Monday, November 23, 2015

Pawns

I grew up with people who look like these dumb clucks, talk like these dumb clucks, and I know how liberal snobs look down their noses at them... uneducated... troglodytic... banjo-pickin'... drugstore truck-drivin' men and women... not the friendly, hard-working, quick-to-laugh folks they imagine themselves to be, who'd give the shirt off their back but don't threaten their families.  So you might (if anybody were reading this) ask me, as a born-and-bred redneck, who knows working people need unions, families need free healthcare for all, public assistance is a human right for people who fall through the cracks, and with friends like the US most countries don't need any enemies,... well, which are they?

Both. Some are just plain mean and stupid.  Frack them.  Others mean well, but they hate because they're afraid, not just for themselves but for their families and their communities, old folks, children, and they've learned by being kicked around by greedy bosses and selfish non-union coworkers and liberal snobs and hypocritical churchgoers that they have to fend for themselves.  And they're afraid because many don't know much about the world outside of football and church and work and when they start getting lots of confusing facts they don't like to feel stupid, so they better hurry up and understand, and besides the devil uses clever words to confuse good christians, so they look to leaders who boil it down to simple terms and reassure them the world is just as simple as they'd like it to be, as it is comforting for it to be.  It confirms what they were told the bible says (most never read it).  They're told by people they respect to be afraid and that it's okay to be tired of being afraid (and there I agree 100%). 

They're human door mats who want something they can be proud of, so they rally around the cross and the flag.  These things were good enough for their parents, who worked hard and loved them, or they like to remember it that way, or if not, then they try to model themselves on other respected figures in their communities for whom these things were good enough, and liberal snots try to run them down all the time, the people they respect, who deserve their respect and more, run them down because they never had the opportunities they had, because they were satisfied with making a living and raising a family, which is after all the backbone of the country, is it not?

Well, it ought to be.  Work should be respected, valued, rewarded, revered.  What they don't know and aren't trying to hear is that the very same people who need them to hate Muslims and turn away refugees and rally around the cross and the flag and sacrifice for their families and communities and country, the fabled 'one percent', aren't sacrificing.  They're making a killing.  Union-busting.  Fear-mongering.  War-profiteering.  And sometimes even running for office themselves if they think they can pull the wool down far enough.  On the other hand, some will take a different tactic and try to say they support unions and the Fight for $15, and so on.  But 'we have to be reasonable.'   'Yes, you need more money -- how about $12?  Could you get by on that?  Me?  Oh, I'll take another $12 MILLION!

Either way, they all say everybody should be proud to be uneducated, poor, down-trodden -- and truly, there is no shame in it -- but it's no great honor, either.  The honor is in overcoming these obstacles, fighting against them, pushing forward, trying to get rid of poverty and ignorance and fear, standing up for something better for ourselves, our families, our communities... organizing!

And that's that they call themselves doing.  At least the best among them do.  The problem is, if you're rallying behind somebody because they're telling you what you want to hear, because you look alike, talk alike, even though they sit in their throne/board room and call the shots and take breaks to sit on golden toilet seats and join millionaire clubs and play millionaire games, instead of together with other poor and working people who may look different, talk different, worship differently, eat, drink, sing, work differently, but who are under attack by people who want to rob them of their homes, their livelihoods, their freedom, and ultimately their lives, just as you are, then you're just a pawn.  And until the pawns of whatever color get together and turn the tables on the kings, queens, knights, bishops, and rooks, they will continue to be the first to be sacrificed in somebody else's game.

No comments: