I took my intro from the 4th paragraph of my post:
To admit that we do not have control over our destinies is unpopular for a couple of reasons. I feel that both explain a lot of the contradiction inherent in conservative thinking today, particularly when the conservative thinker is not in the upper class, or when the conservative thinker is a sincerely generous person who desires to help others out but seems to continually fight against policies that would do so. In these cases, when conservative thinking seems blatantly self-defeating, I am reminded of the following....
In Tillie Olsen’s 1961 (ish) short story, "I Stand Here Ironing," the narrator gives an account, a monologue essentially, of her daughter’s upbringing in which we learn that her husband left them before the girl was one year old, she worked all minimum wage jobs she could find, having to leave her infant girl with neighbors, etc. She describes the time as the early 30’s, pre-WPA. The mother did not have the capacity to raise her daughter as she wished, and the daughter suffered depression and became anti-social as a result of some of the neglect.
The mother, narrating, seems struck by guilt, wishing she’d have done a few things differently, but also seems to have an intrinsic understanding that much of her daughter’s life was out of her control. Still, as with most people, the mother never admits to herself the extent to which she did not have control over the scenario, that there was no decision she made that guaranteed her outcome, and no decision she could have knowingly made to bring about a different outcome.
The monologue ends with the mother stating that she hopes her daughter understands the extent to which she does have power over her own future. I don’t have my text, but the mother says something like, May she understand she is more than this dress, helpless before the Iron. Lovely words, but a disappointing result. Not for the story--the story is perfect. But for the woman. She was helpless before the iron, I believe -- and I believe the evidence of that is substantial. And her daughter was and is as well, and we all are. But this is not a very popular thing to recognize.
To admit that we do not have control over our destinies is unpopular for a couple of reasons. I feel that both explain a lot of the contradiction inherent in conservative thinking today, particularly when the conservative thinker is not in the upper class, or when the conservative thinker is a sincerely generous person who desires to help others out but seems to continually fight against policies that would do so. In these cases, when conservative thinking seems blatantly self-defeating, I am reminded of the following:
- It is human nature to believe we have control of our lives and influence over our surroundings, whether there is evidence of this or not. This often expresses itself as superstition: an ancient tribe believes their ceremony brings rain or battle victory, or a modern Christian believes that paying tithing resulted in that raise at work. I ought not say it is exclusively human nature, but, animal nature. Other animals, like Pigeons, also associate external happenings with their own actions, despite the fact that the two are actually completely unrelated.
- In a fundamentalist capitalist society, in which human value is measured in production and price tags and hourly wages (both subtly, like how we ask strangers upon meeting in the bus, "What do you do?" and directly, as in the way wealth purchases influence and prestige), it is considered immoral and irresponsible to acknowledge (or even consider) that our lives take routes that are beyond our control. To question this moral standard is to put a knife to the neck of the American Dream, but the American Dream is such a staying force specifically because of the fear of admitting helplessness, of acceptance that we do not control our destiny. At the social level, such questioning of the American Dream is highly stigmatized. It is falsely propagated that their are two life options: We either take responsibility for all our choices and their consequences, and hold fast to the belief that we can attain whatever we set our hearts to, OR, we live lives devoid or responsibility or self inspection, and we sink to the bottom of society, unmotivated.
As uncomfortable as it is for humans to admit, reality dictates that we have little control over our destinies. I’m not implying that we are all bound merely by physical laws and our free will is an illusion (that’s another discussion, and one I have thought little about). I’m stating the fact that the long term results of our actions are not closely tied to those actions, that to ignore the infinite amount of external factors influencing results is utterly illogical, bordering on insane, in fact. It translates to the sort of rabid dogmatism of the republican party, and is just as absurd and anti-evidence as their stance on climate change, evolutionary theory, trickle down economics, and sex ed.
Class mobility appears to be quite unsubstantiated. The biggest influence on our incomes appears to be the incomes of our parents. Big surprise. Give me a million dollars, and there is a high probability that I can make it work for me, and make myself wealthy. Because I know how to. Because when I was 11, my dad, an upper middle class small business owner, left the Investor’s Business Daily out for me after he’d finished it, and I followed all my favorite stocks, and I opened a mutual account with 110 dollars I’d earned selling Sam’s Club candy bought in bulk at soccer games and on the playground in elementary (till I got in trouble for that).
Take for example what happens when I’m in a bind over which I have no control. Last month my motorcycle was totaled when a guy pulled out in front of me. I was unharmed, luckily, but at 60 MPH, the bike was totaled. The guy’s insurance company paid me fair market value, which paid off my bike and put 300 dollars in my pocket. The bank will not give me a new loan for another vehicle, because my income is very low as I am a student (and the bank won’t count my student loans, even though I take enough to pay for transportation). So I have no vehicle. My sister hears of this and calls up three days ago. She says she and her husband have been looking for an investment, because they were getting 6% and now they are getting 1.1%, and if I’d like to, they could give me a 4000 2 year loan at 5%. Talk about Deus ex machina.
Good luck to a low wage worker from a low wage family in that scenario. He’s out of a vehicle and calling buddies for transportation to work, at best. And if we were, hypothetically, coworkers on the day we both got in the accident, with exact amounts of assets and debt, I'd wager that 5 years out, that single loss of a vehicle, and my subsequent gaining of a new one because of being part of a relatively wealthy family, we'll be in very different places.
So how illogical is it to look at that man standing in the unemployment line, his motorcycle totaled, his job lost after he can’t drive the 75 miles to work (I drive 75 miles to work; that’s why I mention this - seriously, someone else in my position, without the financially able family, would be screwed), and then look at me, teaching composition at a university and working on an MA, and say that one or the other of us contributes more to society, or has made something of himself, or is doing a better job of trying to make something of himself, etc. etc.? It is absurd. It is. But even for those who do not vocalize it, such beliefs are reactionary, at least in this US culture. We view an employed or studying person as somehow more valuable, more "good," than a non-working one. And we make such value judgments within the ranks of the working as well. The line workers at GM, they don’t deserve 28$ per hour with great benefits to put a screw in a door! But that physician, well, she’s a doctor! Of course she makes half a million a year - you want to make it 300,000 by lowering medicare payments? And the elementary school teacher, he deserves more than he’s getting, because he's more valuable than the line worker.
This is why I’m starting to think I’m a socialist. I just don’t get it. I don’t get how we can say that any one person deserves more than anyone else. I consider myself slightly right of the centerpoint between a democrat and a socialist, because I believe that, in principle, every person deserves a job and every job deserves equal pay, but in practice, as long as we do what we can to guarantee the availability of health care, food, and shelter for every person in our country (our country first, because we have to start somewhere), capitalism, and its arbitrary and unpredictable and impossible-to-justify awards, is acceptable. We are apes, after all, and we’d be doing pretty well for apes if we could get to that point.
Of course, if we acknowledge that we don't have control, that no decisions we make can definitely bring about particular results, we have to admit that the same is true for everyone else, and we no longer feel justified in our wealth, or deserving of less than basic human need. The upper classes hate to consider that they are not wealthy on their own merits, that their wealth is not completely deserved, that poor people couldn't be wealthy like them even if they wished to be. Such recognition would force wealthy people to accept taxation and redistribution as necessary and very, very fair.
Another issue, not for this posting, is the way in which the obsession with control and belief that we are in control and must be in control results in the extreme religiosity we see in our country. To relinquish our false beliefs about having (and needing to have) control is frightening and freeing. As an atheist who was a sincere and true believing Mormon till age 19 (4 years ago), I found the transition terrifying, honestly, horribly frightening, but ultimately empowering.