Joined: May 27, 2007 Posts: 1486 Location: The Post Peak Oil Historian
Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 11:09 pm Post subject: Are Americans peasants?
You would not believe the dicussion at a diplomatic dinner I attended tonight was.
The point was made, I will not give names or nations for diplomatic reasons, that the United States had the best kept peasantry in the history of the world.
Viewpoints ranged from:
Americans should be thankful that their masters should have such a sumptuous table that the scraps should be so fine.
Americans are the greatest nation blah, blah, blah (you know the argument. (but talking about America's elite. No one argued the point that the masses weren't peasants. Mearly, that great care was taken that they not percieve themselves that way.)
Throughout the argument, the images in my mind were of David Copperfield(no, not the magician) saying "can I have some more" to the Shirley Temple movie where she is turned into a six year old servant girl because her father is injured and missing in the war.
Have we really fallen to this level, that foreign governments see our people this way?
What are your thoughts? _________________ In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell
Last edited by Cid_Yama on Thu May 01, 2008 11:28 pm; edited 2 times in total
Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 11:23 pm Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
Yes, we are peasants. What wealth do Americans own? Their postage stamp of land and their TV, and probably a car and some clothes, and some pixels on a screen.
Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 11:48 pm Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
I would have to say the comment about "...being thankful our scrapes are so fine" is close to true. I don't know where these people are from, or what they might consider "peasantry", but I would say from blue to whhite collar, we are all indoctrinated to be slaves to our jobs/pay check and I would say few amoung us Americans have any real "choice" in that (go to college, get a better job, ect= the vaneer of choice only). We buy into advertising to buy stuff we don't need... ect. You know the arguments. So, yeah, we are peasents, weather we admit it or not.
Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 11:56 pm Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
What's the point in living if you can't be a part of a spectacular corporate earnings story? Individual wealth means nothing. Only the feeling of wealth by buying something from a high & mighty CEO matters. _________________ People first, then things, then dollars.
There will be enslavement, cannibalism, & zombie invasions.
Joined: May 27, 2007 Posts: 1486 Location: The Post Peak Oil Historian
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 12:42 am Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
Not as influencial as you might think. The higher up the ladder, the more pig-headed they become. Frankly, I'm disgusted nearly all the time. Keep smiling, keep smiling. *nods head* (thinks about how nice it would be to kick the crap out of them.) *smile broadens* _________________ In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell
Joined: Oct 18, 2004 Posts: 1945 Location: kiwibush
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 1:13 am Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
Whats your overall impression of these people. Manipulative, predatory, dismissive, arrogant? _________________ Bugger me, I hear oil's runnin out mate!
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:09 am Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
Of course Americans are peasants.
Our educations are largely vocational training of one sort or another. That includes professionals such as lawyers and dentists.
As was pointed out by Wren, most Americans are tied to their jobs as surely as any peasant was tied to the land.
Ayoob suggested that Americans had "a postage stamp of land"; that is overly optimistic. Actually, they don't own the land or anything else; they merely owe debt on it. Hence the current mortgage crises.
Finally, Americans are deeply ignorant. We get our news from television, sometimes. We are unaware of Peak Oil. We cannot find Saudi Arabia on the map. We struggle with the most trivial of mathematical concepts while proclaiming our national supremacy in technology. Most could not grasp the implications of an "IF" statement, much less octal arithmetic.
An agriculture secretary once described American blacks as being satisfied if they could have three things - loose shoes, good sex, and a warm place to defecate. I regret to say the same could now be applied to many (most?) Americans without regard to ethnicity.
Oil wealth has permitted even the lowliest peasant to live well. Now what will happen when that oil wealth is constricted?
–noun
1. a member of a class of persons, as in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, who are small farmers or farm laborers of low social rank.
2. a coarse, unsophisticated, boorish, uneducated person of little financial means.
People who fit definition 2 can be found anywhere in the world, so dont think you're anything special in that respect, Americans.
Traditional peasant farming where everything is pretty much done by hand or using animals has died out in Northern Europe, but can still be found in the countries which border the Mediterranean. I don't think it applies in North America, where even the poorest small farmers will have had some sort of education and use a degree of mechanization. 'Peasant' to me also implies subsistence farming and a level of self sufficiency (external inputs are minimal) not found on the farms in highly developed countries.
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:06 am Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
Cid_Yama wrote:
Not as influential as you might think. The higher up the ladder, the
more pig-headed they become. Frankly, I'm disgusted nearly all the time.
Still, I think it would is cognitively easier on you then if you thought
these people might know what they are talking about.
* If you think someone might know what they are talking about,
you may ask them for more details. As you realize what they are saying
makes less and less sense the conversation can turn into an
argument over their poor thinking skills or lack of knowledge.
* But if you already know the person is severely misinformed (earth is flat),
then it's not so hard to just not worry about that persons mistakes
and just smile and nod. Sure there is still some dissonance, just as
listening to a screeching crap throwing monkey can get annoying
after a while. But it's not as bad since you know you can't expect
anything better from a monkey or a misinformed person.
Que up elitist Sinatra music...
Quote:
Frank Sinatra - Swinging On A Star
Would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a mule?
A mule is an animal with long funny ears
Kicks up at anything he hears
His back is brawny and his brain is weak
He's just plain stupid with a stubborn streak
And by the way, if you hate to go to school
You may grow up to be a mule
Or would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a pig?
A pig is an animal with dirt on his face
His shoes are a terrible disgrace
He ain't got no manners when he eats his food
He's fat and lazy and extremely rude
But if you don't care a feather or a fig
You may grow up to be a pig
Or would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a fish?
A fish won't do anything, but swim in a brook
He can't write his name or read a book
And to fool the people is his only thought
And though he's slippery, he still gets caught
But then if that sort of life is what you wish
You may grow up to be a fish
And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo
Every day you meet quite a few
So you see it's all up to you
You can be better than you are
You could be swingin' on a star
Joined: Sep 03, 2007 Posts: 620 Location: Sunny Virginia, USA
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:50 am Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
I had a great reply, but I've trashed it.
Your self-important aristocratic guests deserve no warning and everything that will happen to them and their families, in the years that follow. _________________ When somebody makes a statement you don't understand, don't tell him he's crazy. Ask him what he means. -- Otto Harkaman, Space Viking
Joined: Aug 11, 2005 Posts: 725 Location: Eastern NC
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 8:17 am Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
Silly post Cid, the upper class/ leaders/ etc will always look down on those who have less. Its been this way in every government/style through history. Whether it monarch, communist leaders, or capitalism. Those who have less will always be argued to be peasants. If a country has the "best kept " peasants thats quite a compliment. Would that any other country could make such a statement.
Joined: Sep 14, 2004 Posts: 6483 Location: Rural Virginia
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 11:15 am Post subject: Re: Are Americans peasants?
Americans are the ultimate peasants because they are so astonishingly subservient.
The rich can get away with almost anything in this country, and do.
The myth is that anyone poor can become rich if he or she just follows certain time-worn principles and that the system is therefore "fair."
The poor lap up that myth like it was fine wine.
In other countries, like France, the peasantry riots when it doesn't get its bread.
Not here. The US middle class is rapidly losing its "way of life" and you hear nary a peep out of it. _________________ "Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog
"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---Me and my brother
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