“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Holy mercy where do I even begin this week? As I have been dealing with a sick child and a screaming pain in my jaw, I have to admit I have not had as much time to delve into this week’s blog as I would like. That being said, this entry will be a bit shorter than I would have liked, as I am a bit off-kilter.
Lately, I have been fascinated with the class divide we are currently experiencing, and what I feel may be a root cause in our modern era. I have been watching the situation up north unfold with bated breath. Anyone who knows me understands that I am quite anxious about the idea of the Freedom Convoy being used as a framing device to silence individuals who dare question authority on every side.
Seeing how this week has played out, I have become almost obsessed about the entire situation in Canada, as it is highlighting exactly what I have worried about. Cultural Hegemony as an excuse for State Power. This week the Canadian Government finally decided to swing the truncheon and freeze all assets from both the Canadian protestors and those supporting them. While also making decisive arrests of the protestors all under the protection of the prewritten “Emergencies Act.” A law that will grant Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada whatever powers necessary to remove the trucker blockade to help fix the damaged Canadian Economy. A totalitarian crackdown on striking workers.
Of course this really nothing new. Strikes have been prevalent since the early 1600s as a form of laborers vying for better working conditions, or as a statement of rights. We all know the world is a giant well-running machine, that depends on its workers to continue their duties using incentives such as money, healthcare, or other necessities to ensure adequate payment for their services. Without workers, you have no production, without production, you have nothing to offer the world at large, which could lead to mass starvation and increasing amounts of violent crime.
So morally, what does one do to tame such a disaster?
“In war, State power is pushed to its ultimate, and, under the slogans of “defense and emergency,” it can impose a tyranny upon the public such as might be openly resisted in a time of peace.”
– Murray N. Rothbard
Strikes were incredibly dangerous in Europe post WW1 as many of the soldiers who had just returned home were feeling as if society wasn’t quite tuned right for the average person. Inflation had been at an all-time high, which caused the lower-status soldiers to be left in a very tragic position. The money didn’t get near as far, and many individuals were left working 80-hour workweeks with little-to-no return. This caused a massive rift between the underclass workers and the ruling elite who were trying to maintain a civil society after the First Great War. This of course, allowed the communists an easy-in to the factories to rally new troops for their “noble cause.” A terrifying threat to the powers that be as revolution tends to be contagious. I mean after all…
It’s easy to convince someone they are under-appreciated when they receive nearly nothing for the effort they contribute.
This led to what is known as the Red Scare. A period of great unrest in the ruling elite, as communism threatened a violent revolution across all of Europe, just as it did in Soviet Russia. The threat of communism was far too dire for the ruling elite to handle at the time, as they lacked the proper resources to quell large rebellions. If you have no workers, you have no economy, which in turn means you have no real power. We all know that governments don’t take kindly to having their power threatened.
Strikes haven’t always been a bad thing either. In the Haymarket affair of 1886, Labor organizations called for a national strike advocating for shorter workdays. There were more than 300,000 workers from all over the country that turned up in Chicago to brawl with the police for their cause. Many were wounded and killed to plant the seed that would lead to Ford Motor Companies adopting a five-day, 40-hour workweek only a handful of decades later. Needless to say, Strikes are often the last resort, in order to enact real change.
The amount of impact workers have is un-imaginable until actually rallied into a common goal. We depend on truck drivers to deliver literally everything we have. They are our primary form of distribution for nearly every good we really on. Without truckers, the Canadians are left in a very dire situation. You would think it would be best to listen to their requests…
“The mystery of human existence lies not just in staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
-Fyodor Dostoevsky
In the United States, we are often taught that the idea of a strike is “Un-American.” As we value the necessity of work as a meaning of life. While I do not personally disagree with that sentiment, I can’t help but wonder how many of the actual workers left in our country, let alone our county feel the same.
These last two years we have seen nothing but a reward for those that follow the leader for those that actually support the machine that keeps us all alive. We are seeing a time where those who follow dogmatically along with the ruling elite, are treated completely differently than those who maintain traditional values.
While I am certainly no communist, I can’t help but wonder if there is something these “patriots” fail to understand. When you have no incentive to contribute to a system that clearly does not want you in it, where is the motivation to continue supposed to come from? Are we really supposed to support the idea that a ruling body should force someone to obey their decree simply because they view themselves as intellectually superior? How about the way we treat the “uneducated serfs” who dare threaten the status quo?
Personally, I think we are at the brink of something that is unprecedented in human history. The Canadian government just declared itself an opponent of the working class. In an older world, this would be considered normal. In our modern world, this is more foolish than anything I could ever imagine. Many leaders around the world are taking note of EXACTLY how to proceed. Many leaders are also shutting the blinds and preparing for something very different than they originally had intended.
The workers of the world are uniting, and this time it’s for a much different purpose.
If you think these strikes aren’t going to continue…
You might even be a bigger fool than me.
Thank you for reading
-The Young Fool
