As the United States heads into its important congressional elections it is widely recognized that triviality and superficiality are playing an ever increasing role in determining the victors come election time.
Many, myself included, have spent a fair amount of time criticizing the lack of substance, the distractions away from issues of paramount importance, the excessive consumerism and the corrupt democratic practices. However, we probably don't spend enough time looking for causes, beyond the stereotypical anti-American bias. Der Spiegel editor Gabor Steingart's new book is excerpted in the online Spiegel site, offering a class perspective on the causes and realities of this detachment and superficiality, specifically relating to globalization and the burgeoning "white trash" class in Germany and throughout western Europe:
The destitute laborer of old had something that today's poor no longer have: He knew who the enemy was; he had a class identity; he often even had a well-developed culture. He sang songs, fought his political fights, founded associations and idolized social theoreticians, even if he didn't fully understand them....
We know, for example, that today's proletariat is richer than the worker of generations past. Indeed, with a little skill, he can tap into the coffers of the state's social safety net, which provides him with access to an income comparable to those of police officers, warehouse workers and taxi drivers. Thus, it is not material poverty that separates him from others.
Rather, what stand out are the symptoms of intellectual neglect. The poor of today watch television for half the day. These days, television producers even refer to what they call "Underclass TV." The new proletariat eats a lot of fatty foods and he enjoys smoking and drinking -- a lot. About 8 percent of Germans consume 40 percent of all the alcohol sold in the country. While he may be a family man, his families are often broken. And on Election Day, he casts a protest vote for the extreme left or right wing party, sometimes switching quickly from one to the other. [Of course there is no significant extreme left party in the U.S.]
But the main thing that sets the modern poor apart from the industrial age pauper is a sheer lack of interest in education. Today's proletariat has little education and no interest in obtaining more. Back in the early days of industrialization, the poor joined worker associations that often doubled as educational associations. The modern member of the underclass, by contrast, has completely shunned personal betterment.
He likewise makes little effort to open the door to the future for his own children. Their language skills are as bad as their ability to concentrate. The rising rate of illiteracy is matched by the shrinking opportunities to integrate the underclass. The Americans, not ones to mince words, call them "white trash." ...
It really seems that more than anything this age of previously unknown riches and crass consumerism has led to an astounding anti-intellectualism to the point where there is a palpable hostility to rationality and common sense. And,as Steingart says, there seems to be no desire to remedy the situation through education or a concern for the world their children will inherit.
When the leader of a nation with the capacity to unleash wars of tremendous peril and destruction can be determined by 'who you would rather have a beer with' it can only mean that there are serious societal problems that go infinitely beyond party politics. Now the state of the world as it is today - with global warming presenting monumental challenges and the war in Iraq killing hundreds of thousands of people -it is certainly understandable why every effort must be made to dethrone the criminal clan currently occupying the White House. However those partisan Democrats who believe that a change in the government is anything more than a short term solution to the current chaos are clearly missing the forest for the trees.
Unless societies as a whole can begin to deal with the profound lack of interest in simply educating oneself and striving to create a more just, sustainable and peaceful world in the rapidly changing social and political environment globalization brings, it becomes almost impossible to view the future of this planet in any sort of optimistic fashion.
On that note, how bout' those 'skins. Man they suck this year.
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