Previous generations forged by extreme hardship and long and bloody wars created some of the most progressive legislation to protect everyone from extreme poverty, disease and hunger. The previous generation fought against income inequality by means of taxation in an attempt to level the playing field, the era of the quasi aristocratic robber barons was thought to be over. Education was deemed to be a right and not a luxury. This culminated in the sixties and its heady days of protest and boom.
Since then there has been a slow and gradual clawing back of social reform and income inequality has returned to pre Great Depression levels; with all that that entails. Driven on by relentless propaganda we first passed through the "greed is good" era to what I am now beginning to see as the petty generation.
What do I mean by the petty generation?
A vision where the victim is the criminal.
The poorest are to be derided as scroungers, welfare queens and a pox on society an easy targets for media outrage. Struggling single mothers are painted as the lowest of the low and as a reason for society's decline rather than as a result.
Union workers are seen as a privileged class and unions themselves as an evil to be crushed. After all as responsible adults we can negotiate with the powerful for a good living wage as we are all so intelligent and hard to replace. The last time I advertised for a position in my business I had over 200 applications and a number offered to work for free for the much needed experience, and these were people with post grad degrees.
Government workers are painted as lazy and overpaid and non essential to a functioning democracy. all except the symbol of our power; the military. Oh and of course the bits we need at any given time that might affect our lives at that particular moment, parks, natural disasters and flying home for the weekend, you know, the essential bits.
We only react when we ourselves are affected and the "common wisdom" is that the root cause of this lies in others less well off than ourselves. We should therefore take from those least able to defend themselves and give to the most privileged in the vain hope of their generosity that some will trickle back down to us.
There has been resistance to this major shift in perception that we are being held back by the poor and that the rich will through the goodness of their own hearts create a better society. Funny how this has never worked in the past, but still is given credence.
When the richest fuck up the economy they are not only pardoned but almost encouraged to keep doing the same things again. When the poorest try the same daylight robbery they are imprisoned and impoverished further.
Education has become a luxury and and a continuing financial burden for all but the wealthiest.
An indebted population from cradle to grave is now the norm. Housing costs, education costs and declining income have seen to that.
The fight for a living wage is mocked on a daily basis yet extreme wealth is glorified. When the richest return a crumb or two the are heralded as true philanthropists, oh the charity.
Any resistance to this is painted as anarchy, just look how the occupy movement was corralled and crushed, look at the image of it painted by the MSM.
Yet on the other side; petty and selfish behavior was well funded by some of the richest people in the country and is causing the government shutdown at the moment. This same petty mindedness is driving the austerity programs in Europe and is also emboldening the return of fascist philosophy.
It is amazing to me how the poorest are perceived as the threat; yet the richest are walking away with the swag. Any attempt to address this imbalance is labelled as socialism, as if the way of the world was to have the maximum number of poor to feed the greed of the few.
As this imbalance continues to grow the corporate mouthpiece of the rich the MSM continues the daily attacks on the remnants of the "Great Society" soon there will be nothing left at all.
To me the attacks on a Affordable Care Act as some form of socialism are telling and a sign societal decline, forced to buy health care from a corporation is socialism, well color me purple indeed.
Medicare and social security are under daily attack, since both these programs have the financial sector drooling at the prospect of access to these revenue streams. As we all know the money would be safe in their hands, ha ha ha.
There is a reason faith or trust in government is at an all time low and that is because it has ceased to represent the majority for the gain of the few, yet any resistance to this is crushed by prevailing meme that government is somehow essentially bad. It's a vicious circle, one driven by pettiness, jealousy and fear.
There are still signs of hope, but little direct resistance. The daily drone from those that know and those that just plain hate is almost deafening.
I have always been of the opinion that lending a helping hand even if sometimes you get bitten in return, in the end is the way forward. This should also be the principle by which we are governed, rather than giving the wealth and power to a few and expecting it will all work out in the end.
Call me a socialist if you will, I'll embrace the compliment.