-Caveat Lector-
Continuing discussion:
This is my rant for the evening:
In order to prosper in a capitalist society you
need capital in one form or another. You would agree? The individual who
has capital (money, land, skills, political connections, education,
membership in a politically powerful organization of one kind or another)
has advantages over the lone individual. If your name is Mellon, or
Rockefeller or Bush or Harriman--you are beginning life with any number of
advantages that you can capitalize on and benefit from. Just by virtue of
being born into a particular family, if your surname is the "right" one,
doors open for you. You can enjoy the benefit of any number of
different unofficial affirmative action programs. These are all
voluntary, of course, but they have always played an instrumental role in
determining one's life prospects.
Now, you can, of course, "rise" on the
basis of
your own skills...but sooner or later, as an individual you will have to
form alliances of one kind or another with those who can benefit you..
(Lawyers, business consultants, local political bosses, key members in the
particular guild or profession you're entering...who hold pivotal
positions in these non-government bureaucracies... they determine who will
be promoted...who will move higher in the organization and who will stay
behind.) Initiative, hard work, integrity, and basic competency are NOT
necessarily rewarded. In addition to having the right stuff, it also pays
to have the right look...be the right color, be the right gender, fit the
corporate image, know the right people.
Just basic integrity and competency is not enough. You must learn to
master the codes (stated and unstated rules) that govern the organization.
Who rises and who falls in terms of income, social prestige, etc. is not
necessarily determined on the basis of hard work and loyalty to the
company.
Some firms are operated like Mafioso "familias." They have legal
activities (while at the same time, they engage in illegal/criminal
activities).... The sons and daughters of the owners usually inherit
these operations, but the businesses survive despite the incompetence and
stupidity of the second, third and fourth generations.. In a capitalist
system, you can hire competent people to run a business, while you sit
back on your rear end and rake in the profits. That is the beauty of our
sytem. By being in a favored SOCIAL position, you can be in a favored
economic position. Thus, a mediocre talent like Forbes can run for the
presidency and be taken seriously...why because his name is Forbes..and he
has the money to do so. Forbes is a member of the aristocracy of sperm.
He had the "right" daddy.
Now, tell a young black man whose mom has to scrub toilets for a living to
put food on the table, whose mother has spent her life loving Jesus, how
the American system rewards virtue, hard work, thrift and industry. Let's
not make our hypothetical young person black...what if he's a poor white
boy from Appalachia.. He sure as hell is NOT going to go to Princeton
(like Forbes), nor is he going to be a member of the Skull and Bones
Society (like Bush).... He has to "put it together"...learn how to fend
for himself (like we all do).....
but some of us have had a helluva lot of help along the way...mentors,
coaches, religious leaders, teachers, family friends, friends of friends,
moms..... maybe Mom and Dad did stay together and teach you some basic
skills... Thanks to being born to the right parents, you've learned to
love books and music. You have been blessed with having love in the
home... not a drug addict for a mom or father.... Now, of course, we
will agree that there many people who pull themselves up by their
bootstraps...who are born in hellholes of poverty and abuse...and they
become productive members of society. But there are always exceptions..
I want a truly level playing field.... I don't for one minute believe that
economics determines one's character... that money and materialism is
everything...but I believe we need to have a principle of fairness applied
here. If you are willing to work hard and play by the rules, you need to
be rewarded.. Keeping this class system
going is destructive for all of us..... Every day I see a lot snot-nosed
privileged white kids who have had all of the privileges of living in this
society....and they are people who don't give a flying.... about
anything except themselves. And thanks to our class system...these little
socially irresonsible jerks are going to be ushered into positions of
responsibility in a few
short years.... to be sending someone else's son or daughter off to war
overseas to protect their investments...
I think we need a different kind of America.. We need responsibility...
and we need to become a society again... to pull together to make this
country a better place..
On Thu, 7 Jan 1999, Hawk wrote:
>
>
> William Hugh Tunstall wrote:
>
> > -Caveat Lector-
> >
> > In general, I'm opposed to the use of force against people. [snip] , but I think
> > most of us have to recognize that until there is some major transformation of
> > human nature and human society, "power" or force must be used in order to maintain
> > order within a civil society.
>
> I disagree that "force" must be used "in order to maintain order..." Force should
> only be used to punish crimes that have been committed. The threat of punishment
> AFTER a crime is committed may be the coercion you speak of. Again, God said,
> "Because judgment against *an evil work* is NOT inflicted *swiftly*, therefore the
> hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil."
>
> > The American federal government during the 1860s was not the superpower
> > state of today.... One of the tragedies of the period was that once
> > having "freed" the slaves, the Federal government found itself not having
> > either the will nor the wherewithal to protect and to insure the civil
> > liberties of black Americans.
>
> The North was eager to address the "slave issue," but caved in to their truer
> natures when it came to addressing the Negro issue.
>
> > Not having a way of supporting themselves, many of the former slaves
> > understandably looked to their former masters for guidance and support in their
> > new status.
>
> Keep in mind that *capital* is a requirement to start up maintain an orderly and
> efficient business. There were basically only two forms of capital left in the
> South after the war... (1)Land, and (2) the inherent "capital" of the labor of the
> former slaves... These were combined largely in the form of "share-cropping," which
> was not a new idea at all, and had been widely in use by slaves and landowners.
> Most plantations had land set aside for the slaves in which they could conduct their
> own personal farming operations, and the proceeds were used either directly or sold
> for their personal benefit. (See "Time on the Cross" for a larger discourse on
> this.)
>
> > Clearly, the Federal government had a responsibility to these individuals to help
> > them to become productive members of a society for which they were ill prepared
> > to enter...
>
> That isn't so "clear" to me.... Most slaves knew how to work, and many of them had
> skills such as blacksmithing, brick-laying, and even engineering in some cases.
>
> > Lacking the funds/political support/a workable plan, the US government more or
> > less abandoned these individuals to the tender mercies of a market economy that
> > the newly freed slaves didn't understand...
>
> However, their employers understood it... It isn't likely that ANY peasant working
> class people "understood the market economy" any better... You work, you get paid,
> you spend your money... It isn't a difficult concept.
>
> >
> > Plus, look at the condition of southern agriculture after the Civil War...not a
> > happy
> > picture.... Of course, some states fared better than others..but my point is that
> > the concept of freedom is a tricky one.
>
> Absolutely... people tend to develop a "slave mentality" when the personal result of
> their labor (benefits to them) are not proportional to the effort expended... That
> is why socialism does NOT work... It fosters a "slave mentality."
>
> > Are you truly "free" if you are illiterate, without marketable skills,lacking
> > capital in a society that considers you to be less than human?
>
> No you aren't... But then, NO ONE is "truly free," if by that you mean "has license
> to do whatever-in-the-hell he wants to do." The factory workers in the northeast
> and in Europe were certainly not "free." In fact, their lives were considerably
> "less free" in terms of actual options and benefits than were Negro slaves... who
> had "cradle to grave" benefits, far less rigorous work schedules, and "employers"
> who had a direct interest in their health and well-being. The differences in living
> conditions between the average slave-owner and his slaves was not as great as the
> living conditions of the great northern industrialists and their "wage-slaves." Of
> course there were exceptions in both areas, but I speak in terms of "general
> conditions."
>
> > The prevailing social philosophy of the time--"root, hog or die"--might have been
> > workable IF the former slaves would have had the wherewithal to support themselves
> > (land,tools,food,shelter,etc)...instead, they found themselves having to
> > sell what little skills they possessed in an economy that had been devastated by
> > war.
>
> They were no different in that aspect than anyone else... Everyone should be
> expected to "sell their skills" in the economy. Slaves generally had skills in
> agriculture, house-keeping, animal husbandry, and so forth, but many also had "trade
> skills" ... Some became sharecroppers, others became employees, and some became
> entrepreneurs.
>
> > The federal government just wanted the problem to go away.... White Americans were
> > more interested in getting on with their own lives...putting an end to the enmity
> > against the former rebels...
>
> If that is so, "Reconstruction" was a pitiful way to accomplish their goal. One of
> the prime results of Reconstruction was a deeper animosity between the races than
> had been evident before or during the war.
>
> > What to do with the recently freed slaves was not particularly high on the
> > political agenda....
>
> Well, you might also consider that the White Confederate was "not particularly high"
> on the political agenda" either... They could not even vote, unlike the recently
> freed Negro, who could and did.
>
> > Some of us argue that the government should play a positive role in
> > helping people...others argue that ANY kind of aid is unconstitutional,
> > etc... And much of our list discussions on these topics are carried into
> > abstract terms...
>
> First of all, the Govm't CANNOT give anything to anyone that it didn't TAKE FORCIBLY
> from someone else. The BEST thing the govm't can do to "help people" is to stay out
> of the way, provide protection against foreign invasion, and run a system of courts
> that treats everyone the same.
>
> Hawk
>
>
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