A Town Without Pity
Sunday, August 11, 2013 3:40:14 PM
Sunday, August 11, 2013
A Town Without Pity
------ Original Message ------
From: Alan Gilbert
Date: 8/11/2013 1:58 AM
To: democratic-indv@du.edu;
Subject: [Democratic-indv] An elite without pity...
An elite without pity...
In
America, a fabulously wealthy elite, more swollen than the robber
barrens, eats unceasingly - takes food stamps from the poor - and scorns
those who suffer, here and abroad. In the New York Times, Charles Blow
has a true - and therefore remarkable - column on Washington as "A Town
Without Pity." In it, he speaks of the Congressional representatives and
others as "pariahs," as people who blame, he says, the very poor. That a
tendency like this exists among the leaders of a supposed affluent
society - a society whose representatives trumpet their Christianity
while scorning the poor (Jesus preached for the poor, as his own words
and the great philosopher Hegel remind us) - is repulsive. The rich are
parasites or exploiters (even those innovators who also make some
important contributons). They live off the labor of others and dominate
the government as a particular tyrannical - oligarchic in Aristotle's
terms - interest.
In addition, they are often sociopaths who have
no concern for and blame others ("blaming the victim" - with indigenous
people, the enslaved, the poor, the unemployed and the homeless as
emblems - is a widespread elite trope). America is rapidly becoming, in
high places, an odious society. (see Paul Krugman's reflections,
invoking Michal Kalecki, on the war against Keynsian policies - science
be damned - instituted by the rich here).
***
Obama has
been forced by Edward Snowden to call for some balancing of the spying
Bush-Obama apparatus he now heads (the Times says here, echoing an elite
attempt to evade the law, that he has eschewed only "brutal
interrogations" - the right word is torture which American and
international law bars; again, it is remarkable that Blow's words appear
in the Times. Still, Obama has concern for ordinary people and his
Presidency is pretty well all that holds the American elite, in itself,
from the starkest villainy.
***
Occupy - and in the
future, hopefully a much stronger version - are the only things that
will reestablish a modicum of wellbeing in America. We are a society
which has always progressed through such movements from below (the
Revolution, the abolitionists led by John Brown and Frederick Douglass,
the women's suffrage movement, the union movement, the civil rights
movement, the anti-war movements and the like).
***
Blow cites a Wall Street Journal poll and a study by Susan Fiske at Princeton alleging:
“'The
stereotypes of poor people in the United States are among the most
negative prejudices that we have. And people basically view particularly
homeless people as having no redeeming qualities — there’s not the
competence for anything, not having good intentions and not being
trustworthy.'”
Fiske's report, as recounted by Blow, makes
prejudice too democratic (though speaking unclearly or ambiguously this
central issue, she also speaks very well on prejudice and her
relationship with Gordon Allport's work here). But most of us want
health care. Most of us want decent jobs, Most of us know that the
danger of poverty is one accident, one hospital bill, one lay-off
away...
The elite has manipulated elections, gerrymandering
districts and often disenfranchising the poor. The right to vote is not
actually a right, not sacrosanct (one major party from the very white
Justice John Roberts to every Republican state legislature/Governor is a
standing attack on it).
Perhaps this turn away from the
condescension of the elite (as human beings, the elite need to be
stopped and require pity) is why Blow's article made the Times.
***
Nonetheless, "A Town Without Pity" makes the need for movements from below glaring.
‘A Town Without Pity’
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: August 9, 2013
America
was once the land of Lady Liberty, beckoning the world: “Give me your
tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the
wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Today’s
America — at least as measured by the actions and inactions of the
pariahs who roam its halls of power and the people who put them there —
is insular, cruel and uncaring.
In this America, people blame
welfare for creating poverty rather than for mitigating the impact of
it. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in June found that the No. 1
reason people gave for our continuing poverty crisis was: “Too much
welfare that prevents initiative.”
In this America, the House can
— as it did in July — pass a farm bill that left out the food stamp
program at a time when a record number of Americans, nearly 48 million,
are depending on the benefits.
In this America, a land of
immigrants, comprehensive immigration reform can be stalled in The
People’s Branch of government, and anti-reform mouthpieces like Ann
Coulter and Pat Buchanan can warn that immigration reform will be the
end of the country.
And in today’s America, poverty and homelessness can easily seep beneath the wall we erect in our minds to define it.
A
December report by the United States Conference of Mayors that surveyed
25 cities found that all but 4 of them reported an increase in requests
for emergency food aid since 2011, and three-fourths of them expected
those requests to increase in 2013.
The report also found that 60
percent of the cities surveyed had seen an increase in homelessness,
and the same percentage of cities expected homelessness to increase in
2013.
But poverty isn’t easily written off as an inner-city
ailment. It has now become a suburban problem. A report this week by the
Brookings Institution found that “during the 2000s, major metropolitan
suburbs became home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population
in America.”
Nor can economic insecurity be written off as a
minorities-only issue. According to survey results published last month
by The Associated Press:
“Nonwhites still have a higher risk of
being economically insecure, at 90 percent. But compared with the
official poverty rate, some of the biggest jumps under the newer measure
are among whites, with more than 76 percent enduring periods of
joblessness, life on welfare or near-poverty.”
How did we come to such a pass? Why aren’t more politicians — and people in general — expressing outrage and showing empathy?
Part
of our current condition is obviously partisan. Republicans have become
the party of “blame the victim.” Whatever your lesser lot in life, it’s
completely within your means to correct, according to their logic.
Poverty, hunger, homelessness and desperation aren’t violence to the
spirit but motivation to the will. If you want more and you work harder,
all your problems will disappear. Sink or swim. Pull yourself up. Get
over it. Of course, that narrow conservative doctrine denies a broader
reality: that there are working poor and chronically unemployed — people
who do want and who do work and who do want to work, but who remain
stuck on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
In this regard,
Republicans have all but abandoned the idea of compassionate
conservatism and are diving headlong into callous conservatism.
But another problem may be more broad-based: the way that many Americans look at the poor with disgust.
As
Susan Fiske, a Princeton professor who has studied people’s attitudes
toward the poor for more than a decade, told me on Friday:
“The
stereotypes of poor people in the United States are among the most
negative prejudices that we have. And people basically view particularly
homeless people as having no redeeming qualities — there’s not the
competence for anything, not having good intentions and not being
trustworthy.”
Fiske’s research shows that people respond not only
to the poor and homeless with revulsion, but they also react negatively
to people they perceive as undocumented immigrants — essentially anyone
without an address.
If some people’s impulse is to turn up a
nose rather than extend a hand, no wonder we send so many lawmakers
empty of empathy to Congress. No wonder more people don’t demand that
Congress stand up for the least among us rather than on them.
As Fiske so aptly put it: “It seems like Washington is a place without pity right now. A town without pity.”
***
For the table on attitudes accompanying Blow's article, see here.
Alan Maki
9:48 AM (1 minute ago)
to
uniting_people, ZZZ, Karen, chblow, Alan, rep.phyllis.ka.,
rep.tom.anzelc, sen.david.toma., Alice, Andrea, Andrew, Anna, Barb, Ben,
Bob, Bob, Bob, Brian, Bud, Carlos, Carly, Carolyn, Chris, Cindy, Connie
I want to thank Robin Hensel for bringing this to our attention.
Just
so we are all on the same page... this discussion revolves around this
article, A Town Without Pity" and the links included:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/opinion/blow-a-town-without-pity.html?_r=0>
And note; I have sent this to Charles Blow.
Several
important points I think Alan Gilbert misses here. Plus what Charles
Blow, writing in the New York Times, doesn't tell us about these numbers
and the very important number of "8%" that Charles Blow leaves out for
some reason (a "reason" kind of like a New York Times' "reason?").
First
of all, if you add up all the numbers from the chart Blow provides,
less the 24% (all the numbers add up to 87%; what happened to the other
13%?) you get a very good figure that 63% of the American people do have
a very good grasp of poverty.
But; and this is a very important
"but." But Charles Blow leaves out the number "8"--- 8%. 8% is the
number of people who feel that ALL the reasons minus the 24% are
responsible for poverty--- so, 71% of the people have a very good grasp
of what causes poverty and demonstrate an empathy for the poor.
Most
likely if one were to include the 24% this majority would say they are
part of the problem, too. If you have to scratch your head thinking
about this you probably aren't going to understand much about poverty.
We
aren't told the races (nor class) of the people interviewed since the
numbers indicate there is an almost complete lack of understanding of
the relationship between racism and poverty... if you don't have a job
or you have a poverty wage paying job you are going to be poor. Well,
guess what? Because of racist discrimination in employment practices
without Affirmative Action being enforced people of color, in a society
dominated by racism, are going to be poor.
One should read this article by Charles Blow directly from the New York Times' website <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/opinion/blow-a-town-without-pity.html?_r=0>
and follow through on EACH and EVERY link encountered in order to get a
better understanding of the issue itself--- plus, get an understanding
why one has to "read between the lines" and question every single
article or op-ed piece that appears in the New York Times and "how polls
are conducted" in a tainted way to begin with.
For instance; why weren't people asked if capitalism creates poverty?
Why weren't people asked if so few people being so extremely rich causes poverty?
Why weren't people asked if these dirty wars are creating poverty?
Something happened to 5% of the people in this poll--- what is with
this? Is it possible 5% of the people wanted these other three questions
asked before they answered the pollsters?
Charles Blow could
have referred to the last article written by his former colleague at the
New York Times, Bob Herbert; why didn't he? He didn't want to get the
ax like Herbert did? An interesting question when it comes to what kind
of "freedom of the press" we have in this country since the New York
Times makes the boast that it is the best reflection of "freedom of the
press" and apparently a lot of people buy into this hype because we all
use the New York Times as a point of reference more often than not.
But, here is what Charles Blow missed:
Losing Our Way by Bob Herbert...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=0>
Now,
Minnesota politicians in the state legislature--- Democrats (with their
huge super-majority) and the minority Republicans who have been
relegated meaningless and without any decision-making status
what-so-ever except what the Democrats grant to them which is
essentially acceptance of the Republican agenda!--- have a kewl and
nifty little committee they call "Ladder Out Of Poverty."
But,
their perverted sense of what a "ladder" is leaves much to be desired
because their "ladder" has only missing rungs and rotten rungs. If one
can reach the first rung of their "ladder" the rungs breaks and they
fall back down to the bottom and it becomes harder and harder to reach
another rung.Charles Blow correctly points out, these politicians don't
understand poverty and have no empathy for the poor.
Wars kill
jobs just like they kill people; and these dirty imperialist wars, as
anyone can see, also kills freedom and democracy--- one reason why the
New York Times columnist, Charles Blow, can conveniently get away with
not discussing these issues like his fellow columnist Bob Herbert did.
People who are involved in the struggles for peace, full employment,
universal health care, equality and defense of democracy are not
permitted in the proverbial "public square." Remember, Occupy Wall
Street was chased out of the "public square" and silence by billy club
swinging police and police firing tear gas and rubber-covered steel
bullets at them not to mention the little fact that the Obama
Administration unleashed a force of over 500 FBI "Special Agents" to
disrupt and disorient the Occupy Movement from within.
Charles
Blow never adds up the figures because he would have to explain why, in a
country which boasts--- and the New York Times has been the biggest
boaster for decades--- that we live in the world's greatest bastion of
democracy--- that not only a bunch of uncaring, insensitive politicians
are making the decisions in this country, but these politicians--- Obama
especially--- are bribed by Wall Street to work for these wealthy
parasitical vultures who profit from exploitation to begin with, there
profits get a big boost from racism and they reap fabulous super profits
from war and they have even managed to profit from the very poverty
they create by all kinds of schemes from cutting food stamps and
transferring the funding to the lucrative Military-Industrial Complex to
enabling Wall Street bankers to reap huge profits just for issuing the
plastic debit cards that are now food stamps.
It is not only as
Charles Blow states that these politicians are an uncaring and
non-empathetic bunch of morons and insinuates they have screwed up
priorities; it is because they work for their Wall Street masters whose
one and only concern is the bottom line--- PROFITS.
How else can
one explain why the billionaire Democratic Governor of Minnesota, backed
by the Rockefeller family's wealth, leading a Democratic super-majority
would leave the state's Minimum Wage at $6.25 an hour--- lower than
Wisconsin with Walker at the helm, and lower than Mississippi or North
Carolina--- only Georgia, Wyoming and Puerto Rico have lower Minimum
Wages. Even the Virgin Islands have a higher Minimum Wage than
Minnesota!
Any little school child can figure out that workers
without jobs are going to be poor. And these same schoolchildren
understand that workers receiving poverty wages are going to be poor---
concepts that Wall Street bribed politicians and billionaires like Mark
Dayton not only don't understand--- but they don't even want to hear
this.
What would poverty wage workers workers receive from the
Obama Administration and Governor Dayton's Administration if they took
to the streets demanding justice? Most likely, instead of the raise
America needs, the sharp blow over the head from the policeman's bill
club, tear gas and steel covered rubber bullets--- not exactly what one
can feed a family on but the way Wall Street intends to try to survive.
Say,
has anyone thought to look into the Full Employment Act of 1945 as
proposed by liberal Democratic Congressman Wright Patman to see what
became of that?
Why is it that not one single member of the
Congressional Progressive Caucus would provide me with a copy of the
Full Employment Act of 1945 and a transcript of the Hearings--- not even
for a fee?
Is there a reason why politicians fixated on "jobs,
jobs, jobs" when they want our votes refuse to make themselves
accountable for not having full employment? Something to think about,
eh? Especially when one considers the callousness of this 24%.
Which begs the question:
Why hasn't the Congressional Progressive Caucus brought forward real Full Employment legislation?
Perhaps
if they don't know how to draft Full Employment legislation someone
else should and they should run on this legislation as part of their
platform for peace, which like poverty, is another word no one among
this 24% wants to hear about.
Peace, Full Employment, Living
Wages and Full Equality are like four peas in a healthy pod; wars,
unemployment, poverty and racism are like four peas in a moldy, rotten
pod... the rotten peas in the pod are going to cause the entire pod
eventually rot... any home gardener should be able to understand this
simple concept even if Obama's "economic advisers" from Wall Street
don't understand.
Keep in mind that here in Minnesota, not only
did billionaire Dayton and his Democratic super-majority not raise the
Minimum Wage at all... they also refuse to enforce Affirmative Action
even when it comes to two huge billion-dollar public works projects: the
Viking Stadium and the Bridge over the St. Croix--- a joint project
with the Scott Walker's Republican super-majority in Wisconsin. Dayton
and these Democrats might be able to get away with "blaming the
Republicans" for not enforcing Affirmative Action on the billion dollar
Bridge over the St. Croix River; but, what is these Democrat's excuse
for refusing to enforce Affirmative Action in the building of the
billion dollar-plus Viking Stadium? Same excuse for not raising the
Minimum Wage to a real living wage? Just what is the excuse? Does the
excuse have anything to do with corporate profits and the super-profits
derived from racism?
I take it that no one will mind me providing
a Marxist viewpoint; after all, the New York Times' Paul Krugman just
encouraged people to read a Marxist point of view: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/opinion/krugman-phony-fear-factor.html?ref=paulkrugman even though Krugman is more enamored with Keynes.
Anyways;
I look forward to further discussion of all of this. And who knows;
further discussion might lead to the kind of grassroots and
rank-and-file working class mass action that might lead to at least some
kind of miserly increase in Minnesota's shameful poverty Minimum Wage.
Anyone ever thought of legislatively tying the Minimum Wage to all "cost
of living" factors with regular increases that would lead to an
improved "standard of living" of living beyond just keeping up with the
"cost of living?"
Come on; it's not like I am suggesting
Minnesota State Legislators should include casino workers under the
protection of the States "Freedom to Breath" legislation and their right
to work in smoke-free workplaces like all other workers or extend the
protections of state and federal labor laws to workers employed in the
Indian Gaming Industry.
Alan L. Maki
--
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541
Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com
Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
