Mythology

Greetings Friends and Neighbors.  The Reverend Squeaky-Eye is perplexed.  I have been searching for a thing and I cannot seem to find it.  It is a thing that gets talked about a great deal.  In fact, it is almost impossible for one of those politicos to open their oily mouths without mentioning it.  And yet, when I look around for some substance, it plumb eludes me.

What is this thing I am looking for?  What I am looking for, good Brethren, is any evidence that what we used to call the "Middle-Class" still exists in America.  I hear the talking heads blathering about the Middle Class, and about what is good for or not good for the Middle Class.  I hear the politicos making empty promises that pander to the Middle Class tax base.  But while all this noise is spewing from their lips, I see less and less evidence that the American Middle Class, the traditional buffer that rose up betwixt Labor and Capital, still exists.

So, my Brothers and Sisters, I am beginning to doubt the myth.  The traditional Middle Class dream, that of a family home of one's own, a car, and all electric kitchen and a secure job with a steady company, was oft held out as a thing to aspire to.   This mode of being, touted as the American ideal, could be had through hard work, education, and perseverance.  

I think its gone, this (now lower case) middle class.  I think that its existence has become a myth, something with which the DownPressor keeps us amused and distracted as he pushes down our wages, sends our manufacturing jobs overseas and eliminates worker's healthcare.  

I wish this is what we could call "Bush league psych-out shit, Man!" but I don't believe it is.  I believe that the middle class is the victim of a concerted effort by the Corporate powers-that-be, an effort aimed at reducing the freedom and political will of a group of people who were a problem.

This is just an opener, folks.  There are a lot of ins, a lot of outs, to consider.  We can't let our thinking get uptight about this.  So this evening, I am just raising the issue.  We will be back for a closer look at this missing class and what might have brought that eradication about.