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This Is a Class War Disguised as a Generation War
Young people who left education with high hopes have had their ambitions dashed
With youth unemployment set to nudge past the million marker, it's worth reflecting on what being out of work means for the 18-to 24-year-olds who have failed to find employment since the crash of 2008. Bright young people who left school or university with high hopes have had their ambitions dashed, finding only temporary, part-time work outside their chosen field, if they have found work at all.
Many are left with a sense of growing up in a world that doesn't want them. They find themselves frantically competing for jobs and training courses as public sector work is being cut, and the private sector is failing to make up the difference. University fees are soaring as the worth of a degree in the labor market plummets. Housing is cramped and expensive. What work there is is temporary, badly paid or unpaid, and the best jobs go not to those who are best qualified or who have worked the hardest, but to those who have family connections or who can afford to slog their way through unpaid internships.
It's easy to perceive all this as an attack on the young. In fact, it is attack on the disadvantaged, on those without safety nets or resources, on those who are most easily exploited by the labor market – many of whom happen to be young, but many more of whom are women, casual workers or people on lower incomes. There is now very little room in society for those who are not already independently wealthy. This is not a generational war. It is class war.
It is small wonder that students, school pupils and young unemployed people have been taking to the streets in protest for almost a year now. A year ago the commentariat was worried about a "lost generation" sliding into apathy – now it is worried about mass civil unrest. That tells you a great deal about the state of Britain today.
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47 Comments so far
Show AllThe generational focus is a mischaracterization. While the young are finding few jobs, the middle aged are far worse off. Those over 50 make up a very large segment of the long-term unemployed. We've lost jobs and are in many cases unemployable. I've been on the street with OccupyNorfolk and about half of us aren't youngsters. Many have lost savings, homes, jobs . . . This is a struggle borne of desperation and yes, it is a long overdue escalation of the class struggle. Capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It is a top-heavy juggernaut of destruction, a system of corruption which has exposed itself over the last decade for all to see. We, the 99% have had enough and demand a society that works for us.
I agree. I am nearly 50 and have been under-or-unemployed since 2004. While it is true that recent graduates have it tough, it is tough all over.
I have a couple of friends who are in their 90s, and they both say, matter-of-factly, that they are grateful they will not be here much longer--
OWS gives me hope, but the betrayal by O [or my suckering by the media] was so huge, I am actually afraid of hope.
Somewhere--I can't tell where-- is a little voice that says the whole thing will be exposed as a corporate/gov't-sponsored means to flush out the "real troublemakers" and the jackboots will come a-stomping soon to herd us all into internment camps--
I suspect I can't be dashed against the pavement much longer--
Peace.
I too half-joke that the roundups have yet to begin. The size of the national security state is daunting. That said, I think this movement is real. Life is short and the struggle is long. hang in there.
In the US a major cause of high unemployment (for all age groups, but especially young Americans) is the millions of older workers who, if single payer medical insurance existed, would retire today and open their family wage jobs to younger Americans, Yes, there are millions of us who stay in the workforce soley for the medical insurance. Obamacare will make this situation worse in 2014 when it kicks in. Obama's super catfood commission's upcoming cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will also exacerbate this problem.
Although I have delayed my retirement from my family wage job by 10 to 12 years, many of my friends have told me they will not retire until they are forced to by physical or mental impairment, or death.
Another generational argument for single-payer medical insurance (even if the author did not intend it that way):
"Right now, thanks to the current contract, older Americans are the only group in our society that has access to universal, fee-for-service medical care. Younger Americans do not have such access, have seen their incomes stagnate in recent years, and yet will be expected to pay for the current generation's morally indefensible fiscal policies. As a result, without a major change, working-age families and their children will not receive the kind of help that will eventually make the nation more productive." [Isabel Sawhill, Brookings Institute, 2008.]
I got the best argument for single payer.
DOCTORS and HOSPITALS are losing customers FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No one can afford them and insurance is disappearing for many people.
Go into a hospital and walk around. Rooms are empty and if you need to check in there are Plenty of single rooms available at no extra charge.
Check it out. I am not kidding you one bit.
I think there are too may of us and the government has neither the troops or the money to maintain internment camps. More likely, in the event of economic collapse, troops will be used to guard important infrastructure and most of us will be left on our own in a state of anarchy that will be quite grim.
__________________________________________________________
Let us hope that we can transition to a new economic-monetary paradigm and system before the present one collapses. what we actually need to do is change the entire direction of human civilization. And this is one thing not often mentioned in these articles. The fact of the matter is that, beyond just the machinations and predations of the ultra-rich, the end of cheap fossil fuel and humanity's loss of billions of dollars of natural capital each year due to environmental destruction are also factors in our economic problems.
____________________________________________________
What we actually need to do - as James Howard Kunstler has written about - is a controlled contraction of the economy to a lower level of energy use and a lower level of complexity, moving toward a steady-state economy. In other words, the entire concept of economic growth is obsolete, and we are going to have to totally redesign human civilization.
What ya gonna do when they come for you?
Hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun?
Shot down on the pavement or waiting on death row?
Guns of Brixton.
I've hit 45 this year, and have been under-or-unemployed since 1997. This ain't new shit, I've taken jobs at a freaking BATHHOUSE to pay the damn rent, and that's with a degree and a college diploma. I've been on the temp job circuit so long that I said stuff it. Moved back home to take care of the elderly parents. Pay is lower than I've ever had, but it's better than what I'd get if I went to work at a company.
3 months of work followed by a 3 week job search, followed by another 3 months of work... Actually it's just shy of three months, as the labor law demands that people who work for 3 months or longer can not be fired without cause...
Excellent comment. These young people act as if they are the first to graduate into or be present in a down economic time. Not hardly!
Though I will certainly say that they are looking at far less help than prior generations thanks to the current Crony Capitalism prevelant in Washington these days..
I strongly disagree.
These kids will have it, in the mid term, quite a bit worse than previous generations had, even those in their fourties, but more importantly their long term outlooks are clearly much worse. There was in fact a temporary humanisation of capitalism that lasted for a few decades (driven mainly by the fear of leftist movements and the Soviet Union) that put the older generations in a more advantageous position. Which of course doesn't mean that every individual in those generations had an awesome time of it, far from it, and of course a lot of the controlling mechanisms were the same, but when the good times are over, the young will have to eat our crap.
There will be two kinds of shit they have to consume: the external crises of resource shortages and the ecological crises; and the internal crises of miseducation, propaganda and a generally fucked up morality, more and more totalitarian military/technological control in service of capital, and inequal distribution of wealth and power in general. I have no idea how they'll be able to cope, but I think if we're honest, we have to admit that most of us - whether we wanted or not - profited from what will become their loss.
This is not to put the blame on older generations of course, just a fact of life. Healthcare, jobs, leisure (tourism most importantly), education - what they get will probably be all worse.
I would tell you the downturns in the early seventy's and in the early eighty's were close enough. This is more wide spread, involving every state now, but that is the only real difference.
I meant to indicate however that the upside when this resolves will not be as good by saying " Though I will certainly say that they are looking at far less help than prior generations thanks to the current Crony Capitalism prevelant in Washington these days.."
Could have been stated better now that you point it out. But I'll tell you that the education that the last few generations got was garbage and I fail to see how it can get worse unless we just mail the grades to the student and everyone gets an A. Healthcare is far better than prior generations and more people get it now than in prior generations (fact), but there are far to many that only get emergency care. Thats where the crisis is. Jobs are a matter of political will and I believe it will be wrested from the elites before this is over.
" inequal distribution of wealth and power in general" Here is the real problem. This may not be solved in their favor for decades.
The blame belongs to the older generations. We are the ones that allowed LBJ/Nixon/RR/Clinton/Bush, Republicans/Democrats to screw things up.
Yep, there were a few downturns, and after the early seventies, things didn't get back on track (or rather, they did get back on the real track of capitalist development at the end of the seventies). And it may just happen, even though it looks less and less likely, that the system will not radicalise yet and there will be another (but short) uptick before the next great crisis; nevertheless, I don't see how a great general global downturn which will result either in another attempt at "redivision of the world" and thus global wars or some other sort of transition to a rational political economy (through magic probably :-/). And you're right, the general structural economic, errr, "readjustments" did begin in the 70's, but the system still kind of appeared to work for a few more decades.
And in general, I think it is definitely true that the people who lived and worked mainly between 1945 and 2008 (the dates shouldn't be taken too seriously of course - the point is that between the end of WW2 and the last crisis) in the first world generally had a very high level of material abundance, that the cost of this (even if we discount the other costs of imperialism) - if not already born by third world people and the Western poor but to a much, much lesser degree - will be born by future generations; and that people used this well being not to turn outwards and increase democracy but to turn inwards and have personally better lives in the material sense. There is of course no one to blame, and a lot of young people also accept the principles behind this thinking (individualism (or rather, egoism), the idea of superabundance, markets, happiness as material possessions etc), but this is still a fact afaics.
I cannot disagree with your "level of material abundance" comment, its a fact that more of what we have will be shared in the future as it wasn't in the past.
I disagree about Global wars though. There are going to be some wars and soon. Particularly in the middle east, but I believe they will not be on a Global scale like WW2. They will be localized but no less deadly. I also believe we will not be involved. Well, certainly not directly, "boots on the ground" in any case.
Well, I hope you're right :-) The problem I see is that the Middle East (well, Israel in particular) is very much capable of initiating a global war. Also, I'm European and can see first hand the increase in nationalism and the rest of the prefascist idiocy - except this time there is no developed socialist/communist movement and ideology to speak of to counter it in any way.
I would love to live in Europe. I've always thought your comments are too even tempered and reasoned to be from an American, makes sense you are from The Old World where people are still educated and civil. I'm an American corpo-slave by way of California, and a Generation X'er to boot. If there's one thing we Gen-X'ers have always been sure of, is that we have always had no future. So I agree with your generational assessment that we will have to make more with less!
"Could have been stated better now that you point it out. But I'll tell you that the education that the last few generations got was garbage and I fail to see how it can get worse unless we just mail the grades to the student and everyone gets an A. Healthcare is far better than prior generations and more people get it now than in prior generations (fact), but there are far to many that only get emergency care. Thats where the crisis is. Jobs are a matter of political will and I believe it will be wrested from the elites before this is over."
I disagree.
Education is worse now, not just because of the institutional system, but because the way society developed makes it much less effective - that's not to say that the institutional structure itself isn't getting worse and worse. In the case of healthcare, technical quality, while pretty important, is not the most important issue by far, but access, as you point out. In both of these cases, the actual, real world service young people will get will be clearly worse, and will get worse in time.
We will just have to disagree. The institutional system was and is, directly at fault. Students are taught more and more about less and less.
alugilac wrote:
"inequal distribution of wealth and power in general" Here is the real problem.
M.E.Lenns wote:
Not so!
"Inequal (sic) distribution of wealth and power..." are but elements of the SOLUTION started three decades ago by the Wealthy Elite. If you think that wealth and power in the hands of too few is the problem, then you are not seeing the wider view of what is occurring.
The REAL problem is that there are six and a half billion people on a planet capable of perpetually sustaining only two billion people.
The unrest that is presently spreading world-wide will eventually evolve into utter and uncontrollable chaos precisely as the Wealthy Elite planned it to. It is this chaos and resultant fall of civilization that is the inevitable progression of the depopulation of the planet.
It is already too late to keep it from happening. In fact, it shouldn't be kept from happening. Everyone should just get ready for a die-off of four and a half billion people.
Now that the Wealthy Elite have control of the economies, the governments, and the resources of the world, they are in the process of imposing world-wide austerity programs that are designed to eliminate the poor, the ill, and the elderly.
Once those segments of the population are disposed of, THEN will come the selective ridding of the remaining "undesirables" on the basis of their uselessness to the Wealthy Elite.
That's the bad news.
Now for the good news:
The Earth's immune system has also, in the past few years, initiated its own depopulation program to rid itself of the plague of humanity which will be much more democratic than the depopulation program promulgated by the Wealthy Elite.
The Wealthy Elite have as the criterion for survival the amount of economic wealth that one has. If you are rich, you may be spared.
The Earth, on the other hand, couldn't care less about one's net value. The weather, the geological forces, her biological agents, and etc. are going to get EVERYONE regardless of economic status.
The only thing that these two depopulation agendas have in common is that they are both past the tipping point, and both are irreversible.
Mark my words.
MEL
"It is already too late to keep it from happening. In fact, it shouldn't be kept from happening. Everyone should just get ready for a die-off of four and a half billion people."
F-ck you. F-ck your "die off."
Your theories come straight from Jeff Rense and the rightist anti-NWO crowd.
If you think 4.5 billion people dying is such a good idea, then why don't you kill yourself.
You over-population fascistrs are really the worst. Its' capitalism, not overpopulation that is causing the crisis. Your POV is reactionary and rightist, if not outright murderous.
"The Earth, on the other hand, couldn't care less about one's net value. The weather, the geological forces, her biological agents, and etc. are going to get EVERYONE regardless of economic status. "
My, you are naive aren't you? All of the things you listed, hit poor people the hardest.
"Excellent comment. These young people act as if they are the first to graduate into or be present in a down economic time. Not hardly!"
Utter bollocks.
Laurie - smoking is a plot by the monied class to relieve you of yours.
Well, Im 56 and fortunate so far. I served in the Military in the 70's got out and got a good paying job in a technical field with RCA in the 80's. I left in mid 80's when I was witnessing the decline of good blue collar jobs. Mine was a Telegraph/Teletype Operator. I then went to work for my State as a Dispatcher for a Police Dept. I can retire. Now the talk of "Austerity" Cuts. SS being changed, and Medicare. I have done everything right. I have over 2500 hours of sick leave, which shows I never abused it. I have perfect attendence over the years. I have it better than most and Im participating with October2011.org in DC. As I have seen this matter is Global, and yes the U.S. and our financial policies, as well as European Policies with the banks have crashed the world economies. And now the nerve of no taxes on the Rich make cuts on the backs of the poor. In Debt the population and you have modern slavery.
It's a class war being deliberately misrepresented as a generational war.
Spinning it as a generational war is pure divide and conquer strategy that has kept elites in power for centuries. If young folks can't see through this, the schools and universities that gave them diplomas and degrees didn't provide a very useful education, did they ?
"the schools and universities that gave them diplomas and degrees didn't provide a very useful education, did they ?"
As a matter of fact, I don't believe they did. But you are both correct about the strategy, but unlike the past, I also believe even adolecents can see thru this smoke screen and recognize it for what it is.
Adolescents can see thru this smoke screen and recognize what it is unlike the past? Really? Having been on the streets and getting beaten by batons in the late sixties and early seventies, when I was supposed to be in class, I call bs on this continuing "generational" divide and conquer mentality. It has no more value today to blame the old generation for doing nothing and screwing the young generation than it did when protesting against "the man" and ultra rich 40, 50 years ago. It was class warfare then and it is now and it is still the usual suspects who are at the top and not all of the older generation. Please don't fall for that easy out by blaming the previous generation for all of the problems. What are your kids going to say when you fail to change the world for them? Hopefully, they will acknowledge that a great many of you tried but the monied interests and corporate power still kept the class divide going.
What do you mean by that? What's the issue that OWS can't address? Considering how much it developed in a few weeks, you may be underestimating them.
On the other hand, I think it's pretty easy to make a convincing argument that it's far more important to get down to the real issue-level stuff and to organise groups around those than to focus on one (no matter how fucked up) person to get him replaced by someone else - who, btw, will most probably turn out quite a bit worse. It's not like this person oriented politics crap actually works (I think this realisation is very much reflected in the protests actually). The group must find common cause first, and preferably not something that can be achieved with a single personal sacrifice from the part of the establishment. Focusing on a marionette like Obama would be an especially bad strategy (I think most occupiers would actually be aware of this) from this point of view. Focusing on understanding the current situation and forming actual real-world issue level strategies is imo quite obviously more important and constructive.
Also, I dislike it when people call others stupid who are actually doing something, even disregarding that I think your argument is not really strong at all.
No idea about OWS, but I sure as hell don't have a clue about what you mean either. Could you please explain in a bit more detail?
"Stick with Obama again and you will get more of the same."
Not many of us here have any intention of sticking with him. I seem to be one of the few who was foolish enough to support him the first time, and I won't do it in 2012.
Love Lauries bio, she's writing from the British view where it may be more of the 20's somethings. In the USA the old anti Vietnam War Vets are hobbling in mass to the Front, heck with no SS a prison cell will be a great place to meditate, do they serve vegan?
Having the world's most expensive healthcare, I have known a few Yankees who got themselves into prison to take advantage of the free medical care. The downside is that prison food is universally bad, unless you already were OK with living on junkfood "on the outside".
I beg to differ with your opinion of prison food.
It actually is better than the junk food we are offered and sold for profit.
How would I know??? Experience and you better be ready to taste the whip if you are gonna participate in the revolution. It aint gonna be easy because we let them get to far along in their plan.
Of this article-- it's good and though about things in the UK very applicable to the USA and else where.
"This famous sentence is a brilliant insight into the workings of society."
It is, isn't it. And imagine how much "work" intellectuals - sociologists, economists, politologists - have to do to come up with theories that completely ignore it! Economics that can't predict or explain, sociology that barely covers the surface and is baffled by the simplest things, art theory without content, liberated from having to say anything and have any connection to the world - all made up just to cover up this sentence.
It's incredible how the simple fact that distribution of material power is the main (although definitely not the only) driving force behind history is consistently ignored and denied. No one will laugh at you if you just reinvent Hegel or Kant or any other idealist but don't you dare mention this :-)
"It's incredible how the simple fact that distribution of material power is the main (although definitely not the only) driving force behind history is consistently ignored and denied"
The hidden but extensive nature of classism is part and parcel of that ignorance.
There is room at the top
They are telling you still
But first you must learn
To smile as you kill
If you want to be like
The folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be.
Keep you doped on Religion and sexy TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free;
But you're still bloody peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
Cheers M8
Civil Unrest =Hope. Apathy = No Hope. Thank God for Civil Unrest.
ITS......slowly...............HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!
"Laurie Penny is a journalist, author, feminist, reprobate."
And one heck of a great writer.
Yeah, it's definitely not a generational conflict.
My mid-fifties friend has worked since her teens. A couple of years ago, she left a fairly decent senior administrative-assistant job in Philly to relocate to Florida; her husband has MS and the doctor recommended a warmer climate.
Then she was slammed by an intestinal infection that required surgery; she bounced back well, but is still in recovery and is supposed to do physical therapy and avoid strenuous activity.
In recent months, her husband's SS disability has been either suspended or reduced to a point where she's needed a second job to supplement her present low-paying admin. assistant job.
Last week, she mentioned that she'd gotten a night job at Target, but her local doctor was unwilling to sign off on a medical release because she's not supposed to stand and/or exert herself for extended periods.
I hit the ceiling when she matter-of-factly said that she had thirty days to turn in the medical certification, so even if her doctor wouldn't comply she might at least get a couple of paychecks out of it.
She's not a stupid or reckless person, so although I started to remonstrate with her, I canned the lecture.
I did tell her that she was starting to sound like a character in Joe Bageant's "Deer Hunting With Jesus", which I actually sent her because it resonated with her tales of life in God's Country. She loved it.
She ruefully agreed. She also assured me that if she had problems hanging in at this new Target job, she'd stop and look for something else. Besides making ends meet, she's hoping to save up enough money to pay a lawyer to help in this ongoing struggle with Social Security.
She didn't somehow bring her economic hard times upon herself; she's being nickel and dimed to death by the Hollow State. So it's not just the younger generation that's being squeezed and left to twist slowly in the wind.
She's being nickeled and dimed to death by the For-Profit-Health-Care-System, was what I comprehended from reading your post. This is generational conflict indeed, the Baby Boomers were so slick they ripped each other off for everything and even didn't realize it until now. They sold everything that could be sold for a quick buck and instant gratification. We need to Nationalize the banks, oil and gas industry, and health care systems and return these resources to the citizenry that have been wrested from us by for-profit corporate-persons.
From "the Mahatma" - Mohandas K. Gandhi - to #Occupiers everywhere:
> The truly non-violent action is not possible unless it springs from
a heart of belief that he whom you fear and regard as a robber...
and you are one, and that therefore it is better that you should die
at his hands than that he, your ignorant brother, should die at yours.
> So long as one wants to retain one's sword, one has not attained
complete fearlessness.
> If non-violence does not appeal to your heart, you should discard it.
> Satyagraha [political struggle based on "soul-force" or "truth-force"] is
always superior to armed resistance. This can only be effectively proved by
demonstration, not by argument...
> A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than
a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
The "we are one with our oppressors" approach is of very limited usefulness regarding political struggle.
Ghandi didn't free India by himself. there was much armed resistance and rioting.
It's not as simple as you portray and you do no one involved in OWS any favors by spouting platitudes.