My friend John, the plumber, stopped by to look at my pipes this week. His sister is a communist. Ann is an extreme socialist who has seen the Cuban defects of totalitarian communism up close. John is a good plumber. He likes to work hard and is merry when he works. A former navy man and occasional billiards gambler, John was telling me that he knows he's not going to be able to work as a plumber much longer. After close to thirty-five years of hard work, his hands are pretty busted up; holding a thin pen is next to impossible for him. John never expected to live as long as he has, he told me. He lived through the fast living, substance rich post Nixon days in South Florida. It never dawned on John that he needed to think about a time when he'll be too old to work. That time, for John, is getting larger on the horizon.
It's good that the Veteran's hospital is close by. John is getting his primary health care through the V.A. now. The monthly amount he will get from social security when he claims it, will cover the payment on his mortgage and keep him from starving. Financial security haunts John and most of us Americans.
Without an unexpected financial windfall, middle class people like John and me will continue to just get by without starving. Too many of our middle class folk, who go to work every day, still go hungry. And so while I am able to feed myself and put a little bit of my wages into the crazy casino called Wall Street to gamble some assemblage of financial security, John has 'doubled down' on Iraqi Dinar.
This is usually a scam and promise of fantastic returns when and if the Dinar is revalued by the plutocrats. Apparently, someone that John knows here in Georgia drove to Texas in order to pick up a trunk load of Dinar toward the end of the Bush disaster years and has them locked up in a safe deposit box just waiting for terrific wealth to rain down on the invested hopefuls.
Iraqi Dinar, Mega Millions, Power Ball, 401K, home ownership; pick your middle class game of chance. Once upon a brief time when wealth distribution was more just, financial security was part of the American dream. If someone worked hard, acted honestly, and played by the rules, the capitalist economy held up its end of the bargain and rewarded the middle class with a decent helping of wealth. More than anything, that bargain was part of the cold war struggle of ideas. As long as there was something for the capitalists to gain (the hearts and minds of the middle class) , there was an invested interest in keeping those agreements. Now that totalitarian socialism has been properly humiliated and dismantled, those agreements are no longer profitable and have been renegotiated without us. Today the middle class American dream is so desperate to catch up after a generation of economic assault, our only hope for financial security is a crazy bet of chance.
Socialist ideals like Veteran's health care and Social Security are under extreme pressure to be disassembled by powerful plutocrats. My New Years hope is that these working solutions are made stronger, not weaker, by progressive thinking decision makers. For the time being, though, I noticed a billboard that showed one of the upcoming lottery drawings could make someone very rich in a matter of seconds. Since working hard doesn't guarantee much more than not starving in America today, be certain that I will pay my two dollar tax this week to soften the plutocratic battery of public education and dream of a meager chance to live the nearly forgotten American bargain of financial security.
As it turns out, the American dream really was just a dream. More and more of us are being rudely awakened to the harsh and cold realities of a capitalist mourning.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Man v. Food - the first of 1000 cuts
To date, probably the most reliable and widely-accepted water estimate to produce a pound of beef is the figure of 2,500 gallons/pound. Newsweek once put it another way: "the water that goes into a 1,000 pound steer would float a destroyer."
I thought about this on Christmas day as the Travel Network's 'Man v. Food' marathon was playing as background to a family gathering. Casually, we watched Adam Richman eat a seventy-two ounce steak, the world's biggest burger, and a two pound 'Dagwood' sandwich, while our own six pound pork roast smelled delicious roasting in the oven.
A call to give up meat is too predictable. I enjoy a nice cut of meat for dinner. It is satisfying and complete. Besides that, totalitarian control, a memory that still haunts the American phyche when considering socialism, spawns from the basic notions of dietary control. This naive socialist is not interested in a command control basic human dignities. It is not my desire to judge the number of calories that anybody consumes or preach the virtues of a vegan diet.
But it is the examination of gluttony as entertainment that begins to expose the kernel argument of why America needs socialism.
Consider a poor child at Christmas. The child does not know why she is poor and probably doesn't really think much about being poor. It is just the way life is for her. A day or so before 'the big day', she goes to the church or other charity outreach with her mother to collect a contribution so that Christmas will exist in some fashion. What is the cultural disconnect for this child who is just barely not hungry, when images of excess and gluttony flood our way of life? Maybe she thinks that one day when she is grown up, she too will eat an eight patty hamburger because that is part of our American experience. The 10,000 gallons of water consumed to create that experience does not resonate with her. She only wants to experience what others do. The die of consumption has been cast. The blinding quest for riches and comparative experience is begun. Frustration is ensured.
I love to eat good food as much as any American does, and probably more so. As I examine the cultural and social costs of my food consumption, I take a step back to consider a slightly different way of relating to the society in which I live. Are there ways that I can be more socially responsible to others while perfectly and completely sustaining my life? There are. For one, I will not buy the beer advertised on the Travel Channel during the 'Man v. Food' Christmas day marathon. Second, I will continue to savor and enjoy beef, but only when celebrating life's landmarks. These are my personal pledges.
Social change is not lastingly achieved in revolutionary swings. Social welfare must be assured by a critical mass of collective small changes. Make no mistake, I absolutely call for the overthrow of the American Plutocracy and establishment of Democratic Socialism. However, direct political engagement, while satisfying, is imprudent.
Victory will come from a thousand small cuts.
I thought about this on Christmas day as the Travel Network's 'Man v. Food' marathon was playing as background to a family gathering. Casually, we watched Adam Richman eat a seventy-two ounce steak, the world's biggest burger, and a two pound 'Dagwood' sandwich, while our own six pound pork roast smelled delicious roasting in the oven.
A call to give up meat is too predictable. I enjoy a nice cut of meat for dinner. It is satisfying and complete. Besides that, totalitarian control, a memory that still haunts the American phyche when considering socialism, spawns from the basic notions of dietary control. This naive socialist is not interested in a command control basic human dignities. It is not my desire to judge the number of calories that anybody consumes or preach the virtues of a vegan diet.
But it is the examination of gluttony as entertainment that begins to expose the kernel argument of why America needs socialism.
Consider a poor child at Christmas. The child does not know why she is poor and probably doesn't really think much about being poor. It is just the way life is for her. A day or so before 'the big day', she goes to the church or other charity outreach with her mother to collect a contribution so that Christmas will exist in some fashion. What is the cultural disconnect for this child who is just barely not hungry, when images of excess and gluttony flood our way of life? Maybe she thinks that one day when she is grown up, she too will eat an eight patty hamburger because that is part of our American experience. The 10,000 gallons of water consumed to create that experience does not resonate with her. She only wants to experience what others do. The die of consumption has been cast. The blinding quest for riches and comparative experience is begun. Frustration is ensured.
I love to eat good food as much as any American does, and probably more so. As I examine the cultural and social costs of my food consumption, I take a step back to consider a slightly different way of relating to the society in which I live. Are there ways that I can be more socially responsible to others while perfectly and completely sustaining my life? There are. For one, I will not buy the beer advertised on the Travel Channel during the 'Man v. Food' Christmas day marathon. Second, I will continue to savor and enjoy beef, but only when celebrating life's landmarks. These are my personal pledges.
Social change is not lastingly achieved in revolutionary swings. Social welfare must be assured by a critical mass of collective small changes. Make no mistake, I absolutely call for the overthrow of the American Plutocracy and establishment of Democratic Socialism. However, direct political engagement, while satisfying, is imprudent.
Victory will come from a thousand small cuts.
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