Put down the smartphone and look around you - it's 1850 out here.

Contrary to all the tendentious happy-talk pumped out by the corporate media, the U.S. has regressed economically to the level of Britain in the 1850s; i.e., to the functional equivalent of a Third World country. This heavily-suppressed fact smacked me in the face as I was reading a history book written in 1975 - before the elitist looting and government wrecking got started. All quotes below are from that book: Eric Hobsbawm, "The Age of Capital 1848-1875" (1975).

Let's start comparing.

Both periods had massive working class job and income insecurity, with very few salaried positions, and a lot of people being jerked around by part-time schedules that treated workers like bits of machinery:

If any single factor dominated the lives of 19th century workers, it was insecurity. (emphasis in original). They did not know at the beginning of the week how much they would bring home at the end. They did not know how long their present work would last or, if they lost it, when they would get another job or under what conditions.

Both periods offered workers minimal health insurance, and very little provision for being physically incapable of working:

They did not know when accident or sickness would hit them, and though they knew that some time in middle age - perhaps in the forties for unskilled laborers, perhaps in the fifties for the more skilled - they would become incapable of doing a full measure of adult physical labour, they did not know what would happen to them between then and death. Theirs was not the insecurity of peasants, at the mercy of periodic catastrophes like famine... It was a more profound unpredictability, in spite of the fact that probably a good proportion of workers were employed for long periods of their lives by a single employer. There was no certainty of work even for the most skilled...There was nothing that corresponds to modern social security, except charity and relief from actual destitution, and sometimes little of either.

In both periods, workers had almost no savings to fall back on (Today, half the country can't find $500 for an emergency.), and the majority of workers lived below the poverty line:

Unlike the middle class, the worker was rarely more than a hair's breadth removed from the pauper, and insecurity was therefore constant and real. He had no significant reserves. Those who could live on savings for a few weeks or months were "that rare class". The wages of the skilled were at best modest...it did not take many weeks...to reduce such a family to charity. The normal or even inevitable road of life passed across chasms into which the worker and his family might an probably would fall: the birth of children, old age, and retirement. In (some town), 52% of all working-class families with children below working age, working full time in a year of memorably good trade, could be expected to live below the poverty line...

In both periods workers' lives were "precarious" (Note that Hobsbawm used the term 40 years before David Graeber coined the "Precariat".) while the barriers to entering the elite bubble became almost insurmountable:

(workers) were united by their growing segregation from a bourgeoisie whose wealth increased dramatically while their own situation remained precarious, a bourgeoisie which became increasingly self contained and impervious to would-be entrants from below. For there was all the difference between the modest hillocks of comfort which the successful worker or ex-worker might reasonably hope to climb and the really impressive accumulations of wealth.

In both periods, the physical and mental stress on workers is extreme and many, even among the best off, are literally too tired to think; they have little comfort except religion and hopes of "another world":

(Beatrix Potter) would describe the ("comfortable working class") as physically overworked during times of busy trade, as eating and sleeping too little, as too physically exhausted for intellectual effort, at the mercy of "the many chances of breakdown and failure meaning the absence of physical comfort". The deep and simple puritan piety of these men and women was, she saw, a response to the fear of "warn-out and failed lives".

" 'Life in Christ' and hope in another world bring ease and refinement
into a mere struggle for existence, calming the restless craving after
the good things of this world by an 'other worldliness' and making failure
'a means of grace' instead of a despicable want of success."

-----

These quotes merely confirm for me the futility of working "within the system". "The system" wants what I just described - rolling society back 150 years and re-establishing a cruel, violent, parasitic, untouchable elite.

The U.S. today is a failed society. It is a Potemkin Democracy, with a fake president and a McResistance doing a Kabuki dance on behalf of our three crime families: Wall St., the MIC, and the oil industry. It has a political system run by massive bribery, a propaganda machine in place of genuine journalism, a brutal militarized police force, an intrusive security state seamlessly integrated with monopolistic corporate data miners, and a huge Gulag-like prison system that undercuts honest labor with slave labor (rightfully called "The New Jim Crow"). Our elites are busy suicidally destroying all environmental regulations and arming to the teeth for aggressive warfare. By the next election, given the Democrats willful self-destruction, the GOP will get its Constitutional Convention; and America will become the world's biggest banana republic/theocracy.

Even if we manage not to nuke the planet, the next generation will have never experienced a secure working class life. They will have been ill-educated as children. They will face a lack of meaningful, non-precarious employment opportunities, the unavailability of affordable housing and healthcare, and rampant drug abuse and gang warfare in place of community. In a generation, if we survive, Americans by and large will be locked into their new station as peons, peasants, and wage slaves. Their lives will be brutish, nasty, and short. They will be functionally illiterate and innumerate, too misinformed, uninformed or net-distracted to play their role in a real democracy.

And the elites want it that way. They have spent forty years destroying the middle class that the New Deal Democrats created. With Trump and Hillary as choices, the 2016 elections were "Mission Accomplished". No organized political force survives to stand against the neolib/neocon elites. Any attempts to work within the formal democracy are either co-opted (see Bernie Sanders quixotic attempt to get justice from the Democratic Party) or smashed (see Occupy, Dakota Access Pipeline).

AFAIAC, the game of gentlemanly politics is over until this system rots from corruption or blows up into superpower confrontation. I'm with Chris Hedges regarding the "Death of the Liberal Class" and the lack of alternatives to street demonstrations and work stoppages. I recognize that many on this board still believe that some corner of "the system" can be salvaged, and that politics as we have known it can continue. I salute you for your optimism, but I do not share it.

My only consolation is that, on our present course of environmental suicide, in a generation, the planet will be so screwed that not even all the money the 1% has looted will be able to fix it. Instead of lording it over their newly minted slaves, the elite assholes will burn, starve, and asphyxiate along with the rest of us.

Cold comfort; but its all I've got. In closing, let me say: Fuck TPTB.

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detroitmechworks's picture

And the rich blissfully think that they can eliminate the support that the poor live off, and they will have MORE money...

It will be very clear in retrospect when they do the postmortem on American Empire, but until then...

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

arendt's picture

the calling of the Estates General for the first time in 150 years, and the storming of the Bastille. So we have a few steps to go. The next stock market crash (coming soon) will be the failed harvest. The GOP/ALEC/Koch Brothers Constitutional Convention will attempt to install feudalism; but they will only succeed in smashing the country into warring regions. Then, its head-chopping time.

So, I agree that we are on that path. The bourgeosie in the bubble have no clue. They say "let them eat cake" about six times a day.

You should stock up on popcorn before it gets expensive, like everything else. It has a long shelf life and good nutritional value, so you won't be wasting your money. Smile

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@arendt popcorn and everyone should be learning basic survival skills especially the younger internet dependent crowd. Once the internet goes down they are going to be clueless.

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k9disc's picture

@arendt

When TPTB go all Grapes of Wrath and burn food to protect the markets, then the masses will wake up.

But what will they wake up to? I mean entertainment media is prepping us for unspeakable things.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

earthling1's picture

an industrious person could start building guillotines. There could be a run on 'em.
Hmmm, where would one find blueprints for one?
And baskets. Lots 'o baskets.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Song of the lark's picture

@earthling1 hanging was always more popular, so I'm heavily invested in rope futures.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@arendt @Song of the lark Though some might say this is a waste of good horses, we could use Land Rovers.

Excellent essay. The point made about violent Revolution occurring seems almost inevitable. If my crystal ball could advise me well, this will probably occur as arendt said when the House of Cards (aka Wall Street) collapses later this year.

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GreyWolf's picture

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arendt's picture

@GreyWolf

It seems I have started a thread about guillotines, hanging, crop burning, etc. :-o

But, I sort of asked for it with my closing paragraphs.

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GreyWolf's picture

@arendt
The Usefulness of the Guillotine in Political Discourse

HCN_guillotine.gif

"HCN_guillotine.gif"

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that the union movement first began taking hold, so I don't know if things here then were much different for workers than they were in England.

BTW, Occupy was not crushed. Before Occupy, almost no one was talking about income inequality (a red herring, anyway), much less wealth inequality (the real issue). In fact, I distinctly recall Joe Scarborough braying "Class warfare (meaning against the rich) never works." Now, he brays to condemn income inequality. That change in that big mouth with a big megaphone is a consequence of Occupy.

Much as media tried to ignore it, then discredit it, Occupy changed the national conversation about money permanently in an astoundingly short time with very little monetary expenditure. (Boston Occupy brought current Orwell's use of "the 99%," which, among many other things, gave this board its name.) This was a phenomenal and lasting accomplishment, more than anyone could have expected. Even with a billion dollars of advertising, no one has changed the national conversation about a fundamental issue that rapidly and permanently. And that's without the charitable work Occupy did, including Occupy Sandy and opposing individual mortgage foreclosures all around the country. That it did not do even more or last longer is not the fault of Occupy, but of those who did not lend their own efforts to it.

I see no potential for gain to the left from diminishing the results of the sacrifices made by the Occupiers in any way or to any degree, but much potential for loss.

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travelerxxx's picture

@HenryAWallace

Any attempts to work within the formal democracy are either co-opted (see Bernie Sanders quixotic attempt to get justice from the Democratic Party) or smashed (see Occupy, Dakota Access Pipeline).

I don't think OP arendt was insinuating that OWS was valueless. Rather that they were physically eradicated ... usually by big city Democratic mayors siccing their gas-spraying, club-swinging, military-gear-equipped police forces on the protesters. Hell, the Water Protectors at DAP had foreign Pinkertons unleashed against them.

Both the Water Protectors and OWS showed bravery and foresight. Yes, they were both smashed, but they opened eyes and helped pull back the curtain. Bernie did this as well. Taken individually, one could say they failed, but I think not. Each plays a part in what is coming.

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arendt's picture

@travelerxxx

My point in saying that they were smashed was to say that TPTB not only refused to listen, but they unleashed physical violence on peaceful protestors. That says a lot about the state of so-called democracy in the U.S. And that is why I said

These quotes merely confirm for me the futility of working "within the system".

The treatment of Occupy and DAPL shows that the system refuses to engage, AND despite that, the message of Occupy did get out there and has made a difference.

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gulfgal98's picture

Our future appears to be our past, only with far more dire consequences due to climate change. This is a great essay. Thank you for sharing it with us.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

CB's picture

approximately two to three generations was an anomaly. I doubt it will rise again from within the United States. Maybe China or the global south will have a more permanent solution. Of course, they will have to fight against the very forces that are now destroying it in America.

The rise of the wealth and power of America has been very much a zero-sum game. China proposes a win-win solution with their Belt and Road Initiative.

My only consolation is that, on our present course of environmental suicide, in a generation, the planet will be so screwed that not even all the money the 1% has looted will be able to fix it. Instead of lording it over their newly minted slaves, the elite assholes will burn, starve, and asphyxiate along with the rest of us.

America's economic and technological lead is fast fading. It will have been surpassed by China by 2025, most likely much sooner if the US continues to pour its treasure into its war machine. The rise of a middle class in China has been explosive. Last year, average wages have gone up by over 5% after inflation. While the US has been filling coffins around the world, China has been filling coffers.

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arendt's picture

Yes, the US has turned into a hideous warfare-driven looting apparatus for the benefit of the 1%.

But, although I like their emphasis on positive trade and peace, China is not now and unlikely in the future to be the saviour of the planet.

Historically, the rise of the middle class and running for approximately two to three generations was an anomaly.

Actually, there have been a lot of "anomalies" since the French Revolution: that revolution, Napoleon, the Industrial Revolution, the Balfour Declaration that started the whole ME pot boiling, the Russian Revolution, the Nazis and the extermination of the Jews. When an "anomaly" and its after-effects lasts a couple of generations, its called "history". Note that my list consists of things that were called into being by human activities, sometimes collective (industrialization), sometimes individual (Hitler, Lenin). History is the study of how humans created their own world.

To dismiss the middle class as an anomaly, doomed to fail, is to copy from Stalin's "dying class" playbook. The middle class fell because the elites relocated manufacturing to the Third World and re-instituted slave labor; not because it was "inevitable" that an "anomaly" should end.

----

As for China, I would not pretend to understand the society and its millenia-long history, much less predict where it is going.

This is the same China that polluted its own air and water hideously, despite the historic examples of Western industrial pollution. This is the country, with a record for shoddy workmanship and corner-cutting, that has built 50 nuclear reactors. It is true they are now building out solar rapidly, but has anyone analyzed how they are dealing with the pollution that massive silicon manufacture creates? That is, all manufacturing creates pollution, even "green" manufacturing. The Chinese have cornered the market on rare-earth metals, vital for windmill turbines and other electrical gear. To do that, they have strip-mined vast areas, leaving gigantic polluted lakes of mineral slag. Can they continue to dominate green energy if they pollute themselves to death?

I saw a statistic that, around 2008, China used more concrete than the entire industrialized West used in the 20th century. Now, that may be not accurate or exaggerated; but they did use an immense amount of concrete. And concrete creates a lot of CO2. In fact, some estimates say concrete causes 20% of all man-made CO2.

Bottom line here, I do not think the Chinese are super-enlightened environmentally. Else, why is anyone who makes a million buying property in pollution free British Columbia (e.g., Vancouver)? When your elites are fleeing, that's not a sign you have your problems under control.

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Dhyerwolf's picture

@arendt their entire population. The land pollution is probably worse than the air or water because land pollution can stick around for much longer. There will be plenty of developing pollution fallout that will play out over time.

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