urber wealthy” in this community to ask for donations. I always leave those meetings feeling conflicted. In order to do my job and support the work we are trying to do in the community – I need to ask for this funding. But meeting with these people and keeping my mouth shut about what I REALLY want to say leaves me feeling tainted.
On Monday we met with a man who is one of the most wealthy people in the state. He is also one of the most self-centered arrogant people I have met in my life. He doesn’t know if he’ll make enough money from his hedge funds this year to be able to make a donation. We all know its these types that control things in this country – but it feels like a kick in the gut to actually meet one of them – much less to have to grovel and ask for his spare change.
What’s going on back at the office is that a few staff worked late last night taking a couple of kids to an auction so that maybe they could find a bicycle they could afford for them. And then there’s the kid whose mom is drug addicted so he lives with his grandmother on her social security. He was offered an internship with our City Attorney this summer because he worked himself out of special ed, was mainstreamed and got straight A’s. But he doesn’t have any clothes to wear for the internship. So a couple of days ago our staff person took him shopping.
Wednesday
My book group has its monthly meeting and we’re talking about Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks (is your head spinning yet???) We had a discussion about our unconscious forms of classism and how we might go about deciding “what is enough” so that we can get out of the greed game.
Thursday
Ever since I read an article about a speech that David Simon (creator of the HBO series “The Wire”) gave a few weeks ago, I’ve been watching season two being replayed on BET on Thursday nights. As I was watching this week, I looked for clips of Simon on youtube and found the whole speech in three segments. I think this man is a true prophet of the 21st century. Here is the first segment of his speech and I’ll give links for the next two below for those that have 25-30 minutes to watch the whole thing:
Here’s clip two
Here’s clip three
I highly recommend watching the whole thing. I credit David Simon with helping me integrate what I do professionally (working with kids and families in an urban area) with my broader interest in public affairs. I know there are huge issues facing this country. But for me, nothing is more important than his assertion that in our post-industrial economy, our elevation of capitalism to a sacred position, means that every day “human beings are worth less.” (his words) The effect this has on our urban areas and the kids and families who live in them is one of the great challenges of our time.
Here’s a clip from the 4th season of “The Wire,” which focuses on kids in middle school. It could be some of our staff at work – I’ve been part of these kinds of conversations with them:
Saturday
So, that’s my week and here I sit trying to make sense of it all. David Simon admits he doesn’t have answers – he’s just trying to wake us all up to what is happening. I don’t have any answers either. I’ll just keep trying to help a few kids in St. Paul have a chance. But I think we need to do better than that – somehow.
I’ve been thinking about these issues too.
Through family connections (my brother’s in-laws) I occasionally socialize with wealthy people. Good people — liberal people — members of the ACLU and supporters of Dean, etc. But still. Very different in their daily priorities from me.
Also (a related issue), I’m facing decisions that could result in my husband and I spending over 1/4 of our income on Health Insurance. Or doing without it.
And part of me thinks it would be immoral to give that much money (COBRA is much more expensive than my current employer-based plan) to an insurance company. Especially knowing that they spend SOME of that money fighting my commitment for health-care for everyone.
But wouldn’t it also be wrong to put my husband and me (both with health issues) at risk by going without it?
It’s one thing to scale back our lifestyles. But the way things are set up, we might put ourselves at risk when we do.
I think one of the reasons they won’t let everyone have health care is because it would set us free to work for ourselves rather than them.
Thanks for listening.
I think one of the reasons they won’t let everyone have health care is because it would set us free to work for ourselves rather than them.
There’s power in those words katiebird!!
In order to do my job and support the work we are trying to do in the community – I need to ask for this funding. But meeting with these people and keeping my mouth shut about what I REALLY want to say leaves me feeling tainted.
I understand completely. I’ve seen money whoring up close and personal and have participated in it; that s$#! ain’t pretty. And while the following doesn’t make me feel better, it does help me get through:
There’s not a cent of money in this country that is not tainted or, at its genesis, wasn’t stolen in some form or fashion. We all have to make tradeoffs. So at the end of the day, do our actions help more than they hurt? That’s the question.
It’s an un-fufilling mantra. I’m embarrassed to admit to it. It feels like I’m copping out. I probably am. But it’s honest, as well.
That’s helpful, thanks.
I guess part of the issue is how far you’re willing to go to get the money. If it means sitting in an office and listening to someone talk about his private plane that takes him to his private boat (complete with a French chef) in order to have a little fishing week with his buddies – maybe I’ll do it. But if it means doing something that compromises the work we do with kids and families – I’ll draw the line.
Good scale. It is rationalizing, but sometimes, it is what is. If you can do something good now, then just maybe, we can make this place better in the future.
I just don’t know of any other way. But at least you’re doing good work, something that will positively benefit people. Some folks are just fine with whoring it up so they can buy some trinket–no purpose there at all.
After I wrote this, I began thinking about one of the best books I’ve ever read, “The Soul of Money” by Lynn Twist. One of her main points in the book is that we live with a myth of scaricty in most areas of our lives, not the least of which is money. Here’s a rather extensive, but profound quote from the book:
I have heard this also labeled “the hungry ghost.”
I may have told this story here before, so bear with me if you’ve already heard it.
I have a friend who spent his early professional life travelling the world as a professional figure skater. When his dad needed someone to come home and run the family farm, he volunteered. As I sat with him in his kitchen a few years later, during which time he’d married and had his first child, he said this to me:
“You know Nancy, I can’t think of anything in life that I want that I don’t have right now.”
Here is a man who had dealt a fatal blow to that “hungry ghost” and was living a life of sufficiency. I try to ground myself every now and then by remembering his words.
Capitalism doesn’t work unless people can be made to feel as if they don’t have enough. Advertising is the method to make us feel inadequate in every single aspect of our lives so that products can be sold to fix us. Our alienation from ourselves and our contentment is Job One of the marketeer and is the human condition under capitalism.
I don’t know when I’ve seen so much truth packed into so few words. Thank you.
Thanks. I’d give you an Excellent rating, but given your kind words it would seem just too cheesy. So I’ll say it in a comment. (Think Wayne’s World) Excellent!
That’s excellent. I’d only add this: Under our form of “democracy,” we are made to feel as if we don’t have enough, because we do not–every unscripted life event we are to be prepared for, lest we be judged as “irresponsible.” And expecting the government to help? You dirty socialist!
For example, the most common bit of financial advice I’ve seen given is that people are supposed to save 3-6 months of living expenses in case of emergencies. Now, I’d never argue against saving for a rainy day, and everyone ought to have some FY (F— you ) money, in case you must bite the hand that feeds you. But how realistic is that, given the myriad other expenses? And what if you can’t find a real job before the 3-6 months lapses–and by that, I mean one with decent pay AND benefits? (That was me until very recently, and I am still anxious that it can happen again. Still.)
If Junior blows his money, he can always run Poppy and Mommy and their friends to bail him out. That doesn’t work for the rest of us.
It is an endless treadmill of anxiety. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to get off the anxiety treadmill, marketing and advertising works quite nicely to create phantom needs.
The real shame of it all is that we’re on the treadmill with the need to be prepared for EVERY eventuality AND being peddled perceived ones.
Well NL – you have had quite a week!
Two quotes came to mind:
“You may break any written law in America with impunity. There is an unwritten law that you break at your peril. It is: do not attack the profit system.” (Mary Heaton Vorse)
“American business, while it does not frown on helping the human race, frowns on people who start right in helping the human race without first proving that they can sell things to it.”(Margaret Halsey)
Money is such a faith-based system, isn’t it? And printed right on it is, “In God We Trust.” Money-God…pretty powerful connection.
So, if the “Almighty” is really money, then how might “Authoritarians” behave? And what is the real belief system? What do corporate Authoritarians sound like? (You don’t have to answer – these are some of my wonderings!)
Love your sig line. And I am one of those who dances.
“In God We Trust.” Money-God…pretty powerful connection.
Or my personal favorite: “In God we trust; all others, pay cash.”
All snark aside, it’s a pretty powerful demonstration of just what we think is important. It doesn’t get any starker than that.
It is really hard and as you know by reading bell hooks’ book, we are a consumer culture because we live in a world of too much marketing and too much branding. The role of a marketer is to convince us to want things we don’t really need because their personal goal is to promote or exchange goods or services for money. That is why companies hire them. The marketers aren’t selling products they are consciously seeking ways to persuade the people to change their values so they will continue to buy the same products over and over again (brand loyalty). They know our trigger points, what it would take us to buy the large drink instead of the medium drink at the movies. They are like pseudo-psychologist because they will assess public attitudes and behaviors; develop products or services that appeal to the public’s desires; package, promote, and distribute the products or services; and monitor the results. Savvy marketers then use those results to update their products and begin the entire process again.
It never ends, that is why we feel hopeless, that is why we don’t or can’t find the answers. The minute we do, BAM a new tactic comes around enticing us not save. Why? Because social marketers will take a closer look at why you choose not buy and they will address the target consumer’s needs or prompt a change in behavior, then adjusts the program accordingly. A company end result is the bottom line, a social marketers end result is – behavior.
Lets take health as an example of how providing information and even changing values fails to change people’s behaviors.
We know the health risks when it comes to smoking because it is well-publicized, now how many people reading this comment continue to smoke in spite of the warnings? How many people will say that they choose to smoke? Well then, if that is the answer, the end result was met, that is the they want the company and marketer wants. It is their way of not taking responsibility about altering a person’s behavior; because in the end, all they have to say – if you go cancer not it is not their fault you knew the risks and your choose your destiny.
A good movie about this is Thank You for Smoking.
We are told if we do not buying and made the personal sacrifices, the great machine will come to a halt and that is the fear business and social marketers play on.
The question we should be asking, how can we shut off these mind games, so we can think clearly and addressing the social ills.
The minute we do, BAM a new tactic comes around enticing us not save. Why? Because social marketers will take a closer look at why you choose not buy and they will address the target consumer’s needs or prompt a change in behavior, then adjusts the program accordingly. A company end result is the bottom line, a social marketers end result is – behavior.
I watched CBS News Sunday Morning yesterday about plastics (A Wonder Material You Can’t Get Rid Of); specifically about what San Francisco is trying to do to reduce using plastic bags and water bottles.
The piece briefly covered how our attitudes “shifted” re: plastics use:
Now–in that very SAME piece, read this:
The industry, which convinced the public that their items could be thrown away are now blaming said same public for throwing away their products. Clearly, we are not exercising enough personal responsibility.
Kinda like a failed oil guy telling the American public that they are addicted to foreign oil.
Breathtaking. Or galling.
Nancy, I, too, have no answers; however, I am proud to know you here and to know that through your work and commitment, you are on of the very special ppl we have here that do something for ppl. It is hard to ask for money from ppl to support something they really do not have an idea about what they are supporting…well, mostly do not know because, they do not want to know.
My goodness, Girl, you have earned my respect, this week…..many hugs, and just know, we support your efforts in spirit, anyhow….wish I could do more for you too….
You may be interested in this little essay written by a woman who seems to operate in the same general area as you do:
Are There Class Cultures?
I think she has an interesting take on what defines class.
That whole “Class Matters” site ought to be required reading.
I recently decided to cut down my involvement with a local activist group because of various frustrations I had with them… and reading this website helps me understand the nature of my frustrations: I’m from a working class background (with a union background in my upbringing) and most of the other people in the group seem to be activists of the middle-class/professional style. And the style of how they conduct their activism is so alien to my style, that I’ve just found the whole experience to be largely befuddling. I’ve actually been rather relieved to read some of the other testimonies on the site from working-class activists who have been unable to assimilate into the middle-class/professional way of doing things (or “doing things” as the case may be). So it’s NOT just me!!
In fact, the blogosphere also is really operated mainly by middle-class/professionals, and activists with working-class/labor origins like myself find a lot of what goes on in the way of organizing (or lack thereof) to be baffling and nonproductive and unsustainable. Which is why I don’t hang around big blogs any more, I guess.
I appreciate the chance to read about your experience. I know that I am one of those who was raised in the middle/professional class culture and have huge blind spots. I’m not proud of some of the awarenesses I had a few years ago when we brought someone in to our workplace to talk about classism. One example of this is that I realized why members of my family HATED the tv show Roseanne and why I found it somewhat uncomfortable. I think alot of that was a result of my blindness about the working class. I hope to continue to be challenged about that.
Well, the tofu stuff is hardly a problem. The whole-grains, hippie clothes, etc… you know, I think I can handle that, obviously…
It’s some of the procedural and behavioral things that so-called “professional/middle-class” activists do that I find baffling and counterproductive. Like, one working-class activist on that site talked about how, at the start of every meeting, everyone was forced to “perform” by answering the same question. I’ve run into the exact same thing. It’s annoying as HELL, a huge waste of time, and you can tell everyone else in the group hates it too but doesn’t know how to speak up and say that they do. I don’t need to talk about my inner psychological state at the start of a meeting… I’m there to do WORK, not “share.” (If you want to get to know me, get to know me through my work with you on the cause we’re concerned with.)
But that’s just a little thing; the more serious obstacles are stuff like no structure to the meetings (even when there is an agenda); no one seems to actually be in charge — it’s like they’re allergic to any form of internal authority or order; almost ALL meaningful communication is done through back channels (I can understand some, but ALL? why do we have meetings then?); overreliance on grant money instead of on member dues; etc.
I really do think there’s something to it — the notion that the reason why the peace movement and the blogosphere at large is spinning its wheels and not really accomplishing anything is because of the activism style of second-generation middle-classers, of the children of white-collar workers. People who are two or three generations removed from the working class or the labor movement. They literally don’t know how to organize or to strategize. Then again, I admit to being biased, as I said. My grandparents were in unions and my dad was involved in local union politics and I grew up knowing what was meant by things like “election,” “NLRB,” “management vs. labor,” and “strikes” and there were strategy meetings going on in my house all the time.
Another word on activism and funding: I complained earlier about how “PMC” (professional/middle-class, as the Class Matters site calls themselves) activists seem to prefer to get grant money and donations instead of asking group members for dues. In the blogosphere, the little people are routinely asked for contributions (nickel and dime donations, and the like)… but contributions are not the same as dues. Dues are paid by members of an organization, but the members of the organization can in return expect to have the group they belong to run under some kind of coherent order — with an elected leader, officers with particular responsibilities, etc. The poobahs of the blogosphere (and the political parties!) offer none of those things to the little people whose donations they constantly seek. It’s been painful watching idealistic people throw money hand over fist to “organizations” that are completely unaccountable to them. (I was a healthy Dean donor so I know whereof I speak.)
Your talk about meetings reminds me of an experience I had a few years ago – I just never related it to class.
We had a project we were working on that involved social workers and police officers. At first, we tried to have joint meetings with the group. The social workers would want to “process” EVERYTHING in the meeting and go on and on talking for an hour or more. The cops would show up wanting us to tell them what they were supposed to DO. When all the process talking got started, they’d look at their watch, and wonder why the meeting wasn’t over in 10-15 minutes.
Eventually, we started meeting with each group seperately. I could see the partnership unravelling if we let these joint meetings continue.
I always thought it was the difference between how cops think and how social workers think (and there was probably some of that in there), but now I’m thinking about how class issues might have been at work too.
For a long time I deluded myself into believing that ours was a system that promoted “socially responsible capitalism”. (my term) Around 1981 or so, I started to doubt that assumption. I still believe that capitalism could also be socially responsible, however it has gone so far the other way in the past three decades that I feel it is highly unlikely in the foreseeable future. Bad news for most of us who find ourselves/our kids obsolete! By the way, a great post.
I can’t even read your whole article, in fact I need not. When confronted with even the title I envision myself as the Lasthorseman complete with the huge double-edged sword featured in the movie “Braveheart” slicing the heads off American “leaders”.
Then again the Christian End Days prophecies also features the “two witnesses” who can breathe fire in smiting their enemies, perhaps I should have asked the Lord for the position of witness.
We had a similar week, though very different circumstances.
Mine was reading the WP online, and reminding myself why I am glad that we no longer subscribe.
The first offensive dreck I read was of course, that whorish drivel from Richard Cohen. Glenn Greenwald’s column was spot on. And while most people deservedly hit Cohen for the line, “As with sex or real estate, it is often best to keep the lights off,” I was really impressed that Greenwald picked up on this.
I picked that up right away, and was mightily impressed that Greenwald did, too.
The second offense may be surprising: it was Sally Squires, the Post’s health and nutrition writer, who also does a weekly “lean plate club” chat. I don’t always read her column, but when she wrote about the small number of members of Congress who took the $21/week for food challenge (the average per week of food stamps), I was astonished:
It’s followed up with this:
Oooh, Tom: I’d like to order a pound of organic sneering please, with a healthy dollop of snideness. No mayo. And no way I’d ever patronize his business.
It just got worse:
And her point in mentioning this is, what?
So then she gives her culinary slumming report–and a gold star for using public transportation (when everyone here either says Metro or a specific bus route)
It takes time to get the “discount” card, which is not a discount card as much a meager reward for our very valuable marketing information. And it took her 90 minutes? Gee, that’s nice. Did she factor in the average time it takes to get to work? Watching the children? Any other appointments?
She then presents her shopping list. Satisfied, she declares:
I just found this to be so nauseatingly superior. I’m sorry this is so long, but I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I know who the Post’s readership is, but damn. I just wanted to take a Post and swat it over their heads…repeatedly.
Thanks AP. A wonderful collection of evidence that we do, indeed, have two americas. And the one running the show, doesn’t have a clue about the other.
You should have read some of the comments! There were some people who had a clue but some who either didn’t or were heartless. And the people talking about cutting back when they were in college! It’s not the same, and they know damned well it isn’t.
Yeah, I was broke in college, too, but I knew I could always call my parents. Not that I did, mind you, because they are not rich, but it’s a big damned difference all the same. I had no money after college, either. Same thing–I could call the parents, but didn’t. I’m proud that I stood on my own two feet, but I begin to assume that I have it harder than others or that I am somehow more worthy. What utter BS.
And then the folks who pat themselves on the back for being broke and surviving. No empathy. And I’m not impressed. Why don’t we want to help??? Even if you can’t, why not at least have a willing heart? Just fucked up examples of our fellow citizens.
There but for the grace of God, go I: For me, my mantra every day of the week and twice on Sunday.