Bitter People

I am the idiot who doesn’t know what I am talking about. This is how some bitter people describe me. That’s me, the commie lib-tard snowflake. I am the false pastor who isn’t a true Christian. I do not respect the authority of the Bible like those who never read it. These are the words of my friends. I know they are talking about me. Because they constantly attack people who share the same ideas as me. Obviously, they mean me. When I call them out on what they say about me, I am hateful, mean-spirited, and shouldn’t take it personally. And no, they never ever want to have a conversation about what they have said.

 Watching Bitterness Unfold

Analyses of racism in America point to the problems of the “white working class.” All they ever seem to have working for them is the privilege of their white skin. Now they don’t have that advantage anymore. This is what I hear anyway.

It’s not true, of course. No one I know of from the white working class sees an advantage in their skin color. If anything, they see it being a disadvantage.  “Affirmative action” is their enemy. They feel attacked and besieged everywhere they turn. I have watched the bitterness unfold for the last forty years. Some of them are going to be bitter for the rest of their lives.

The Bitter Truth

The problem for us commie lib-tard snowflakes is we saw the lie forty years ago. Now we are watching the end result of it in the lives of people who believed it. The problem we see is denial. Embittered working class whites just don’t understand they have been lied to all of their lives. Their identity as people, as citizens, as members of society has been tied to the “work ethic.”

Decades ago, many of these same friends were optimistic and positive about what they could do. A decade ago many of the same ones began the spiral downward. Middle age and the end of potential feeling was taking over. It is a natural progression. We all stop at some point during this time and ask, “Is this all there is?”  The question itself is scary. Because the answer leaves us knowing our lives are half-over without realizing all of our goals.

I was warned early in my ministry that the time would come when people stopped saying, “one day you will be a great servant of God.” They will instead begin saying, “You must have been something in your day.” I am sure it is true for many other jobs and careers. The truth is that success was never truly up to the individual.

Bitter Working

The basic understanding the working class receives is that work equals success. Dedication means achievement. But many other factors are left out of the equation. Is it easier to get a job when one has family connections? Are there certain whims of the times involved with being employed?

Another factor is the bitterness produced by the corporate structure. The purpose of the business corporation is to reduce risk for investors while maximizing profits in the short term. Non-profit corporations exist because of the apparent elegance of this arrangement. But, because of the desire to reduce risk, corporate structures shift responsibility from one part while giving the same part the rewards. And there is a constant threat of economic insecurity. Workers feel the responsibility placed on them to produce more and “save their jobs.”

Orwell recognized this problem as a matter of organization. Post-revolution Animal Farm reorganized with the same structures and goals before the revolution. Boxer, the draft horse, believed the revolutionary couched rhetoric of the “new” system. His mantra until his death was “I will work harder!” His bitter slaughter mirrored his life.

The Result

Suppose one was born into a system already owing money to a faceless entity. The entity enslaves the debtor until what is owed is paid. In forty years, once the debt is paid, that person is free to do as one pleases. This is the basic principle of working until retirement when the concept of retirement is having enough money so as not to have to work again. It is a bitter existence. And one we live within. The lie is that it is the best possible life if it is allowed to work correctly.

The lie is that someone else – the other (the immigrant, the inferior, or the conspirator) – does not allow it to work properly. I remember a former Communist leader in Ukraine saying the Soviet system was good but not “allowed to work.” His Western listeners mused, “it worked for him.” It could never work for everyone in the same way. In the same way, the system my American friends and I lived in could never work the way we were told it should. It never will as presently configured. But it is too hard to admit that for some.

Bitterness is Easier

Clinging to a lie means desiring more unreality. Being bitter is easier when one’s unreality proves false. One young woman explained her bitterness to me. She saw how contented the adult women of her family and community were. She expected to have what she saw other people had. It was an illusion. She was deluded by it.

The illusion proves false eventually. Yet, the delusion does not go away easily. Blame becomes resentment. And resentment leads to thinking that is not healthy. And the prophets words are fulfilled, “Woe (or bitterness) to those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:20-21)