Walk This Way

“Again, we see there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away.” -Belloq to Indiana Jones, in Raiders of the Lost Ark

I recently watched a video on the Architectural Digest’s YouTube channel about New York City apartments. The five different types of apartments there were broken down in to how and why they were built and who they were built for. It was a fascinating look at what they were like in the beginning and what they have evolved in to in the present. I was appalled to learn that the Loft style apartments in Soho were once thriving and innovative communities of artists. They turned what had been large and open manufacturing spaces into unique and attractive residence/studios with the blessing of city government - for awhile. This got the attention of the rich later and they began to buy the lofts, pushing out the resident artists by driving the prices up so high that they were no longer affordable. The spoiled rich decided, like all bullies do, that they were more entitled.

In the 1960’s the famous row houses in San Francisco had lost their appeal and were made available to the hippies and bohemians who were now able to afford them.  To be honest, many of them did trash the hell out of the structures, but some of the more creative residents were instrumental in ushering in a new wave of music styles and contemporary art.  Here again, the rich decided that they were more entitled and began buying them to restore and refurbish to their affluent standards, making it impossible for anyone other than the well to do to ever afford them again. Ironically, many of the displaced hippies who promoted peace and love and freedom and a natural and down to earth lifestyle gave it all up for capitalism later on and they now own businesses and giant corporations and are politicians in Washington and serve as political leaders in many of the 50 states.

A similar thing happened in Scotland some time ago when wealthy performers in the music and movie industries decided that they wanted to live a more peaceful and tranquil life when they were not working and began buying up properties there. Their mere presence managed to raise the price of housing in the country sky high and caused the eviction and homelessness rates in that country to rise at a rate and a level that had never been seen there before.

People who look different and act different from the self-titled ruling class are not paid attention to if they do not present the standard look of the conservative elite.  It becomes difficult to get a job or be taken seriously in this world if you do not look like those who have convinced themselves and others that their façade is the only façade that matters. And make no mistake, it is just a façade. It is only the trappings of wealth on your surface that creates the illusion of superiority.  It is rather like the scene in the movie The Crying Game, where the young woman takes off her clothes to go to bed with a man and lo and behold the woman is a male, much to the horror of her intended partner. You can pretend anything that you like while in disguise but at some point, the clothes come off and you will be seen for what you really are. Under the designer clothes there is still a human being who is no different from the rest of us. You might get attention in the music and film industries with a unique look and point of view but these instances where it has made a breakthrough are usually short lived as the monied people are easily bored with the unique.

Our very nature as left leaning people is to seek more peace. Only people who prefer peace will see a need for maintaining it.  Is capitalism so ingrained in our culture that there is no escape from it? Is elitism a trait that cannot evolve out of our reality? Capitalism has allowed many of us to accumulate at least a semi comfortable life, but it comes at a high price that we must pay to keep it. Easily ⅓ of our life is spent paying homage to the elite capitalists who make it painfully clear to us in no uncertain terms that they hold all of the cards in the game that sets the rules upfront that we could lose it all at the drop of a hat if we slip up even once at playing by their rules.

There is an ancient woodcut depiction of the devil, who is naked and being followed by a group of people. One fellow is kneeling behind him, lips puckered, to kiss his ass. It is a fine representation of how capitalism actually works and would probably be proudly displayed on the wall in every workplace if the employer thought that he/she could get away with showing the truth of how they actually feel about the workers. The term ”human resource” has become so common place that most people don’t even see it for the insult that it actually is. It means that employees are disposable and easily replaceable like any other thing in life that we use and discard when its usefulness is no longer serving us. You can throw away an employee as easily as you can throw away a paper cup or an old sock, and believing that it is the employer’s right to do this to us keeps on destroying lives by the minute. Witness the seven employees at a Memphis Starbucks who were fired for daring to try to unionize. Starbucks was recently ordered to reinstate their employment, but if anybody believes that this will actually help those seven people, they are severely mistaken. They will not be welcomed back with forgiving arms and will never be treated with any respect. The best that this ruling has done is put a media release out there that shows an employer can get a slap on the wrist for bullying, but the employer will always be the bare-assed devil who can destroy a worker’s life in other ways that are perfectly legal and acceptable as long as they are still holding more aces in the game, and they definitely are. No matter what sanctions are put upon them, the employer still holds the power and the money to bounce back. The seven employees are on borrowed time as to how long they will be able to keep their jobs when they now are sporting a scarlet letter “A” (for activist) on their shirts for bucking the system. And like the book by Professor Richard Wolff tells us, the “Sickness” truly is the “System” that worships abuse as an inalienable right of capitalism.

“People have so manipulated the concept of freedom that it finally boils down to the right of the stronger and richer to take from the weaker and poorer whatever they have left.”
        -Theodor Adorno