"Wilding (part 3)" by GrandaddyBonegrinder
| DarkPoet |
| Rachel |
| asailorsangel |
| MercyRain |
| manywalks |
| Jonas |
| Litteratus |
| Sharon Rose |
| Deeter |
| Anaelle |
| TropicalSnowstorm |
| cre |
| Lady_Ahz |
| profligez |
| worm |
| Solace |
| MEATGRINDER MAN |
|
The Rich Shall Rule 'What is the chief end of man? --To get rich. In what way? -- Dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must" (Twain, 1871). Charles Derber defines "economic wilding" as "the morally uninhibited pursuit of money by individuals or businesses at the expense of others". He describes political wilding as "the abuse of political office to benefit oneself or one's social class or the wielding of political authority to inflict morally unacceptable suffering on citizens at home or abroad" (2002). I define the malevolent combination of the two (private enterprise and government) as "industrial wilding". Industrial wilding has been a long time mainstay in American culture and still affects every aspect of US society today. At the end of the Revolutionary War, the newly formed "United States" was deeply in debt, owing vast sums of money to those countries like France who supported the colonies against Mother England. Figuring out a way to pay off America's debt was the monumental duty of the first US Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton was a well-to-do lawyer and banker (he helped to found the Bank of New York) and his marriage to Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of Gen. Philip J. Schuyler, connected him with an old and powerful New York family. In the first decade of the republic, Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury, played a critical role in shaping domestic and foreign policy. In 1790, he presented his financial program to the first Continental Congress. Hamilton proposed that the federal government assume all state debts, and that a Bank of the United States be chartered. This way the National debt accumulated by the Revolution could be paid in full. Hamilton advocated tariffs on imported goods and a series of excise taxes, hoping these measures would strengthen the national government at the expense of the states. Finally, and most importantly, Hamilton proposed that the government allow men of wealth and prosperity to bail out the flowering new republic in exchange for "special favors" from the government some time in the future (Brody, Dumenil, Heneretta, 2002). Hamilton's policies favored the rich industrialists and the wealthy. His plan drew opposition from those who feared a link between the power of the federal government and wealthy nobility could do nothing but corrupt the system. However, much like political affairs today, widespread antipathy to politics in general quieted the opposition, and Congress adopted the Hamiltonian program. This governmental policy that favored the rich began the vast socioeconomic stratification between the “have” and the "have-nots" in the United States by creating a power elite; an American aristocracy always changing and growing in the "land" of opportunity (Brody, Dumenil, Heneretta, 2002). By the time the North and South were solidified into a single nation, opportunities for industrial wilding were in abundance. After the Civil War, between 1865-1900, industrialization became the norm and manufacturing quadrupled. In response to this "industrial revolution" more and more people moved to cities and by the early 1900's almost 50 percent of the US population lived in cities. During the period, known as the "Gilded Age", for its unbridled corruption, national corporations became the dominant factor in the business world and continued in the footsteps of Hamilton's "aristocracy". The corrupt alliances between business and politics, was called machine politics. Corruption extended to the highest levels of government. During Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, the president and his cabinet were implicated in the Credit Mobilier, the Gold Conspiracy, the Whiskey Ring, and the notorious Salary Grab. Political party bosses blatantly rigged and bought elections, and made a profit in the process. This is also sometimes referred to as the "Spoils System" (Brody, Dumenil, Heneretta, 2002). Overcrowded inner-city slums and filthy coal mine shantytowns urbanized right alongside the massive factories systems. In this virtually uncontrolled environment industrial wilding was rampant, with the capitalist factory owners and the politicians eating form the same greedy trough. Child labor, horrendous working conditions, including long hours for little pay and no benefits was the norm. The never stopping assembly lines dehumanized and "inflicted morally unacceptable suffering on all citizens"(Derber, 2002) who entered the factory door or the dark mine shaft (Brody, Dumenil, Heneretta, 2002). New technologies revolutionized business and began developing government-backed monopolies like Rockefeller's Standard Oil and Carnegie Steel Company. Rockefeller, by embracing a wilding policy of strict efficiency, forced mergers, buyouts and take-overs, and by ruthlessly crushing weaker competitors, soon dominated the American oil-refining industry. Carnegie's strong ties with government helped keep the unions weak and wilding strong. On June 29, 1892, workers belonging to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers went on strike against the Carnegie Steel Company at Homestead, Pa. to protest a proposed wage cut. Determined to break the union, the company's general manager, Henry C. Frick, hired 300 Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant against the strikebreakers. After an armed battle between the workers and the detectives on July 6, in which several men were killed and wounded, Carnegie had the Governor of Pennsylvania call out the state militia to put down the strike. The plant reopened with non-union workers on the job and the strike was broken. For those who worked in Carnegie's mills and in the nation's factories, sweatshops and coalmines, there was a widespread feeling of unrest, dissatisfaction and threatening revolution ((Kerr, 1990). Violent strikes and riots wracked the nation as workers fought back against seemingly unstoppable industrial wilding. As America moved from the "Gilded Age" to the current "Age of Imperialism", the US industrial/media complex became inseparable from politics. Entering the 20th century with an aggressive policy of expansionism the US military also became a self-serving cog of the industrial wilding machine, expanding American capitalism and wilding around the globe. By the end of World War 11 the transformation of America was complete and the republic was dead. In its place stood the massive US military/industrial/political/media empire of today, controlled not by any government but by the modern day power elite (Vidal, 2002). Over the years, the power elite have effectively interwoven economic wilding and political wilding into the very fabric of American life. As the entire world can see, the USA is a massive military/industrial complex that wants little less than world domination (Vidal, 2002). Supported by their religious institutions, and an "I'm gonna get mine now" warrior culture, the US war machine constantly marches across the globe, stepping on whomever it pleases, to "protect its investments" and to "fight against evil". However, in reality, the America corporate empire is but lining its greedy, collective pockets with outrageous profits "at the expense of others", devastating much of the world's economy and many of the world's peoples through continuous industrial wilding (Derber, 2002). Bibliography Brody, David; Dumenil, Lynn; Heneretta, James, 2002, America: A Concise History, Volume 1, Bedford/St. Martin's, New York, New York. Derber, Charles, 2002, The Wilding of America, Worth Publishers, New York, New York. Kerr, Charles, 1990, Mother Jones, Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois. Vidal, Gore, 2002, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, New York. Copyright 2004 GrandaddyBonegrinder
|
You must agree to our terms of service in order to to access this site
Need help? Reach us on the poetry site resource page.
Navigation for Text Browsers
Things to Read Home Copyright Policy Bugs Web Design Shopping Cart