The (White) United States of Europe
John Sheehan
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(2 of 3) MIDDLE CLASS Small in size, Middle Class will make everything work. They will have some technical knowledge but no advanced degrees or social status—bank branch managers, government bureaucrats, and IT network administrators. Lots of them will be police. Middle Class will serve the Upper Class. They will serve the Underclass too, but the task of government will be to keep order by means of repression. Keep the poor cowed so the Upper Class can do things un-harried by any concerns but their own. Middle Class won’t suffer from social distance from the poor, but they won’t have any real power either. They are servants. UNDERCLASS Huge, illiterate, and violent; “Blade Runner” world. “They cannot be saved” will be the view of the Upper Class. Underclass have no place in this world order, so poverty and disease will grind them down—no hope. POST-LITERATE CULTURE Print news media is dying; no one will rely on the written word anymore. Television is already your parent; it interprets news through symbols. Symbols are treated as complete packets of information. If you see a cross, it conveys a very complex set of ideas relating to God, redemption, ritual, beliefs, community… Just as seeing a star of David or a crescent will trigger a completely different set of ideas of the same criteria. Critical thinking has been replaced by ideology and religion. Reactions to stories and symbols are rote religious and ideological responses. The only stories that compel attention will be those to which we can’t easily ascribe symbols. We are enthralled by the action but bored by the routine. Every story about abortion, for instance, is the same story so no one pays attention. Details are no longer necessary; they interfere with the message. We think we already know how the story will come out. It is the same for the environment, taxes, and foreign affairs—except for war, because no one knows how it will turn out. This is why sports, crime, and war are always popular. We can’t be certain how they’ll play out, so we pay attention. We rely heavily on experience and authority, not learning or critical thinking. Religion and ideology, instead of being sources of inspiration, have become cults that are hostile to self-examination. Authority is suspect because it is nonsensical and predatory, but we are psychologically dependent on its good will, so we believe and obey it. Justification is made on television talk shows—a civic experience everyone shares, so our reaction to things is highly predictable. Success is therefore based on creating an experience for which the reaction can be predicted in advance. That is how politics are conducted today. So is business. Vacuous celebrity culture, immediate gratification, and zealotry are too ethereal to cohere a nation. Terror is always preceded by absurdity. Fascism is always preceded by atomization. |
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