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stellauk -> The modern working class hero - exploited and proud of it. (7/22/2012 5:15:41 AM)
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I was going to start by joking that the modern working class hero is either reading, or has a wife or girlfriend who is reading, or knows someone who is currently reading '50 Shades of Grey', but it's probably true. Here too they probably now own something with the Union Jack colours on it, whether as a result of the Diamond Jubilee, or the Olympics, or both. He will not have understood the significance of the Queen inviting the leaders of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to her celebrations, nor will he be that concerned that the same Metropolitan Police who polices the Games Lanes in the Olympics have also assisted the police in places like Syria, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia develop better interrogation and torture techniques against their citizens.
The modern working class hero is proud of his achievement and wants us to know it, even though his achievement is no more than getting out of bed in the morning, going to work, earning money and paying tax.
This may not seem like much of an achievement, at least not until you realize that as a taxpayer he is paying for anything and everything the Government spends money on - healthcare, welfare, education, subsidizing public transport, weapons and equipment used by the military, social housing, everything. He may be paying off a mortgage or in debt to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds to a bank or credit company, but it doesn't matter, he is paying tax, so he is actually paying for everything the Government chooses to spend money on.
The modern working class hero is of course the product of the same neoliberal globalization which has allowed huge economic powers to exploit the world, its resources and its people. These powers have taken over our lives by creating a new level of society above the law in which they can freely operate. This has been achieved by the systematic erosion and breaking down of laws through various trade and investment agreements which award investors more status and rights than ordinary citizens.
This has resulted in restrictions being placed on people's freedoms, the pollution, pillaging and destruction of the world's resources, and the criminalization of all resistance and protest so that any large multinational corporation that wishes to do so can freely go about making huge profits without regard for the law and also without any fear of redress.
Driven solely by the imperative of making as much profit as possible with as little cost or investment these corporations seek to carve up our societies by creating divisions which pit different workers from different areas and regions against each other in a race of exploitation which spirals downwards taking everyone in society and the economy down with it.
In order to counter any criticism of their practices, multinational corporations have carefully crafted tools - for example corporate social responsibility - designed to keep their image clean whilst enhancing their profits. The careful cultivation of the modern working class hero is part of these practices and it starts in the recruitment process which requires CVs, motivational letters, psychology and personality tests, and once employed the modern working class hero undergoes further conditioning in the office culture of their employment.
Through advertising revenue these corporate entities have gained control of the media and the modern working class hero is encouraged to learn, embrace and repeat the same opinions in lockstep with each other so that the corporates also gain control of public opinion. Anyone and anything which can be potentially threatening to these organizations is demonized and villified, whether it be the unproductive, 'costly' unemployed and people who burden the state through not working, trade unions, or anything considered too left wing or liberal likely to have an opposing opinion.
We already know that organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization exist to serve corporate interests but probably what we didn't bargain for are organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union who are increasingly showing themselves to be supportive of big business. This is reflected in their policies which are designed to satisfy the interests of capital and in the stubborn refusal of these organizations to impose limits on corporations.
Furthermore political parties are in on this too. At election time politicians seek our votes with the same promises of more jobs, better housing, lower crime, tougher immigration and a better economy. However what happens is that when they become elected and achieve power they start to sing from the same hymn sheet and talk about economic growth, increased productivity, and deficit reduction. Today it is becoming largely meaningless which party you vote for, because the hymn sheet is still the same.
It is important to remember that it isn't these multinational corporations who have lost out in the recent global economic crisis, it is people like you and me. It is people who have lost jobs, people who have had their homes foreclosed or repossessed, and it is people who across Europe right now are on the receiving end of austerity measures which are slashing funding for public services and cutting public services to a bare minimum to make up for the deficit.
The modern working class hero has been instrumental in bringing this about. We are conditioned to think of healthcare and education not as a right to be enjoyed by everybody but as a privilege for those who can afford it, and this has come about by public opinion which has also supported attacks on the poor, the jobless, on employment rights and trade unions, so that politicians are now able to impose austerity measures and cut public services with one hand and hand over public funds to make up for market losses and excesses with the other.
These multinational corporate powers operate globally, moving from country to country, region to region, while following the same strategies to generate profit at any cost. They created the myth of 'the defeat of communism' to move into Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They flooded countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic with consumer goods and dangled the carrot of European Union membership if certain economic criteria were met. Then they set about dismantling their economies and societies so that today in many places in Eastern Europe unemployment is so high that the local people must become migrant workers to have any hope of a future.
Similarly in Iraq and Afghanistan they arrived not long after the military and while the process of taking over in China and Russia takes place, and they seek more control in India, they are working to develop the same infrastructure and culture in Afghanistan and Iraq. In every case it is people - people like you and me - who bear the costs.
There is perhaps a case to answer if we ever wanted to bring charges of corporate crimes against humanity, but there is nobody large or powerful enough to bring such charges. Certainly no government has ever felt empowered enough to stand up to these major economic powers. There are calls for all the various protest movements, organizations and networks to unite together to make a unified stand against the multinational corporations, but protest has been criminalized, and in some cases may even be seen as terrorism (such laws are already in place in the event that they are needed).
So what can be done?
There is a possible solution. The Polish Solidarity movement in its infancy was influenced heavily by the ideas of the Polish philosopher and historian of ideas Leszek Kolakowski. In his 1971 essay 'Theses on Hope and Hopelessness' (banned in Poland) he expressed the opinion that a mature and civilized society could be borne out of totalitarianism through a diverse range of different self-organized groups working independently but towards similar objectives.
We have the Internet and enough technology to bring about change through the development of culture and through this the creation of new opportunities. This would mean people seeking to express themselves and share their experiences, feelings and ideas through creativity, whether it be music, art, film, theatre, photography, writing, which in turn would bring people together and inspire new ideas and hope. In working together towards solidarity but each to his own there is a possibility of rebuilding our society and economy from the bottom up. In this way we can develop a new world, collectively, which is free from corporate dominance and greed.
What do you think?
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