Proletariat

Growing up in the depression, I went to school with children (in my neighborhood) who came to school with serious insect bites. When I visited my friend, Freddie, I noticed that many of the windows around his duplex didn't have screens. One day a child came to school with what looked like a rat bite or something, and was sent to the nurse. The clothes in class were very different, some people wore what might be called "rags," and shoes were defintely an issue. On the flat we had the poorest people, renters and the like. On top of the hills (the Moreno Highlands) the people with money lived, and most of the children came to public school.

Later the lots between the hills and flat were subdivided and we moved to this area after having had a house built. People were trying to upscale themselves here it seemed, and I guess we were among them. Thus it was possible to have a bedroom, a garden and lawn, a garage and pingpong table. Inevitable problems developed because a Filipino family tried to move in (and did!) then a Jewish family, then Chinese, gadzooks. I can remember serious discussion among the neighbors about the possibility of going to the City Council about this, even by those who has been earlier discriminated against.

My ultimate lesson in all of this was a parttime job my automotive mechanic Father got me with one of his wealthy customers. Seems that the man and woman liked to entertain, and needed some help in dealing with the guests, messes and the like. & the man needed some help with some of his stuff, personal affects and the like. The entertainment part wasn't much of a problem, but when it got down the the nitty gritty of picking up after this wealthy man, and doing his "personal bidding" things soon became difficult. He wanted a "pickup man," and I wasn't it. This was my first very serious lesson about class society; we had words and I was out of a job.

Another job I got through my Father was on weekends with a man who owned and managed a small manufacturing operation. He needed someone to go with him on Saturdays to do odd jobs which just couldn't get done during the regular work week. The difference between this man and the earlier mention one was that he was totally respectful about the work process. He explained everything, did not expect "miracles," and never acted like anything was beneath him. Seems to me that he had worked his way "through the ranks." truly appreciated the work of others, and I learned a lot from him.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Walking into the repair shop of one of the local fixit people, you can't but notice a handmade sign over the work area: "Due to the energy crisis there will be no light at the end of the tunnel." The humor strikes you first, and then the serious side kicks in. There may be a chagrin aspect to this, which I guess we have all felt one way or another. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just dial back to an earlier spendthrift, wasteful time and have it the way it was? But it isn't, everything has changed. Even the arch conservative, neocon types know (beyond their rhetoric) that we have gone beyond the pale here, we are through the energy veil, period.

Next time over to Paul's I intend to take an LED light (& I understand that Phillips has developed an LED light bulb now, not on the market ... yet) and a compact fluorescent bulb. Not that he hasn't discovered these for himself, but I would like to engage him about the sign, and whether it might be possible to have another kind of light bulb there. Paul is my generation, way back in the "dark ages," when we were instructed by parents and others to turn lights off, keep the bills down, etc. Then there were several generations where this was just not an issue, and it seemed cranky (or worse) to ask that things be conserved (!).

Now Bill McGibbon is saying that it isn't possible to change people's behavior through "the facts," that people are so buried in data (& counter data, "push back), that we will have to use slogans and careful media manipulation to engineer change. Thus his 350.org effort (is that the name?). There are university studies to prove this theory, and now those who want to encourage change are going to have to do things another way. "Information Overload" and "Future Shock" are mentioned elsewhere in this BLOG. Those who are in denial about the energy crisis, Global Warming, etc. are not convinced with the so-called facts anyway. We may be entering a new communication era where facts just don't matter that much and the "newspeak" will be based more in the emotional brain than the rational one.