We have been conned.
Amidst the political pugilism, the screaming social media heads, an increasingly mediocre news landscape, and what seems like daily reports of horror and fear, we have lost sight of one another.
We are hidden from each other behind layers of smoke, our commonality and uniting factors lost to politics and agenda.
Even allies frown at one another as they realize that other people don’t ascribe to their beliefs TO THE LETTER, making them one step from enemies.
It’s easy to be angry, and afraid, and hateful.
It’s far harder to see the things that unite all of us. Sadly, though, many of us have latched onto talking points and pulpit sermons that falsify scripture for the good of a cause that has no real connection to religious icons.
There will always be enemies, and right now, it’s all of us.
As the world literally burns around us, we are forgetting that we are all human, something that too many people take great pains to erase.
I admit that there are some gulfs that cannot be crossed easily, or at all. Once you erase someone’s humanity, once you completely other them to the point that you no longer see them as equal to you or worthy of any grace, then I am not sure there’s much to offer you.
I recently posted on social media under the account I have for the Flint Monster Society about some neat things happening in Flint. Someone commented, “Make Flint safe again.” The person has no obvious connection to the city and offers nothing other than a vague, blanket statement that is about as lazy as you can get. Like a political slogan with no plan behind it. It’s easy to declare something like that, especially about a city like Flint, but unless you have a plan, a reason, or something constructive to offer, then you’re just posting and speaking to do it.
That’s what we’ve become though: trolls. We don’t want discourse; we want declaration. We want demonization.
It’s like declaring that people need to ‘bootstrap it’ when it comes to getting ahead in life, or getting themselves out of poverty. I think back to an earlier time in my life when I lived in poverty.
I have worked since I was 15. Odd jobs, mostly, but I worked. Even as I transitioned to ‘real’ jobs as I got older, I had no plan. I had no understanding. I had a degree, sure, but then what? So, I worked jobs with no real future, just because that’s what you do: you work. It wasn’t until I lost one job because the place closed, and then another because my temp position wasn’t made permanent, that I started to see how scary the world was.
I moved out relatively late in life because I had no idea what it took to be an adult. I didn’t understand finances and paying bills. Not really. I was never offered a class that could help, and by the time I moved out, I did so on the spur of the moment when my personal life became too big to live at home.
When the store closed on me, I was living on my own, and again, you start to see how high up you are, and that there’s no wire beneath you. I was lucky enough to find work, and to keep finding work, here and there, and made enough to move to another apartment, closer to friends, and to keep moving on. It was in that second apartment, working two part-time jobs, and living in poverty, that I realized how scary the big world is.
I was in my 30s, living in an apartment, had a girlfriend, working one part-time job, and living on $12,000 a year. I was ashamed, angry, and desperate. I’d get change and bottles to return from my mom. My landlord let me work off some of my rent. I sold lots of my old collectible toys from my youth. It wasn’t easy, but I was surviving.
Being on food stamps meant I had to live lean and watch what I got and how much I got. It was life’s hard way of teaching me portion control and budgeting. Were it not for the kindness of my landlord and the ability to work part-time right next to where I lived saved. I was not just lucky; I was privileged, in more ways than one.
Heck, the first year we did a horror convention in Flint, it was built on the back of my tax return, though it grew through the kindness of others and sponsorships.
I was lucky.
And some of us get lucky.
I got lucky again after getting fired from a job years later and spending seven months unemployed. It was a scary time, but just as things were getting their darkest, I managed to land back at an old job I had left for the one I got fired from.
The lessons I learned in those days have stuck with me.
And the scars too have remained.
As I keep saying, I was lucky.
Many of us aren’t.
Many of us have health issues that put us in debt because insurance won’t cover it.
Many don’t have a college degree, or cannot afford to get one.
Many don’t have landlords who will work with them.
And those are a few of the issues people face.
All of us forget that most of us are a paycheck away from poverty. All it takes is losing a job, and then what?
How many can afford to lose a job?
Especially when few of us make more than our bills?
Sure, you can declare that we can live lean, we can cut costs, and most of us can, but you can’t cut everything.
And some have cut everything until they bleed.
The fact is that many businesses that claim to be hiring are in no rush to do it, or just put more work on other people to eliminate positions. Often, not to cut their own costs to save the business, but to cut them so that more can stay at the top.
The ruling class is hungry.
It’s always hungry.
As the government cuts social programs that feed the souls and minds of the people, and cuts the benefits that keep people off the streets, things are only getting more desperate. Sure, you’ll see the stories of ‘welfare queens’ whenever you bring up how desperate people are losing everything, or there will be claims of ‘illegals’ taking those benefits over ‘real Americans’. It’s all just excuses, though, to keep money at the top, and away from people who need it.
Claims of communism and socialism are rampant now, whenever people talk about programs to help people, and again, it’s the same thing as declaring that we make Flint safe again. It means nothing. There is no plan to improve or make the systems more efficient. There are no plans to truly help people in need, just as there is no plan to help people who are suffering from psychiatric issues.
It’s easier and cheaper to other these people, and to claim they are lazy, or need to bootstrap it and save themselves. These declarations come from people who have never gone through these struggles themselves, and have either familial wealth behind them, or who have lived off of government welfare in the form of government jobs.
We take away from communities and put the money towards weapons, war, and pet projects of a government that doesn’t represent the people anymore. War is not a way to stop the spread of tyranny but is a way to bolster the war economy and fake bravery and bravado by those in charge.
Meanwhile, communities lose assets, schools close, and people struggle to survive on crumbs.
“Oh, kids don’t need two dolls for Christmas,” a president who has stolen his wealth because of his position declares.
And all the while, the poor are demonized. Are shamed.
I still remember my own shame when I had to use food stamps. The feeling that I had failed. That I was a failure.
Social programs are not a sign of failure; they are a hand reaching out to someone in need. A hand to keep them from drowning and to help them out of the water so they can become a whole and better society.
We all need help.
We all need a hand.
The government isn’t our parent, sure, but it should be our helping hand when we are desperate.
And will there be abuse of the systems that people need?
Sure.
Just as rich people will always bend the tax rules and every other rule they can to retain and grow their wealth.
The system is broken, but that doesn’t mean we scrap it altogether.
And it doesn’t mean we lessen a person’s humanity because they need assistance.
It seems crazy to me that we cannot see that the game is rigged. That we refuse to see how the wealthy pit us against one another in order to control us. This is about more than just politics, because both sides are guilty of taking money under the table. This is about us, about Americans, about humans, and how easily we give away our souls to stay on the good side of people who hate us. People who rule us.
Things are shrinking.
Small businesses are dying.
Corporations are consolidating power.
It’s dire times, and time to start supporting one another, because the system won’t any longer.
And we can keep saying slogans, and trolling one another, as we trick ourselves into believing we’re different, and better, but in the end, the ship is sinking, and unless we fix it, it’s not a matter of if we’ll all drown, but when.
…c…
