{"id":3917,"date":"2011-10-16T08:52:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T14:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/paganportal\/?p=3917"},"modified":"2011-10-16T08:52:24","modified_gmt":"2011-10-16T14:52:24","slug":"the-rise-of-the-working-poor-occupy-wall-street-goes-global","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pantheon\/2011\/10\/the-rise-of-the-working-poor-occupy-wall-street-goes-global\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of the Working Poor: Occupy Wall Street Goes Global"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ve been grappling with whether I should write about Occupy Wall Street, and what to write about it, for some time. I\u2019m not as eloquent as T. Thorn Coyle<\/strong><\/a> nor truly very savvy to what is going on. I felt a bit like I was hearing reports from another country, as if these could not be my<\/em> people, my<\/em> apathetic Americans.<\/p>\n

Then suddenly, it wasn\u2019t just Americans<\/strong><\/a> but people were protesting in London, Rome, Madrid, Seoul, Hong Kong, Stockholm, Zurich and other cities around the world. And I was overwhelmed and I still didn\u2019t know what to write, or if I should write. I was grappling for understanding and so I watched V for Vendetta<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and The Singing Revolution<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. As I write this I\u2019m watching The Singing Revolution<\/em> for the third time in two days.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019m beginning to understand. I think for the first time in a very long time, in my living memory at least, we as a country are realizing that we are not the elite, but the working poor. Having a white collar doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re not working class. And there\u2019s a sense of pride in that, in being the working poor. There\u2019s a sense of culture that\u2019s missing when we perceive ourselves as pursuing the \u201cAmerican Dream,\u201d as Steinbeck\u2019s temporarily embarassed millioniares<\/strong><\/a>, or thinking that we could all be fabulously wealthy because that\u2019s how capitalism works.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not anti-capitalism nor am I militantly socialist, but I do believe it is no shame to be the working poor. Everyone in my family is working poor. We will each of us work hard and lead modestly comfortable lives if fortune allows. We are not rich people and we never will be. I am ok with that.<\/p>\n

As a Southerner I\u2019m often frustrated when the South is pictured as antebellum plantations with crystal chandeliers, when the culture I grew up in was overalls and mason jars. That is fine and good. I take pride in the banjos, fried chicken and blue jeans that mark the culture of the working poor in the South, a culture forged of people of various ethnic backgrounds. It\u2019s a culture of English protestants, Irish catholics, indentured servants, penal colonists, hopeful immigrants and imams holding services on the coast of South Carolina as African slaves. A rich multi-cultural heritage made up of the working poor, and a far cry from the American Dream.<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\n<p>The way I am understanding the Occupy Wall Street movement is it is full of anger from where the government and corporations through their machinations have turned the working poor into the destitute. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hooverville\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><strong>Hoovervilles<\/strong><\/a> have sprung up again all over the US, something my grandmother remembered and feared. She refused to vote Republican not due to any current issue or party ideology, but because she vividly remembered Herbert Hoover\u2019s presidency and the great reforms of FDR. The Great Depression colored her view of politics and for all of her 80+ years she feared the \u201cHoover Days\u201d would return.<\/p>\n<p>I think the protesters are tired of selling their soul to corporations who only sell them down the river. I think the protesters are angry, not because they want a new iPad but because they want to effectively educate their children without sinking into debt. I think they are angry because they see what they\u2019ve been taught about the American Dream is untrue; they see that the cake is a lie. They are tired of being told they have to have a car to have a job and a job to pay for the car. They are tired of being told they have to have a degree to have a job and going into debt to get the degree to get the job to pay for the degree. They are tired of seeing the government bailout corporations and give bonuses to execs, then vilify them for their $250 a week that doesn\u2019t pay their bills because they were fired for being old\/fat\/gay\/non-Christian,* or because an executive who got a bonus made a bad decision.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3920\" href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/paganportal\/2011\/10\/16\/the-rise-of-the-working-poor-occupy-wall-street-goes-global\/308054_10150309864546130_305135551129_7928030_1628411520_n\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3920\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/paganportal\/files\/2011\/10\/308054_10150309864546130_305135551129_7928030_1628411520_n-300x216.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"216\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The people who are angry just want to be working poor. They want to be modestly comfortable and do work that doesn\u2019t hurt them more than benefit them. They want to feed and clothe their children. They want heat in their homes in the winter. If they pay for education, they want it to be useful and worth their hard earned money. They don\u2019t want economic factors to determine if they are eligible for work. They don\u2019t want to live in fear.<\/p>\n<p>They are angry because they can\u2019t get a job because they are already unemployed. They are angry because after being out of work for months, maybe a year or more, they are asked to pass credit checks in order to gain work. They are angry because their employer wants someone who owns a car, regardless of the availability of public and private transportation options. They are angry because the job they have done for years at a modest wage and with a high school degree, is now only offered to college graduates at barely over minimum wage. They are angry because they had an excellent work record and reputation but were fired because they were too old for the company\u2019s image.<\/p>\n<p>They are angry because we seem to be in a second Great Depression, because once again Wall Street has screwed us over and because the governments allowed this to happen again. They are angry because the government has become so bloated and complicated that they no longer know who to be angry at. They don\u2019t know who to point the finger at or whose office to protest at. They are angry because the situation is the result of two different presidents and two different political parties, and they don\u2019t know who to trust anymore.\u00a0 They are angry because the corporations and government are trying to preserve the status quo and they know the status quo doesn\u2019t work. They are angry because politicians keep promising change and doing nothing.<\/p>\n<p>This is what I think. I may be wrong. I just know I\u2019m seeing the Battle in Seattle all over again. I\u2019m seeing Egypt. I\u2019m seeing Libya. I am both hopeful and frightened that I may be seeing the beginning of the Second American Revolution. I\u2019m also seeing people demonize each other and sneer at people who are poor, destitute and unemployed. I think this is beneath us because last I checked, most of us are working poor**. Some of us just happen to be lucky enough to have jobs.<\/p>\n<p>I know the solution to our problems won\u2019t come from clinging to the status quo, won\u2019t come from the minds that have created the problems and won\u2019t come from some purist ideology. The solution will come from giving us the ability to be the working poor. Giving us the ability to give our children food, clothing, shelter, and a modicum of security. Give us pride in being the working poor, give us a culture not based on consumerism and don\u2019t sell us into destitution or debt slavery.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3919\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3919\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3919\" href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/paganportal\/2011\/10\/16\/the-rise-of-the-working-poor-occupy-wall-street-goes-global\/293519_200977696639685_100001823692140_477772_1001445097_n\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3919\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/paganportal\/files\/2011\/10\/293519_200977696639685_100001823692140_477772_1001445097_n-300x234.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"234\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3919\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lasting tribute to centuries of working poor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If I could, I would be out there demonstrating, calling for radical change and accountability. However, I\u2019m lucky enough to be the working poor. I have a job that manages to provide me with the means to live very modestly, and I am grateful to have it. I\u2019ve been unemployed during this Great Recession, and I can tell you from the bottom of my heart I am grateful and proud to be the working poor.<\/p>\n<p>And what does this have to do with Paganism? I\u2019m a devotee of Hephaistos, the only Greek God with a day job and patron of workers and unions everywhere. Why am I a devotee of him? Maybe because I was born a UAW baby, and maybe because when I get caught up in the idea that I don\u2019t have enough or that I need a \u201cstatus symbol\u201d he reminds me that the only things that matter are the work I do, the people I love and the reputation I leave behind. He is the patron God of the working poor, and it\u2019s no coincidence his temple is the best built and most intact of the ancient temples in Greece. It was built by the working poor, and they put love into the workmanship of the temple that stood for their average, ordinary, comfortable, happy, working poor lives.<\/p>\n<div class=\"mceTemp mceIEcenter\">\n<dl>\n<dt><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-3921\" href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/paganportal\/2011\/10\/16\/the-rise-of-the-working-poor-occupy-wall-street-goes-global\/temple_of_hephaestus_in_athens\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3921\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/paganportal\/files\/2011\/10\/Temple_of_Hephaestus_in_Athens-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/a>[\/caption]<em>*In the State of Georgia you can be fired for any reason without recourse. Some friends of mine wanted to start a class action lawsuit when everyone over a certain age was fired at their company but it was practically impossible under Georgia law.<\/em>\n<p><em>**The Middle Class is BS. The cake is a lie. There\u2019s nothing wrong with being honestly poor and the concept of the \u201cMiddle Class\u201d is to try to convince us we aren\u2019t working poor, but just temporarily embarrassed millionaires.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Utah Phillips covers Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky" "The Preacher and the Slave"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PJ236CwhlPw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been grappling with whether I should write about Occupy Wall Street, and what to write about it, for some time. I\u2019m not as eloquent as T. Thorn Coyle nor truly very savvy to what is going on. I felt a bit like I was hearing reports from another country, as if these could not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[732,733,791,792,834,1246,1285,2711,1821,1881,1939],"class_list":["post-3917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paganism","tag-great-depression","tag-great-recession","tag-hephaestus","tag-hephaistos","tag-hooverville","tag-occupy-wall-street","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-unemployment","tag-wall-street","tag-working-poor"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>The Rise of the Working Poor: Occupy Wall Street Goes Global<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've been grappling with whether I should write about Occupy Wall Street, and what to write about it, for some time. I'm not as eloquent as T. 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