The Sweat of Their Brow

So I’m driving down the street, with my phone plugged in and playing music on shuffle, when Billy Joel’s “Allentown” comes on. I hadn’t heard the song in years, and I considered hitting “skip,” but I hung in there.

Now, you will not be surprised to learn that I am not a big fan of Billy Joel. Yes, he has some catchy tunes from early in his career, when he had just the slightest bit of an edge (e.g., “Only the Good Die Young” is a head-bopper about trying to bang a goody-two-shoes Catholic girl).

But a lot of his stuff consists of maudlin takes on smooth jazz. Plus, there is “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” which is second only to “American Pie” as the most insufferable Baby Boomer nostalgia song of all time.

Having said that, “Allentown” has a hooky melody, and it’s an anomaly for a Joel song because it is not about love or Long Island or marrying a supermodel. It’s about the factory workers of the Pennsylvania city of the title.

The song is from 1982. So we’ve been singing about the plight of factory workers for over 40 years.

Does any other demographic get the kind of sustained adulation and deep concern that blue-collar (usually white) Americans receive? 

Hey, when was the last time you heard a catchy pop song about female travel agents who went out of business because of the internet? No, it’s only tough guys who work in steel mills or coal mines that make us weep patriotic tears (and enact protectionist legislation).

Assuming that the post-war factory boom started in the late1940s, the song implies that it was over by the early 1980s. This means blue-collar America has been in decline longer than it was ascendant. This further implies that blue-collar prosperity, which is one of the pillars of the conservative movement, was not a longstanding feature of American values. It was a fucking blip on the cultural radar.

Getting back to the song, the part where Billy Joel sings, “They shoved an American flag in our face” has to be the most punk rock lyric the Piano Man has ever penned. And again, this was during Reagan’s America, which was supposedly a golden age for blue-collar American men. Everything was great!... except for all those factories closing down, which was so prevalent that hit pop songs played on the radio about how shitty it was for these workers.

Ultimately, “Allentown” is telling us that all that mythologizing, all that insisting that manual labor has always been the key to freedom, is not true. In reality, factory workers have been bitching about their plight for decades, even through multiple economic booms.

I repeat, this song is from 1982.

The situation for blue-collar workers hasn’t gotten better in generations and is unlikely to abruptly become magical. Just consider that under an administration that guaranteed that it was bringing factories back, American manufacturing has gone backwards and lost over 100,000 jobs.

If it makes these workers feel any better, white-collar workers will soon become enmeshed in this state of perpetual malaise. For proof, look at the fact that U.S. corporate profits recently hit a record high, while labor's share of economic output has dropped to a record low.

That means everybody who is not a billionaire is getting poorer. And what is the response of the super-wealthy to the economic pummeling that the middle and lower classes are enduring?

Well, they look at how the system benefits them, and they quote Billy Joel:

“Don’t go changing.”

That Old-time Religion

The 1980s pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood famously asked, “Are we living in a world where sex and horror are the new gods?”

It was a fair question for the 1980s.

Today, we have to ponder if we are living in a world where AI and ostentatious wealth are the new gods. It’s either them or sociopathy and fear.

In any case, the traditional gods of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism seem to be doing fine. After years of decline, attendance at places of worship has picked up slightly for the first time in decades, mostly because more young people are embracing religion than in the past. I’m guessing this has something to do with the bleak future that younger generations face, and that desperation has driven them to the last resort of prayer. Either that, or Gen Z has decided churches are excellent backdrops for selfies.

An exception to these trends is that “young Latinos are abandoning organized religion at a faster rate than any other demographic in the United States.” I have to say that I am not surprised at this statistic.

Now, I’m not hostile to religion, even though I left it behind long ago. Hey, if believing in the guy in the sky is your thing, go for it.

But I find it strange that Christianity, and in particular Catholicism, has such a powerful hold on Latinos that its influence is only now beginning to soften. Yes, plenty of Latinos, like me, were raised in the church, and people tend to stick with the religion in which they were raised. But on a wider cultural level, the whole concept of Christianity among Latinos is bizarre. 

After all, we all know that hundreds of years ago, Spanish colonizers forced indigenous people to convert. If the natives resisted, the Spanish often made sure they met their gods as soon as possible, if you know what I’m saying.

This is not some obscure historical fact or the peeved perspective of a liberal know-it-all. Even casual Catholics know that Christ was often thrust upon Latin America at the point of a sword or the barrel of a musket.

It’s an obvious question but one I rarely hear asked: If this religion was forced upon your ancestors, why do you still follow it?

I understand why a terrified Mexican in the 1500s would say, “Hand me that communion wafer” when the alternative was a flaming pyre. But centuries later, why do so many Latinos continue to worship the god of their colonizers when they have a choice of other religions (or none at all)? Why do so many Latinos go to church 60 times a year when they are not being threatened with execution? The excuse of adopting the customs of the conquerors is no longer valid.

Again, I’m not saying Christianity is inherently vile. Nor am I saying we should bring back the ceremonies of the Aztecs and Mayans. After all, ripping people’s hearts out on top of pyramids is likely to be frowned upon in contemporary society.

But if the main reason you believe in a certain type of god is because you were raised in that religion, and the main reason you were raised in that religion is because your grandfathers of 400 years ago were facing torture, shouldn’t that give you pause?

Clearly, I’m not the only one asking these questions.

A Quarter Century of Fun

Where did this madness originate? 

Some argue that Lyndon Johnson’s signing of civil rights legislation catalyzed the modern conservative movement. Others insist that Nixon’s corruption (which is apparently no big deal in retrospect) created the present-day GOP. And still others (like me, for example) say the roots of our calamity lie in the Reagan Revolution, and that the Gipper really fucked us over in the long run. I’ve also heard commentators identify the ascent of Dan Quayle as the moment that Republicans became un-serious, or the impeachment of Bill Clinton as the launching pad for self-righteous right-wing aggression.

Those are all valid origin stories for the GOP’s current state of hatred, fear, ignorance, and violence.

There is no doubt, however, that the September 11 attacks were the beginning of our modern world. This catastrophe was so cataclysmic, so epoch-defining, that it traumatized people who had no connection to the people or places that suffered devastation. It irrevocably changed our nation.

This week is the 25^th anniversary of this disaster. One might believe this is a solemn time to draw together as a country. But of course, Republicans have no interest in unity, and will use any event, no matter how sacred, to bulldoze a chasm between “us” and “them.”

As you know, several prominent conservatives are demanding that the mayor of New York City, who was duly elected and has high approval ratings, be barred from any September 11 ceremonies because he is way too swarthy and doesn’t eat pork, if you catch my meaning.

It’s bizarre that this is being called a controversy. Because there is nothing “controversial” here. There is no sincere debate or complex argument occurring. There is only unabashed bigotry and the bleating of the politically opportunistic. 

These are loudmouths who are enthralled with nonstop tirades against a changing society. They are hypocritical hatemongers who dismiss every liberal argument as the whining of pampered snowflakes, then insist public ceremonies be altered because they personally feel offended.

These same guardians of American values are not offended, nor even annoyed in the slightest, that their hero, our president of the plummeting popularity, is indulging in a weird form of stolen valor.

Maybe everyone is just used to his constant lying, which brings up the whole issue of why it’s apparently ok for our nation to be held hostage by a man who just makes up crazy shit daily and acts upon it.

That’s one for future historians to ponder.

Country Livin’

Recently, I got dragged to a theater to see an insufferable kids movie.

Normally, I have nothing against films for kids, and I will catch a showing of Paddington 2 with you anytime.

But this movie sucked. The only reason my family attended was because we had to accommodate the youngest member of our group, who inexplicably wanted to see a movie that was too childish even for the children in the theater.

I won’t identify this film, because then this site becomes a movie-review outlet, and that’s not exactly my forte. Although I will say, once again, that Goodfellas is the greatest movie of all time.

The kids movie I had to endure was no Goodfellas. Although a kids version of that Scorsese masterpiece is interesting to ponder.

In any case, it wasn’t just this film’s dull story, heavy-handed dialogue, cringy humor, and hammy acting that annoyed me. Those were all factors, but the chief reason for my antipathy was more thematic.

You see, the plot of this particular monstrosity was that a married couple lose their jobs in the loud, crowded, obnoxious big city. So they move their family to the rural countryside, where they literally live in a barn.

After a period of adjustment, complete with kooky locals and quaint rural customs, the family falls in love with their new home. The movie ends with the family dancing in joy as their new neighbors surround them and clap along in glee.

I’m not exaggerating. This fucker ends with our main characters literally dancing in sheer happiness at their new life. The scene is in slo-mo, no less.

Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I am from Wisconsin. Although I grew up in an urban environment —Milwaukee, home of the major league-best Brewers — I’ve spent more time in the Wisconsin countryside than most Latinos, progressives, or college-educated elitist libtards (whichever category you want to jam me into).

So I can tell you that rural America is not a place where people dance in slow motion, bursting with exuberance at their heavenly existence. It is a place, quite frankly, that is suffering.

Don’t take my first-hand experiences for it. Acres of studies and piles of books have documented this issue. You know that phrase “deaths of despair”? Yeah, it’s about people who don’t live in cities.

By most measurements, rural America has a worse quality of life than urban America. People who live in the country have shorter lifespans, higher poverty, less education, and fewer cultural or economic options. You are more likely to see meth heads taking over barns than a grateful family doing a jig because they escaped the city.

But despite wretched kids movies like the one I had to endure, and all those romcoms about city women ditching their lives for a hunky man who works on a farm, we all know, deep down, that it is ineffectual propaganda.

Several small towns will give you free land if you move there. A basic rule of economics is that if you have to give something away for free, it’s because nobody wants it.

And it’s not just America. Rural areas of Japan, Italy, and other countries are emptying out fast because humans around the world have decided that cities are superior, or at least more conducive to survival.

So why do we continue to glamorize the country life? Why do we insist that everybody would be better off if we lived outside a small town, away from the concrete and crowds of the big, scary city?

Part of it is our ongoing insistence that rural Americans are the true patriots, the ones whose voice and votes matter more than the rest of us. The fact that rural Americans are synonymous with “white conservatives” is a coincidence, I’m sure.

I’m not saying that cities are paradise. But portraying rural life as nonstop joy and the key to happiness is more than disingenuous. It is an insulting lie.

Also, if we kill this particular trope, I won’t have to go to any more shitty kids movies.

A Different Type of Paranoia

Recently, I discussed how doomsday preppers — often white men who hate the government — frequently view an apocalyptic meltdown of society as a good thing. Many of these heavily armed guys dream of hanging out in their fortified complexes, free to do whatever they want and immune to the threat of immigrants and drag queens and vaccination campaigns. It’s their fantasy.

But let’s be clear. There are other types of people who are also prepping for the end of the world.

For starters, you have your classic evil billionaire. These oligarchs are “buying up luxurious bunkers and hiring military security to survive a societal collapse they helped create.”

Sure, some of them are living out their dream of becoming a Bond villain, but for many of these money-hungry sociopaths, Armageddon is the predictable endgame of their “selfish and isolationist outlooks.”

This is a new worldview for the uber-wealthy, who traditionally have focused on indulging in extravagances and procuring status symbols. Never before “have our society’s most powerful players assumed that the primary impact of their own conquests would be to render the world itself unlivable for everyone else,” and neither have they ever had “the technologies through which to program their sensibilities into the very fabric of our society.”

Basically, for these tech bros and crypto schemers, it is no longer about living in a mansion with a fleet of expensive cars and weekends on the mega-yacht. It’s about surviving civilization’s destruction in relative comfort and “exercising control over the rest of us.”

The good news is that the “probability of a fortified bunker actually protecting its occupants from the reality of, well, reality, is very slim.” So all those smug rich dudes who think they’re going to ride out the chaos and destruction that they have instigated? Yeah, if society implodes, they’re probably going to die miserable deaths in those bunkers.

So we’ll have a happy ending after all.

In any case, there is another type of prepper, one not nearly as loathsome as the people whom we’ve discussed so far. And that is the ethnic minority and/or liberal who is “waking up to the reality of needing to be prepared.”

Some experts say the number of preppers has doubled in the last decade, with “much of that growth from minorities and people considered left-of-center politically, whose sense of insecurity was heightened by Donald Trump’s 2016 election, the pandemic, more frequent extreme weather, and the 2020 racial justice protests.”

To the surprise of right-wingers, “a new breed of Americans is getting ready to survive political upheaval and natural catastrophes, a pursuit that until recently was largely associated with far-right movements such as white nationalists.” 

As I said, I’m not a prepper. But if one of my fellow Latinos is gathering supplies and firearms because he believes America is going to crumple into an authoritarian hellhole, well, I get it.

Lots of progressives and ethnic minorities are taking courses in survival tactics, picking up guns, and preparing for the worst. As a result, prepper culture (if that is the correct term for it) is diversifying “amid fear of disaster and political unrest.”

So for all those white supremacists who thought DEI was over, and that the future belonged to Aryan thugs in camouflage, the joke’s on you.

Even in an apocalypse, you can’t stop diversity.