CLASS STRUGGLE
AND AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS
We are fully enveloped in a class struggle. This is the age old clash between the Haves and the Have-nots. In the Haves column you’ll find an array; at the top, billionaires with grotesque wealth clear down to those that Have-enough not to worry about finances. Then, there’s the Have-some, maybe just a little, enough to be comfortable for now. They might think they’re immune, but they are not. Their pockets will be picked clean. The true Have-nots have the most and the least to lose. They have no accumulated wealth nor prospects of contributing to the coiffures of the Haves billionaire class, who refer to them as “parasites”. This would be the disabled, the retired who live on Social Security, and those Have-somes who are experiencing medical or housing crisis. Parasites, in the minds of the Haves, are a drain on resources. A waste. Not worthy of life. Since they have no wealth, they won’t lose much capital but the mindset fomenting in the Haves, about the very right to exist, puts their lives in danger.
I am a Have-not, having fallen from the Have-some bracket after retiring. I rely on social security to survive. I have worked over 52 years, since I was 15 years old, except for about 3 years taken after the kids were born. Three times over the course of my life, I had accumulated some retirement investments, and three times I watched as one crisis or another transferred that meager wealth elsewhere. The only retirement goal I was able to reach was to own a home free and clear. I am grateful for that but we can’t eat the walls, so I depend on the Social Security benefits which my employers and I paid into, and the Medicare insurance, which was also paid into as well as monthly premiums being deducted from my Social Security. It’s not a hand out, I paid for it and continue to pay for it. The problem is, there is no material benefit for the Haves of society, those who are viewing the world through a lens of nothing but competition, accumulation, selfishness, greed, and hubris, if they can’t make or take money off me. They can only steal it. For them, it’s all about me, me, me, MINE!
I don’t think I’m that rare. I didn’t have a desire to be a gazillionaire. I wanted a nice home, good health care, safe food and water, a clean environment, educational opportunities, a happy family, some good friends and a community that actually cares about its people. I’ve been happy to support schools, libraries, hospitals, roads, first responders and initiatives that keep the environment safe and healthy. I’ve put my money where my mouth is and given my time as a volunteer all my life.
I will not measure my life in terms of dollars and I reject the attitude that I am somehow, now, a parasite.
But I also acknowledge that I am in a precarious position. I will not survive if the Haves are successful in cutting Social Security and Medicare. I’ve been assured by well meaning people that certainly, it’s not as bad as all that. That someone or something will step in and save the institutions, save the country. Will they? Am I wrong to assume the worst? Have I fallen prey to some kind of cultish mind control just as the maga forces have, which allow them to accept the insanity that is 2025? I check myself often with this type of inquiry. I have to constantly go back to what I know for sure, what I saw with my own eyes, what I heard with my ears. I have to constantly reaffirm that the reality I am experiencing is true, that my reaction to it is valid. It would be easier on me to check out. But I won’t do that to my kids, my grandkids, my friends, and the future.
The Haves would like nothing better for people like me to check out. Literally. I was just reading a letter from a doctor who said she’s been fielding a lot of questions around assisted suicide, not because of a terminal diagnosis, but because of the current politics and policies of the country. That is a sad commentary and I get it. I did not envision my golden years of retirement playing out this way. They want us cynical and jaded. They want us to just give the Haves what they want and we’re going to have to work really hard, unfortunately, to convince a whole lot of Have-somes and Have-enoughs to care about ALL of us and to value contributions to society that do not have a dollar bill attached to the transaction. We’re going to have to convince them that a good life is not measured by the accumulation of wealth alone. We’re going to have to remind them of the Goodness of Life. We’re going to have to counter with some hope and optimism, which admittedly is in short supply these days. The silver lining here is that most people already believe in those things, they already care about one another, they already want the same things. There’s way, way more of us, than there are of Haves class. There are 800 billionaires in the U.S., compared to over 350 Million adults. That alone should give us hope if we remember, we are stronger together, if we recognize we are more than bank accounts or consumers to be had, if we consider the things we cannot take with us but will leave behind.