Friday, July 8, 2011

At the Counter: The Conspiracy to Kill the Middle Class

Niall Carter is saying to John Steppenwolf: they were talking about how in Damascus most of the people who get their infomration are still getting it on these ancient black-n-white tvs, and even though all of us think that every Arab's walking around with a cellphone Tweeting all about the revolution, really the only people who have access to that kind of technology are only in that slight sliver of what they might call the Middle Class . . . so I was thinking about that and I was thinking that the Middle Class is really what's dangerous, y'know, not the poor, because the poor can be oppressed, and most of the time they're too busy just scrambling for food to eat to form much of a danger to the ruling class. I mean, we may believe all those lies they tell us about the French Revolution and how the poor rose up against the rich, but it was really formed in the cafes - a lot like this one, by the way - and you tell me, who's got time to be sitting in cafes talking about revolution?

John Steppenwolf: [after a pause] You do?

Niall Carter: Exactly! Middle class! So, the most dangerous thing to the ruling class is the Middle Class - those with enough money to have their basic needs met, which gives them time to think about more, and more, and what's right and wrong, and what's fair or not. So, that brings us here, to America, with all the layoffs of teachers and police and fireman and other government workers, because they are what is left of the Middle Class. The united Workers used to be Middle Class, until Big Business killed that just by shipping all the jobs overseas, so they could fill up the lower class while sticking more giant thick wads of green into their own greasy pockets, and now they're well on their way to shredding what is left of the Middle Class here in America . . . why?

John Steppenwolf: Budget cuts?

Niall Carter: No! To protect themselves! Once there is no Middle Class, what's left will be below the poverty line, and too disenfranchised to ever make any sort of real opposition.

John Steppenwolf: You forget one thing, though.

Niall Carter: What's that?

John Steppenwolf: Our poor have cell phones. Our poor Tweet. Our poor Facebook. They'll never be some poor Damascus shopkeeper watching the government crack down on dissenting students on a black and white tv. Doesn't fit into your Conspiracy Theory.

Niall Carter: [after a thought] Oh well, Revolution is relative.

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