My mother and father, who both came up from nothing, pounded into their three children’s heads that work was necessary and valuable, and anything worth doing was worth doing right. That much of the U.S. no longer lives by such maxims is one of the more frightening aspects of our society. From Paul Rosenberg at freemansperspective.com:
At one time I lived very close to the Field Museum of Chicago; I had a membership and spent a good deal of time there. One evening, about ten minutes before closing, I noticed that workers had begun preparing the first floor for an evening event. I had a panoramic view from where I stood at the second floor balcony, and what I saw has stuck with me ever since.
What I saw was a lone man setting up tables and chairs – simple work, the kind that a teenager could do. But what I watched this man do was every bit as beautiful as dance. He moved with integrity, with precision, and with intent. He carefully spaced the tables in a precise geometry, he moved every chair with efficiency. This was more than just work; it was also art. This man knew that he was doing his job well, and, perhaps most importantly, he enjoyed doing it well.
I was transfixed by it all, and I stood there until the guards asked me to leave. And even then, I moved very slowly until I lost sight of him.
There is real beauty in doing a job well, even a simple job. It is our great loss that this form of beauty is never mentioned in public these days – double-sad, because at one time, such beauty was acknowledged.
This brings us to an obvious question: What happened? How did we lose the beauty and dignity of work?
That is white male patriarchy stuff, comrade. (/s)
Now that it has been erased, collapse is baked into the cake or burn it all down by any Long March means necessary.
KY/WV coal miner WWII USMC grampaw knew how fake and GAE it would get when I told him about Heather Has Two Mommies and the proto participation trophies, he didn’t even graduate HS and was so glad I did with tears in his eyes.
I am shadow of those great men but do have a chip off the greatness block, his USMC dogtags are kept in a strong box and I’ll put them on when the WAR of all against ALL goes live.
“KY/WV coal miner WWII USMC grampaw knew how fake and GAE it would get when I told him about Heather Has Two Mommies and the proto participation trophies, he didn’t even graduate HS and was so glad I did with tears in his eyes.”
My G-grandfather died of black lung – admittedly as an old man in his case – in Williamson West Virginia, and I remember watching him in his hospital bed which was way too small for a man of his height. They had to put a food tray table under his feet with a pillow on it to support his legs since he was 6’7”. This is a man who grew up in poverty with poor nutrition, so I have pondered if the fact that they produced their own food could be partially credited.
These are the men of the Matewan era, who charged federal machine gun nests with their own shotguns, to prevent enslavement by the same interests that today have now overrun a weaker people.
The only forces outside of Appalachia that stood alongside them were almost exclusively Communist Party USA activists out of NYC, and after the Govt forces were beaten back by the continued resistance, no Communist Party ever gained election or became established in the region,
because people who know where they came from know where they want to go, and those who have no such self-guidance are open to any suggestion.