That’s an old classic set during the Depression era Mississippi Delta. The two schools of thought in Doom are the docile sheeple accepting without fuss whatever is being handed out at the FEMA camp or the Mutant Zombie Bikers (MZBs) and marauding hordes fanning out into the countryside after playing Eric the Viking in cities and towns. Tobacco Road suggests that the down and out will take any sort of beating without revolt.
The flaw here is that a person born in absolute economic and moral poverty in an isolated backwater is vastly different by orders of magnitude than today’s populace. A sack of turnips is a WTF? event – hand somebody a shit sandwich and you’ll at least get a laugh. But I’m pondering the question of how much of our wealth can be taken away before striking out at whatever we believe to be a cause of our demise. Sure, loosing the cell phone may suck and there’s a certain relief when the second car (and the payment that went with it) goes back to the bank but that’s just “stuff”. Staring at a mostly empty pantry at dinnertime is a different sort of bummer, so we bite the bullet and go apply for food stamps. Next we’re moving in with Mom and Dad, the car is broke beyond affordable repair, no job, no assets, and everything that could be sold at a garage sale is long gone. Ma & pa’s portfolio went into the toilet and now the whole household is looking at that food stamp card like the Lester’s were eying that sack of turnips…
Time for the 64,000 dollar question – what do you do now? There are 15 million folks living at this level of poverty today and most of them have always lived this way. I believe they will continue to do exactly what they have done their whole lives… perpetuate their status quo. I can’t seem to think that the newly inflicted, used to gadgets, disposable income and a taste for restaurants will just sort of hunker down and spend their days flicking gravel on the driveway watching the weeds grow tall in a scraggly lawn.
I don’t have a real answer, only a guess as to what the bulk of new members of the poverty class do. I think they’ll take a whole boatload of hardship and behave as long as the food stamps or other relief is abundant. There’s no mystery as to how the petty criminal element will act – there’s just going to be more of them.
I can’t find and end to this post. I find something wrong with writing something without an idea to sum it all up. That’s why I hate “Batman”… always had to tune in next week at the same bat time on the same bat channel to find out what happens.
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Hadrian’s Wall marks the greatest extent Rome ever achieved. When Hadrian built his wall he declared that Rome was to grow no more and if you ain’t growing there’s only one other way to go.
Forget about my generation, the tail end of the boomers. Those before us will probably be able to retire and rot into a smug curmudgeon caricature of themselves. The rest of us overpaid for our too many toys and will be eying sacks of turnips in our future.
The kids coming up just now will have the lowered expectations and the energy to do something about it. They won’t be able to repeat the fifties and the sixties but that was the big aberration. This recession and malaise is just a return to normalcy. It’s just a question of how low we have to dip after passing that big swell before we can rise back up to sea level. Could be scary for a while there.
Hadrian’s Wall is now going up across the southwest and I don’t think Pax Americana is going to get too many repeat customers. The Americans will find a new place for themselves in the world. It’ll suck for a while but it won’t be a major disaster. The worst part is we’ll survive this brave new world.
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What do you do now? Whatever you got to do to survive, but that’s gonna be mighty hard for some folks.
Besides, define “poverty” or “wealth”.
House paid off, basement full of homegrown squash and potatoes, pantrys full of canned goods, homegrown and storebought, I have the ability to scrape enough money together every month to pay the bills, ever-expanding garden, momma can stay at home with the kids and avoid the daycare traps, some of the best pasture around here, soon to have beef grazing on it, cords of hickory chopped split, and my alarm clock is a rooster, but I’m considered living in “poverty”? Huh? I suppose I’d be better off jumping up every morning and hopping on “The Rat Wheel” so I can spend my weekends buying useless crap, nah….
Those people better learn to adapt, and pretty damned quickly. Sadly, I think a lot of them will just roll over and die than figure out how to eat turnips.
Good post for pondering, Comrade.
Dying and or starving is not an option, so we just move on, finding goodness where its to be found. You learn how to get by in the process, as you are doing Comrade. It is interesting, the amazing winding route of existence people take to insure a meal ticket convincing themselves and sometimes us that isn’t what they’re doing. Upon reflection, that’s not new, its just been redefined to suit these times. I think a lot of people become addicts and alcoholics because they can’t find satisfaction in their days and don’t understand what is happening as in It Can’t Happen Here or to them.
Those manicured lawns could sure grow a lot of food. The balconies at the apartment building could sure grow a lot of food. But food stamps come with a lot less work. Stealing is easier than working. Until we stop the free loader’s and our justice system starts to get really tough all this will continue.
The preppers will survive.
See Ya
I have to say I’m in the same situation as Carol, in the last post’s comments. I’ve maintained my job as well as has my inner circle. There was a huge layoff at my employer that lasted for a few months, but now everyone is back. We are also expecting a couple of big new customers soon. But I can’t shake the feeling that there is a huge shit sandwich waiting for us all in the near future. I’m just glad my wife and I are never having kids.
By the way, I see that same sad, pissed off look on everyone’s faces when I’m out and about around here, 84 miles south of Detroit.
And the comrade said, “But I’m pondering the question of how much of our wealth can be taken away before striking out at whatever we believe to be a cause of our demise.”
I personally believe this culture is so deluded that lashing out at the perceived causes of poverty is damn near impossible. Why?
First, one has to accept that one is a “have not” rather than a have. This is near impossible as it is an admission of personal failure. Second, one has to come to an understanding of what exactly is the cause of poverty. This is a deceptively simple conclusion that will allude most sheeple. I’ll stop at a third reason which you’ve already mentioned–the alternative is to grow your own damn turnips which is far more difficult than food stamp swapping at Mal-Wart.
But finally, who exactly does this “have not” blame? The Republicans say its the Democrats. WRONG. The Democrats say its the Republicans. WRONG. The Far Right nuts say its the NWO/Illuminati/”Insert rogue group.” WRONG. The Far Left say its the corporations. WRONG.
The corporations are but a scapegoat and a ghost of real blame. The real “haves” are sociopathic capitalists and narcissistic executives: the CEO shipping American jobs to IndoChina so he can get that $5 million bonus; Business owners offering us shit pay and yet they complain about tax hikes forcing them to downsize (while 2 Escalades and 4 other vehicles sit in their heated garages); even the managers firing “dead weight” while making quintuple what their underlings make share blame.
Ha ha john… you ought to scrape up a couple of grand and buy a few city blocks of Detriot… best beet growing region in the country!
jim I gotta say thanks for your thoughts. Nice respite from the cryptic barbs heh heh. I think the trough won’t have a rise at the end of it… we’ll have to look around when we hit a nasty bottom and see whats left to work with.
Thanks everybody for the comments… I needed some perspective.
I’ve a feeling that game wardens are gonna be reeeeeeeel busy. When Yuppie Jim realizes that $200 fly rod in the closet equals dinner, you think he’s gonna give a shit if the fish is too big, too small, or outta season? Nah… I pity the neighborhood squirrels too. Got land? The poachers are coming. And you best post a 24 hour watch on that big ol’ garden. That watch better be packin’ something that goes BANG as well. Just the sight of a hog leg, pump shotgun, or deer rifle should send all but the meth heads packin’. The meth head? Well we all need a little fertilizer….
If a big war kicks off it won’t be pretty. It will probably be a 4th generation war fueled by easy access to information and a lot of old hate. Think Iraq without the mitigating US presence
These days with computers, you really can’t hide. One wrong post, one leaked credit card, one chum at the DMV in the right state and you have them.
And you can forget about security and hiring out Balckwater or Xe or whatever they are calling themselves now. They might be able to protect you from a frontal assault but they can’t protect from mortars or from people going after your whole social network.indirectly.
I don’t however think it will come to starving hordes, there are too many guns. More likely well get some kind of virulent nationalism and more serious redistribution of wealth.
Everybody seems to think the stores will never run out of food. Walmart is a sitting duck. When millions of people run out of food they will take what they can get their hands on. Walmart will close unprofitable stores. Walmart has already caused stores in every town to close- MOM AND POP ARE ALREADY GONE. POLICE WILL BE PRIVATIZED- BLACKWATER. ONLY PROBLEM IS FOOD COMES FROM A LONG WAY AWAY. The fish is from Viet Nam or Chilie. Beef is not in most peoples back yard. IT WON’T TAKE LONG TO FIGURE OUT THE TRUCKS HAVE FOOD INSIDE. EVER TRY FASTING? You can smell a bakery miles away. It will only take one BLACKSWAN EVENT for the whole house of cards to crash. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET GASOLINE WHEN THEY STOP TAKING DOLLARS FOR OIL???