by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog
I found out today
We’re going wrong.
– Cream – We’re Going Wrong – 1967 album Disraeli Gears
Shortly after reading about the latest 7 million Americans who made unemployment claims this week that song shuffled on my iPod. It’s a haunting and even frightening song, and while that makes it sound like some lame emo band we must remember that it’s being played by the rock super-dupergroup of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce.
The song is a psychedelic ode to the terrifying realisations caused by a middle-class freak-out, which were occurring regularly across the West back in 1967. Somebody’s mind has just been opened to the fact that the path they were on is not right. Why was it not right? Because they had failed to ever look inward – they had accepted the prevailing nonsense without questioning it.
Today it’s hard not to have this same feeling that the Western trajectory is veering out of control… but only because that is entirely the case: capitalist – i.e. growth-demanding – economies are hysterically yanking out the single-most important pillar of their economic culture (competitive demand) as if their house won’t collapse immediately.
Because there is none of the dependability provided by central planning, Western capitalism is flying blind because it has wilfully broken its fundamentals – how can any investor, CEO or supply clerk accurately foresee the economic future for at least several months (at a minimum)?
Thus a good comparison is Gorbachev’s “fatal error” in 1987, so-called “self-financing”: that yanked out the single-most important pillar of their economic culture – central planning – for enterprises which controlled 60% of all Soviet output. The immediate, radical reordering sparked economic chaos, then bread lines, then the undemocratic, top-down implosion of the USSR.
In my previous article I condensed the economic data and gave the undeniable conclusion: Who now needs a bailout in the West as a result of the poverty-inducing corona response? Wall Street, Main Street, the County Seat, State Capitol Plaza and Corporate Circle. Everybody.
Of course “bailout” is a euphemism for “loan”, meaning that the “lucky” in these sectors will simply get more and more indebted to a 1% which actually only gets smaller, smaller, richer and richer (as Marx proved).
Want mediocrity? Turn to the middle-class
What was rather fascinating is that among all the articles I have read about our new corona-world I found only one single instance of a Mainstream Media relaying a complaint of how the corona response was a middling, “middle-class” solution.
“The entire plan had the imagination of a middle-class person,” was the tough assessment of Harsh Mander, director of the New Delhi-based Centre for Equity Studies. “People were asked to maintain social distance, wash their hands and stay home assuming they have homes and salaries going into bank accounts.”
It is interesting that open resentment towards the middle class seemingly surfaced only in India: It’s hard to imagine a middle-class with a more disagreeable sense of entitlement than the pudgy middle managers from the mighty continent of India. One need not be an untouchable Dalit to believe that while a college degree might be a marginally-impressive achievement, using it to work at a Western corporation’s call centre is really not proof of hot stuff; one need not question the reactionary caste system to point out that such a middling life is not sufficient justification for maintaining a system of alleged karmic supremacism. Thus, I would imagine that in India today the term “middle-class” carries as many condescending connotations as it did in the Anglophone world back in 1967.
“But the West is not India”, you will object. Indeed, nobody talks about class or caste in the former. But high-and-mighty Westerners must concede that it is also not 1967 for them, back when union membership was high and an 18-year old male could exit high school assured of not just a decent-paying job but even house and car loans from private banks. (LOL, Millennials think I am making this up, but ask your grandparents – this was actually the case!)
Let’s accept Harsh’s mild definition of “middle class”: somebody who has a nice home, savings and the resources to comfortably weather months of societal turmoil. Using that definition, how very few qualify as “middle class” in the West in 2020!
The 17 million Americans who have been added to unemployment ranks in the past 15 days now have not only no income but no health care and no pension (which had become nearly non-existent in their private sector, anyway). The number is not higher than 17 million in 15 days only because the USA’s antiquated 1980s computer infrastructure could not process more claims. These people are definitely not middle-class.
You could have a family of four and an income of $90,000 in the US but how can you call yourself “middle class” when you strain to afford middling versions of health insurance plans, college education, child care and elder care? And heaven forbid you have to pay for all four at once. These people lack the stability to be called middle-class.
What is middle-class in France? I rarely meet anybody taking home more than 2,000 euros per month. That sum was fine in 1980, but after a Lost Decade produced by austerity – with its increased taxes, steady price inflation and social services which are no longer paid for by the state – their middle-class now suffers from lower-class instability as well.
The reality is that “middle class” in the West in 2020 is actually what used to be called the “upper-middle class” – their entire society has been devalued by a standard deviation since 1980 due to neoliberal capitalism.
Across the West doctors are telling 64-year old Uber drivers to quit in order to avoid exposure to coronavirus, and their journalists are agreeing with this remedy, as if such a person is only Ubering because they have a passion for people-moving? Such advice is middling, middle-class nonsense.
Corona is forcing the West’s upper class to learn that the middle-class mentality has been blown apart, and not by Cream and loud bass but by inequality-provoking socioeconomic policies which fundamentally disregard the needs of the middle and lower classes. Contrarily, the needs of those classes are always and indisputably the primary policy focus of socialist-inspired nations, which is why the West declares Cold War on them.
The West’s upper-class is telling their lower classes to commit suicide
The US fake-left has practically deified Dr. Anthony Fauci mainly because he openly contradicts Trump, but also because middle-class Westerners slavishly worship at the altar of technocracy, which rests upon the false idol of their imaginary meritocracy.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson made the correct observation that not only is this lockdown economic “national suicide” but that Fauci had “bulletproof job security”; this meant that, “He has the luxury of looking at the world through the narrow lens of his profession. He doesn’t seem to think much outside that lens.”
For anyone who thinks Carlson pegged him wrong, Fauci recently said: ‘I don’t think we should ever shake hands ever again, to be honest with you.” That is the “cultural suicide” assessment and bizarre goal of the man who essentially has been given the power to guide US socio-economic policy.
Fauci is not middle-class, but his workaholic, narrow view certainly is stereotypically middle-class; his total disregard for life as it is lived by living, pulsating, hungry, unstable workers certainly is middle-class.
Instead of a vanguard party which is in touch with the lower classes, the US has promoted the singular view of this germ-obsessed technician (and I’m sure Fauci is considering the broader effects of a lockdown on the municipal bond market in his non-lab time/non-hand washing time).
In an interesting article by USA Today, This is what China did to beat coronavirus. Experts say America couldn’t handle it, we can see a government which is invasive, or we can see a government which is actually touching and in-touch with the average person – which you see depends on your lens.
But have no doubt: testing, tracing, treating, quarantining – these are all things which require mass mobilisation of pulsating humans, and which were done under an unassailable Chinese government slogan of, “No one left behind”.
China demands the ill have “zero contact” with healthy people, and that is rigorous; Fauci seems to want everyone to have “zero contact”, period, permanently.
Fauci’s slogan is more like “I want to leave you behind”, and is that not the middle-class Western dream: To leave the sick, hungry and poor – including their White Trash – behind in their rear-view mirror?
Insist that socialist-inspired nations are totalitarian and unfeeling all you want, but nothing is more synonymous with “mediocrity” than the Western middle-class: “The approach we should be taking right now is one that most people would find to be too drastic because otherwise, it is not drastic enough,” Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health,” said to USA Today.
What a middling and mediocre statement. And what a middling and mediocre Western response to the corona crisis (which still could wind up as middling and mediocre, as far as pandemics go).
Expect many more freak-outs.
In a crisis mediocrity is not needed, but truly exceptional conduct and resolve. Unfortunately their most inspirational conceptual ideas – which could really help people through these tough times – go unreflected upon and not relayed by the Western corporate media.
***********************************
Corona contrarianism? How about some corona common sense? Here is my list of articles published regarding the corona crisis, and I hope you will find them useful in your leftist struggle!
Capitalist-imperialist West stays home over corona – they grew a conscience? – March 22, 2020
Corona meds in every pot & a People’s QE: the Trumpian populism they hoped for? – March 23, 2020
A day’s diary from a US CEO during the Corona crisis (satire) March 23, 2020
MSNBC: Chicago price gouging up 9,000% & the sports-journalization of US media – March 25, 2020
Tough times need vanguard parties – are ‘social media users’ the West’s? – March 26, 2020
If Germany rejects Corona bonds they must quit the Eurozone – March 30, 2020
Landlord class: Waive or donate rent-profits now or fear the Cultural Revolution – March 31, 2020
Corona repeating 9/11 & Y2K hysterias? Both saw huge economic overreactions – April 1, 2020
(A Soviet?) Superman: Red Son – the new socialist film to watch on lockdown – April 2, 2020
Corona rewrites capitalist bust-chronology & proves: It’s the nation-state, stupid – April 3, 2020
Condensing the data leaves no doubt: Fear corona-economy more than the virus
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of the books ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’ and the upcoming ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’.
Regular Flu deaths in USA from Jan 1 to April 10, 2020…….60,000 to 80,000 dead. Flu deaths in USA from the ” Terrible Corona Virus from Jan 1 to April10, 2020…10,000 plus. What a brilliant Scam by the World’s Central Bankers to “Front Run” ; and avoid the blame for the Economic Collapse they actually brought on ; by blaming this Special “New Virus”. As Hugo Salinas Price has often said ; ” People are Easily Fooled “,
Well said.
Those flu death numbers are taken from a statistical ass. Nobody tests for a regular flu. They also cover the whole flu season. we have flu vaccine. I don’t remember a shortage of ventilators or ICU beds during previous flu seasons. Sweden decided to rely on herd immunity for COVID-19, I.e. do nothing. They are not doing very well.
@ Skeptical
I live in Sweden, and with the exception of one or two hot-spots (Stockholm, for example) we’re doing OK. Generally speaking I loathe my government, but in this instance I think they got it right. People observe the ‘social distancing’ requirement, but otherwise life goes on, albeit more slowly.
And frankly, I’d far prefer to be here than, say, the UK where the police are considering inspecting people’s grocery purchases to ensure that they’re only buying essentials (who defines what those are, I wonder?), a straight-up, in-your-face, implementation of state-sponsored fascism.
Amusingly, as far as Stockholm is concerned, it seems to take a pandemic to have the city functioning better than in a long time. Gone are the never-ending signal failures, railroad switch failures, unauthorized people on the tracks, and what-have-you. ”Stockholm syndrome” at its very best, LOL.
Except the virus is killing ~2500 people who would otherwise NOT have died from the Flu at all, PER DAY, in the US alone. The threat from this virus is very real. And if nothing were done, we would end up with millions dead in a short time frame.
The deaths being caused by coronavirus are very, VERY real. It could be your family, it could be your child, it could be you. Just because it hasn’t happened to you personally (yet) doesn’t mean the deaths aren’t happening.
The fact is, 10,000+ people have died in the US alone who would otherwise BE ALIVE TODAY if it weren’t for coronavirus. And many of them were young, healthy people. A couple days ago, a 14 year old girl died near me. So much for the virus only targeting the old and weak. What is that was your child? Would you still say the virus is a hoax introduced by the elite with the singular goal of destroying the economy? Give me a break.
Stop comparing this to the Flu. Contrary to the conspiracies people want to believe, this latest crisis was not intentionally engineered by the elite. Not that they aren’t taking advantage of the crisis, of course, because that is what they do. But causation clearly does not imply correlation in this case.
Anonymous, you should not worry. If it truly so deadly, all-cause mortality data will certainly show it. It is just that this winter was a much better than the average flu season, and so the covid deaths have not caught up yet. Including your numbers and Francis’, it appears we will get catch up with last year in about 24 days assuming we stay at 2500. Do you know of a site where US all cause mortality can be tracked (daily or weekly)?
francis m reps
More than one commentator has stated that the corona virus was introduced as an excuse for an economic crash.
This pandemic is perhaps the dream come through for the U.S. Elites and the Jewish Wall Street / Federal Reserve(today’s Temple of worship)money changers.
This pathogen is thining the ‘ herd ‘ , killing off the ‘ unwashed ‘ masses who are mostly dependent on Gov. funds in one way or another.
It’s particularly harsh on the old, who collect entitlements, like Medicare, and other funding. It’s also proving to be particularly lethal to African Americans, for what ever biological-social-econonomic reason. They are largely recipients of Gov. Funding of many programs.
The exposed lower class Americans will be left to fight this microbe themselves.
There are many reports of Federal Agents going to hospitals and confiscating ventilators, thermometers, special masks and so forth. Some Hospital Systems of various States are experiencing this mysterious outrage, and no explanations are given. There are also reports of Hospital Systems all over getting their shipments intercepted by the Feds.
So in short. These lower class / working poor and Middle class recipients of Gov. Aid, that cost upwards of 40%of Federal Spending, will be ruined down very significantly.
Once that is done, it will free up the U.S. to go at it toe-to-toe with China and have a chance to prevail in many ways, mainly economically.
Otherwise, China will leave the U.S. in the dust.
The 21st Century and way beyond, the Chinese will lead humanity to peace and prosperity, through their philosophy of ‘ Win-Win ‘ and the One Belt – Road initiative.
Your last article was excellent and necessary reading. This one is interesting, but blaming the middle class is rather low-hanging fruit. They are always just the useful idiots of the elite.
I enjoy reading Ramins articles. He is such a wonderful writer and no doubt a good person.
I have lived in Iran during the Shaw rule, The Persians are my favored people on earth.
My 11 Months stay was the best part of my life. I have been to 78 countries none can come close
to the quality of the Persian people. Even Alexander the Great loved the Persians.
Thanks, Ramin. You nailed the obvious flaw in the response of the west to this crisis – the 800-pound gorilla of a flaw – and illustrated its banality in perfect terms of class complacency.
China could only take the measures it took because it cared about all the people, and compensated them all for their trouble – first with money to replace the costs, and second with life to replace the danger of death. A wonderful response.
But the west could only see the steps that dealt with controlling people, and paid no attention to the steps that compensated people, which was crucially the other, full half of the equation. And this resulted in the west in a set of half-measures that are actually far more cruel than the virus itself. The epidemic can at least be regarded as a force majeure, while the economic devastation is 100% manager-made.
It was indeed middle class thinking, as you call it – brilliantly, to my mind. I’d been looking for words to describe the mediocrity of the response. The thinking has been not only pedestrian and dull, but willfully blind to the lack of masks and the lack of test kits, which presented two fatal flaws in emulating the Chinese example.
And that willful blindness has been readily extended to embrace the tens of millions of people thrown to the gutter, the working poor with nothing to survive on. I suspect that those who survive this economic crash will forget the victims. I already have friends who say they expect the economy will bounce back by winter. Not a word about the millions of newly impoverished who will never bounce back.
And this is the real tragedy, the great banality of this evil. As you said so well:
just a thought, not sure how relevant it is ..
.. when it came to swarming the military and security services, the US had no problems instantly locking down Boston on the day of the dubious Boston Marathon bombing.
This is another excellent article.
I will tell you now, however, that the root cause of our crisis in the west is really really stupid simple.
Basically, in America, hostile and frankly evil foreign powers and interests literally stole every single last genuine piece of not counterfeit coin in the entire f$$$$$g land.
That was around a century ago.
Since then, everyone has been paid with empty promises and ‘happy $#::$$ thoughts’.
And so on, and so on, etc., and here we are again, still.
“China demands the ill have “zero contact” with healthy people, and that is rigorous; Fauci seems to want everyone to have “zero contact”, period, permanently.”
Excuse me but as far that I know the Chinese method wasn’t so different than the Fauci approach; they locked down everybody within their appartement and enforced it with an iron fist, no?
Sick or not sick. The South Koreans tried to have zero contact between the ill and the healthy, but China hadn’t a so subtil & painless approach.
Fascist state powers is the defining trait of Western imperialism, sweetheart. If your account of Kissinger’s and Brzezinski’s lamentations are correct, it takes a typical Western ’anti-authoritarian’ such as yourself not to get the picture. China’s State forces (the PLA and the police) have irrefutably proved themselves up to the task in dealing with the West’s colour revolution stunts in Beijing (1989) and HongKong (2018/2019), hence China has a social cohesion which has solidified immensely. By contrast, what Kissinger and Brzezinski have at their disposal are traitors in the countries they want to plunder and the ’anti-authoritarian’ idiots savants of the West. Small wonder they envy China.
@Nussiminen
Calling me ‘savant’ surely breaks some moderation rule or the other, but I forgive you.
You should let go of the hatred against the West(ern peoples) you are harboring inside. The hate is clearly poisoning you.
I was like you. But I let go of the hate, the anger, I ain’t no anti-West no more. They sure have their shortcomings, but idiolising China/the East leads to other extremes.
Jean-Francois only stated that Fauci’s social distancing implementation is the same as China’s. And he repelled the groupthink perception that China’s approach is somehow better than the Western one. No, they both are fascist methods.
Btw, bcs none if us gets unfiltered news from China, none of us really knows what’s happening there- are they also printing money to bailout their billionaires? What the ordinary folks think etc… We only get Pepe’s interpretations of things, and if we are lucky some xianet? CCP approved newsarticle.
Kissinger says ‘even US’ can’t defeat Covid-19 alone. His solution? Global NWO government,
of course
Henry Kissinger, eminence grise of imperial US foreign policy, has warned in an op-ed that no govern-
ment – even his beloved hegemon – can defeat Covid-19 alone, implying that the New World Order
he’s always preached must follow.
If the US doesn’t couple its efforts to rebuild its own economy with the first steps toward creating a global government, humanity is doomed, Kissinger wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/485127-kissinger-new-order-defeat-coronavirus/
Humanity has always been doomed, it just depends on your point of view. Humanity always survives to live another day, another chance to defeat the everlasting doom, this is what god and evolution are all about.
The Trial of Henry Kissinger is a 2001 book by Christopher Hitchens examining the war
crimes of Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor and later United States Secretary
of State for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Acting in the role of the prosecution,
Hitchens presents Kissinger’s involvement in a series of alleged war crimes in Vietnam,
Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus and East Timor.
The Trial of Henry Kissinger is a 2001 book by Christopher Hitchens examining the war
crimes of Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor and later United States Secretary
of State for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Acting in the role of the prosecution,
Hitchens presents Kissinger’s involvement in a series of war crimes in Vietnam, Bangladesh,
Chile, Cyprus and East Timor.
In the words of Hitchens, Kissinger deserves prosecution “for war crimes, for crimes against
humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including con-
spiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture.”[1] He further calls him “a stupendous liar
with a remarkable memory.”[2]
The book inspired the 2002 documentary film The Trials of Henry Kissinger, which was co-
written by Hitchens and fellow writer/director, Alex Gibney.[13] Hitchens makes an appear-
ance in the film, being interviewed about Kissinger. The documentary also features film of
Kissinger but only in archive footage.[13]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trial_of_Henry_Kissinger
P.S.: In my opinion, Christopher Hitchens was right.
So I wrote the “war crime” without the adjective “alleged”.
it’s alarming to say the least to read all the recent article on the Saker. Especially’s Ramin’s.
Ramin simply doesn’t seem to get it. It’s ALL by design, bro. All of it. ALL the people losing their jobs and sinking into permanent poverty, all those old people dying; it’s all by design. Meaning it’s all done deliberately, step-by-step to get rid of as many undesirable as possible. Just witness the painfully obvious script the talking heads are reading off of. What the hell, really. Am I THE ONLY one who is seeing this?
By golly. Forget it. Waste of time. This comment won’t be published anyway.
”But high-and-mighty Westerners must concede that it is also not 1967 for them, back when union membership was high and an 18-year old male could exit high school assured of not just a decent-paying job but even house and car loans from private banks.”
That was indeed the heyday of Western imperialism and its rock-solid mass support among the middle class and labour aristocracy. Neoliberalism — ironically with the latters’ support at least during its first two decades — has ditched the largesse and is now in the process of ditching global apartheid too. The West’s baby-boomers are flabbergasted by these developments, but they have very little of substance to say.
Yes Ramin, «This is what China did to beat coronavirus. Experts say America couldn’t handle it».
America «we» cannot copy China, because America is a class society ruled by the oligarchs, high finance and downright enemies of the people. When «we» say we need more socialism, «we» mean more fascism.
Hitler named his mafia-party socialist and even workers party, but it was a foreign financed terrorist entity (SA) fighting the organised working class.
Socialism can only come from the underclass. Socialism from our rulers can only mean fascist powerabuse.
«We» neither can or want to copy China.
Sputnik News is reporting this morning that in the UK, social distancing measures may be here “indefinitely”. Until there’a vaccine, citizens will be encouarged to make long term “lifestyle changes” such as not visiting friends and relatives. This may be a trial balloon, but it triggers the paranoia alarm bills in me.
As for Fauci, I understand that Jeffrey Sachs, the man behind Russia’s “hidden famine” of the 1990s, is right behind him.
“Until there’a vaccine, ….”
Good Luck with that one. Poultry researchers h’ve been trying for decades to make “a” vaccine against Corona (aka Bird Flu). That wily virus comes up with new strains faster than we can come up with new vaccines.
Bill Gates is all bluff and “medicine man” sales. He can’t even vaccinate his own products against all those Microsoft viruses that keep coming back in new forms to infect his products year after year.
Like I said, they won’t stop until the masses resist & disobey. They can’t arrest all, and where are they gonna put them anyways – in close quarter prisons that are full?! That would be breaking the social distancing rules. Use their bs narratives against them!
These high-class twits are willfully exposing Julian Assange to the corona virus which is spreading in his Belmarish surroundings, by penning him up with 90 or others in the exercise yard at a time. They’ll be ecstatic at the chance to do that the rest of us.
@Ramin Mazaheri
Good article. I am particularly impressed by the subtle touch on the class issue as manifested by traditional systems (e.g Indian caste system) and the modern systems (e.g middle class). The class system is a societal construct , which all families unwittingly, take part in the process of condemning their children to its confines. It’s a mental prison, which requires a few life generated “reality checks” to outgrow. Anyone who is fortunate to outgrow the ‘class’ confines, develops a flexibility that enables them to evolve into any life situation. If “breaking the class system” was taught at schools, our civilization would be far advanced than it is now.
As soon as I read the title of the article I thought of that Cream song. Showing my age I guess.
What I see happening is a more complete joining of state and corporate power. The governing class of the U.S. is using the Federal Reserve System to buy up huge corporations, cities, states, even other countries. Unlimited funds are available for them, so said a Fed official. Trillions are given without question. But for the average citizen? Small and medium-sized businesses? Congress will have to vote on what will be given to them, but in this case, it isn’t given, it is loaned.
If this is seen as destruction of the capitalist system it is a planned, orchestrated, and managed destruction. The driving power behind it all isn’t going away. That is getting stronger and more ruthless in it’s determination to force its world order on everyone else. In other words, they have declared war on everyone. The vast majority will become totally dependent on the new government, the Fascist dictators. The more independent on can live the better off they will be.
Fauci appears to be a nasty little vermin himself, suffering from a bad case of anti-human, authoritarian complex for personal gain.
Agree.
And Fauci, despite his professional credentials, strikes me as a nasty little piece of work who is too old to occupy the powerful position he does occupy. same for Debbie Birx. They have been worked together for decades. She was in the military for years. The problem is not Fauci’s age figure but his ancient mentality. And of course there is a huge problem with Birx’s daughter working for Bill Gates.
The “wait for a vaccine” approach is social suicide because it is not based on a realistic assessment of the capabilities of vaccines in the case of corona viruses. It almost sounds like a willful misdirection and placebo.
The world is still waiting for an HIV vaccine. A project with which both Fauci and Birx have been associated also for decades. Feeding at the HIV vaccine trough. We are nowhere near finding a vaccine.
“Myth: An HIV vaccine already exists.
Fact: This is also false. There is no licensed vaccine against HIV or AIDS, but scientists are getting closer than ever before to developing an effective vaccine against HIV. In 2009, a large-scale vaccine study conducted in Thailand (called RV144) showed that a vaccine combination could prevent about 32 percent of new infections. The HVTN is leading the effort to build on these results, and planning for several studies is underway. ”
Ja da ja da.
Meanwhile a number of experts have stated that the corona mutates far too fast for a vaccine to be plausible.
Katherine
Also, by the way, what exactly is the business relationship between the WHO and CDC, as regards revenues and financial exchanges? What are their shared and vested financial interests and obligations? Merchandise and services exchange? Purely governmental? Private/corporate?
Fair questions, yes?
When John Michael Greer predicted Trump to win in 2016, he noted the class division you refer to here, terming the “middle class” as you’ve called them the “salaried class,” to distinguish them from less secure groups with similar income. When the middle class got eviscerated, it was mostly the wage earners that were forced into poverty. To keep one’s place in the salaried group, one had to tow certain ideological lines. It was mostly to this slowly shrinking class that the Democratic Party was trying to appeal along with the welfare class, as opposed to the wage-earning class and small entrepreneurs they were calling the “Deplorables.”
The hatred of the salaried class, with their pride in their education, toward the wage-earning class, and vice versa, is so thick it is ripping my own family apart. Today when I speculated absently about a mechanism for the pandemic to be less impressive than at first predicted, based on a statement to that effect one of the “lefties” (left of where?) himself had made, the lefties quoted Snopes, they quoted Wikipedia, they called me an ignoramus. My goodness, they are really hoping for this to be a devastating blow to Trump and the terrible people who voted for him.
I won’t reply to them, and their e-mails will go straight to the trash for a while. What they seem to fail to see, because they are similarly blocking anything that might disturb them from the right, is the rage building up in the Deplorables over the excesses of this leftie-Utopian exercise in social engineering.
I don’t think I need their e-mails to keep an eye on the American Left’s narratives. Just turn on the TV. Even here in Japan, that’s all you’re going to hear.