Divide and conquer

That's what they are afraid of

- common cause between the lower

and middle classes against the upper

It's always been this way

But, in America, the middle class finds itself

in its weakest position

since the Great Depression

Karl Marx arm-wrestling with Nelson Rockefeller:

People understand, even if they can't articulate it,

that the difference between civilization

and barbarism is thin ice in an ever warming world

We see it on TV everyday, everywhere, not just Iraq

The incongruity of shopping mall America

and shantytown World is bound, if unconsciously,

to cause stress, guilt perhaps,

that we have plenty, while others have none

Divide and conquer.

That's what they are afraid of; common cause between the lower and middle classes against the upper. It's always been this way. But, in America, the middle class finds itself in its weakest position since the Great Depression.

As a matter of fact, our economy, pinned as it has been on the Petro-dollar, is one or two Bush follies away from a major "correction."

The middle class has been so screwed over the last generation or so by the "market" that the elite can no longer ignore the numbers and the stress suffered by worker bees.

The November election was a shot heard around the world. Though Iraq was a huge issue, so was America's sense that the social contract with the government, the economy and, yes, the future itself was a potential house of cards in a hurricane.

People understand, even if they can't articulate it, that the difference between civilization and barbarism is thin ice in an ever warming world.

We see it on TV everyday, everywhere, not just Iraq. The incongruity of shopping mall America and shantytown World is bound, if unconsciously, to cause stress, guilt perhaps, that we have plenty, while others have none.

And, then, as we see our own fortunes dwindle and necessarily support the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed upon credit, debt and interest, and find ourselves poorer and poorer while the rich get richer and richer, why, it may occur to some that something is out of kelter.

This is what they are afraid of; that enough of us will see through the veneer of the cynical narrative of America; where we have no classes and therefore no class warfare.

Where we all have equal opportunity to achieve the "dream" of happiness and where the poor and dispossessed have a safety net, provided by the people as a whole, to ease the indignity of poverty and allow a crash-landing that isn't deadly.

Yet, even with the recent increase in the minimum wage, it would have to double to provide a living wage.

As American debt increases and the value of the almighty dollar decreases, the middle class, at the mercy of corporations, whose first allegiance is to profit and not people, will find themselves squeezed further and further between a rock and a hard place.

And because the Bush regime has squandered so much cash and credibility in pursuit of easy oil (necessary to prevent the collapse of our fragile economy, but as easily gotten by playing nice), there is no safety net anymore. The Bush policy is the policy of madmen.

There is no longer a social contract between a 'government of the people' and the people, because the government does not represent the people, if it ever did.

There is no loyalty to the working class by the corporate state because the unions have been busted and the people alienated from each other to the extent that organizing (in spite of the organizing power of the internet, which should give you an idea of how far the individual has been alienated from the "union") against 'power' is a foreign and unpracticed idea.

And this is precisely the problem. In the old days, when we had neighborhoods and unions, people organized protests and action early, in spite of the oppressive power arrayed against them, to make change in the status quo before armed insurrection could develop.

This is what the elites fear, because the people are not organized, when the people finally have had enough, society will explode in fury at those (comparatively) few who own more collectively than the many by a wide margin.

Those who buy politicians to make laws so the few can retain their position of power, and further separate themselves from 'the rabble' by restricting the opportunities of the many, and facilitate the few's consolidation of wealth and power.

There is a huge underclass in this society, primed by poverty and oppression for generations that is ready to rebel against the way things are. They don't because the middle classes are the enforcers for the elites.

Middle-class fortunes fall, and workers lose faith in the system and insecurities and stress overload the senses to the point that people can see the gulf between the haves and have-nots.

The time is right for a coalition to form between the have-nots and those who thought they were on the road to 'have' but find themselves stuck and sliding backwards from debt, wage stagnation and corporations that play the market instead of enrich and empower their non-executive employees.

I think folks now are at the stage that if the perception persists that "politicians," who in actuality work for corporations, continue to ignore the will of the people, all hell finally will break loose. The American People are at a tipping point.

And that is why many elites are worried about the middle class. Not that they care about others, but that they care about themselves.

Don't be fooled when millionaires and billionaires rush to your defense.

It's not about you. It's about them. And it always has been. Michael Alton Gottlieb @ Cyrano's Journal