Plantation Owner Mentality:

I grew up in what was a border state area during the American Civil War. Then my family moved into what in civil war days was call the Union. Only when I was of age to attend college did I venture into the Deep South. I cannot begin to tell you how profoundly different the mentality is in these two sections of America some 140 years after the civil war. I have tried to understand this difference in attitude and see it from both points of view.

The fundamental difference seems in retrospect to be how labor and the working man are regarded. In the American Deep South there had always been a feeling that leaders did not work and that anyone who earned a living by the “sweat of his brow” was somehow inferior. Some might say that was an off shoot of the main economic engine of the American south since the beginning. The large farm was given a new name of plantation. Plantation owners became the aristocrats at least in their own minds they did. The black slaves and white indentured servants became the new serfs to these would be aristocrats. While this was never spoken out loud it is definitely reflected in everything that was said and done. One major element of this society is that the master is always right.

Coupled with deeply wrong point of view there was the desire to extend westward and so we have America from 1787 until 1860. All the while these aristocrats gave lip service to America’s Constitution. The deep dislike of the working man grew over the years to become intuitionalized into an attitude towards any member of the so called “working class”. I don’t want to pour gasoline on a smoldering fire but much of Smirking Chimp has the ring of truth to it.

What we are seeing in America today we saw in the days leading up to the American Civil War. I pray that the lessons of 1856 to 1860 have not been lost on America. I urge all citizens to cool their rhetoric before such heated talk once again pushes America over the edge of civility and into a conflict that will only serve to tear our nation asunder.

We the People:

As America grew from a series of independent stand alone city states into a republic and then into a democracy she matured and acted more responsibly in a world that was growing more complex by the decade and century. We changed because change was necessary. We remained the same in many ways most notably our Constitution. Changing the Constitution of the United States is difficult because Americans have over the years come to realize that most of what is written there needs no modification.

There have been threats to add amendments such as we did with the 18th amendment. This amendment forbids the manufacture and distribution of alcohol for the purpose of human consumption. The only way this foolish amendment could be undone was to write and amendment that amended the amendment. The 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment. Hopefully America has learned something by this whole process. Texas was not so wise with the Texas Constitution of 1876 and this document now fills some 79 volumes. It is to say the least the most complex and cluttered of all state constitutions.

The above paragraphs serve to remind my readers of how foolish we Americans can at times act. In the past several decades I have witnessed proposed amendments to ban gay and lesbian marriage as well as to outlaw the burning of the American flag. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and these silly amendments went nowhere. We are this fall of 2009 engaging in a discussion of health care that has become as heated and as silly as the amendment proposals. I am certain that all Americans know that health care delivery system is broken. All Americans want it fixed. Argument over details is preventing a working solution from being found. What can we Americans do about this?

We cannot make our congressional representative any smarter. We can take matters into our own hands and realize that a large part of the problem is that Americans are too fat and we smoke, drink and consume recreational drugs to excess. I am not trying to say all such action must cease. I am suggesting if we adopt a healthier life style maybe just maybe the load on the health care system would be lightened. A lighter load means lower costs. Lower costs might equate to increased numbers of citizens that could be covered. We the people must make these changes in our individual lives. Let us stop the bickering and do something constructive to increase the lifespan of the average American.

Wealth and Power:

To restate Karl Marx wealth and the control of wealth governs and controls any political system. If you accept this premise much of history can be better understood. Events such as the American Civil War and the French Revolution can be better understood if you will consider the economics behind these conflicts. The theories of Marx on capital formation can be arrived at through an independent study of history. The reason to do this is to attempt to remove political dogma from the discussion.

The reason there is so much heat and so little light in the current discussions in America is due to some raising the specter of Communism and socialism. These two are the great “boggy men” that some would use to frighten the American citizens at large. Folks get a grip. Communism failed the test of viability. It is a dead issue. Normally when the horse dies you quit beating it. So why you ask is this not the case today. The short answer is that issue is being used to distract the American public from the real struggle that is being fought.

What is the real struggle you might ask? The real struggle is over who will control the economic wealth of the nation. In fact throughout human history that has always been the real struggle. It is a struggle that has always been won by the rich and lost by the poor. You might ask how a rich minority can control a poor majority in a democracy. Short answer is they do that by lying to the majority and if necessary bribing with granting of temporary wealth or power. The goal of the “haves“ remains the same and that goal is preserving what they have by any and all necessary means such that the “have not’s” continue to have not.

What the real struggle comes down to is who will control the wealth and power of America. Some would tell you that things should remain as they have been throughout much of American history. That is the wealthy should rule the nation made up of the poor. To say that another way the plantation owner should continue to tell the slaves what they can and cannot do. Stated a bit differently the owners of the automobile factory can continue to tell the workers in that factory what their wage will be and how many hours per day and per year they must work for these wages. Some of my readers might see that I have picked the two major conflict events one from the 19th century and one from the 20th century.

The American Civil war was largely fought over the issue of slavery. The outcome of that war would suggest that the plantation owners who created slavery lost. I would argue that the battle ground simply shifted from the cotton and corn fields of Virginia to the political and economic capital of Richmond. When these same slaves now “freed men” came north to seek employment in the automobile plants of Michigan the battle again underwent a change. American trade unions had become powerful and were increasingly being used to level the economic playing field. These children of former slaves found economic dignity and economic freedom from want in the factories of the victors of the American Civil war.

In the twenty first century America is once again conflicted by economic issues. At the heart of this issue is who will control the debt of America? You see America has since the Second World War squandered her wealth on oil and drugs. The current service centered economy is thought to require less capital for the actual manufacture of goods and more capital applied to managing the debt of such a nation. The debt is actually owed to other countries but is managed by American banks and credit card companies. This is not wealth in the traditional sense but in the brave new world of twenty first century America debt and wealth has become one in the same much like matter and energy.

Apple Barrels:

As a child I read Treasure Island and of course wanted very much to become Jim Hawkins and sail off to Hispaniola. For those of you that never wondered there actually exists an island of Hispaniola and today the Dominican Republic is on the east end of the island and Haiti is on the west end of Hispaniola. Of course I never got to sail off into the sunset with Long John Silver spinning yarns about treasure. The scene of Jim crouched in the bottom of the apple barrel remains with me still.

In later years I came to realize that apple barrels were simply a convenient way to store and ship any number of items including apples. Tobacco was shipped in larger barrels called hogsheads. The reason for shipping this way was to protect the contents of the barrel from sea water contamination. Coopers were carpenters who specialized in constructing barrels. A good barrel had a bulge in the middle that permits it to be easily rolled. Barrels also became convenient unit of measurement. In fact the price of oil is still quoted in terms of dollars per barrel.

There has come into use a different connotation for the humble barrel. Here I am speaking of the phrase “Don’t let a single bad apple spoil the barrel”. What is generally meant is that when spoilage occurs in a barrel often if left unattended the barrel is found to contain spoiled product. Two important points are overlooked when this phrase is applied to people. The first is obvious: people are not apples. The second is more subtle and is that the barrel is left sealed and unopened for extended periods of time.

Let us consider for a moment inner city Detroit Michigan. At this time Michigan has the highest unemployment rate of any of the states. While the demise of Chrysler Motors and General Motors added to this rate it was already high in Detroit the acknowledged hub of the automobile industry that has in essence driven the American economy for the past 100 plus years. I hear some speaking about the excessively high wage paid to American auto workers and wonder if they are truly listening to the words leaving their lips.

American wages should be a matter of pride to the American people. But that does not seem to be the case. It seems that a well paying job has become something to be scorned. The labor unions that secured these benefits for the American worker are also singled out for derision often by the very people that should be applauding the collective bargaining that led to these wage and benefit packages. The benefits of a well paying job have eluded most of inner city Detroit.

The sad truth is that inner Detroit lacks a single chain super market. One of the major signs of American prosperity is absent from a city that was the fourth largest in America in 1950. Inner city Detroit has become hermetically sealed off from the rest of the American prosperity and the question is has this sealing preserved the apples? My answer is there is no source of fresh produce within the city. And oh yes inner city Detroit is predominately black. I guess these “bad apple Americas” are getting exactly what they deserve. For shame America.