You know that I am merciless in my judgements on the current American "elites" who brought the world in general, and the United States in particular, to the brink. While fat cats continued to enrich themselves by swindling everyone within the range, while financial "analysts" on Wall Street were talking about "margin calls" and "futures", while the Hollywood continued to produce talent-less woke fodder of an entertainment, some people in the US continued to weld, drill, machine, lay up, run CNC, assemble, drive food trucks, stock shelves, dispense medicine, clean streets and continued to maintain electric grid, water mains and sewage. They continued, without me being sappy sentimental, to run the county while simultaneously losing any hope. I work with many such people, some of them I manage, others--I simply interact constantly. These are people who can build a plane, or can come up with some amazing contraption I give them in drawing and they will make it. There are all kinds among them: excellent workers, lazy, persistent, thoughtful, stupid, alcoholics, introverts, BSers and some are even punks, but I like those people. I like to work with them, and I like them way more than office plankton--I know both. I do not idealize, though. There are problems, some of them huge.
These ARE people who keep America running, for now. Remove some hedge fund from Wall Street---who cares. Remove those people and American civilization, any civilization, will ground to a halt. It will also learn fast the real value of a productive labor, the one which constitutes productive capital and defines the barrier between advanced and third world for the nation. Machines, these are them and people who make and run those machines which civilization rests upon:
No matter how very many try to convince us that bread grows on trees and that bank transaction adds real value, or that amount of "free thinkers" matters--know it is a parasite talking. In the end, these are blue collar men and women who always moved and continue to move civilization. It is them who create this crucial "value added" reality, not some stock broker. So, I think, I can wax Marxist a bit and sing (not really) a song for a Blue Collar man or woman. Especially when it is from one of my most favorite bands of all time (Pieces of Eight album is altogether a masterpiece).
Give me a job, give me security
Give me a job, give me security
Give me a chance to survive
I'm just a poor soul in the unemployment line
My God, I'm hardly alive
My mother and father, my wife and my friends
I see them laugh in my face
But I've got the power, and I've got the will
I'm not a charity case
I'll take those long nights, impossible odds
Keeping my eye to the keyhole
If it takes all that to be just what I am
Well, I'm gonna be a blue collar man
So, it is Friday, after all.
Before he disgraced himself with the "fight" for transgender restrooms and being a liberal non-entity, he was hailed as the American and global icon. But it is this moment of greatness we will remember:
OK, it is supposed to end like this. I remember sitting at the ferry dock few years ago listening to Seattle's 99.9 FM (66.6 Lords of Evil) and hearing DJ admitting that he doesn't want to meet Jon because, and I quote, he "may like him". Jon was running his diner for hungry people for years, serving free food for people who cannot afford to pay for a meal. And it suddenly brought me back to a happier times:
No comments:
Post a Comment