While reading The Field Guide To Fields by Bill Laws, published by National Geographic, I came across a?revealing quote from an English Victorian era bourgeoisie landowner. It seems the bourgeoisie’s fear of?self-sufficiency was very much alive in Victorian England. The parallels with the fears and tactics of today’s?American capitalist class?are eerie, and the working classes’ racial and political divisions fit well within a divide and conquer strategy.
What is bourgeoisie?
If you’re not familiar with the term bourgeoisie, it’s the Marxist term for the capitalist class that owns the?means of production and gives laborers wages. We now have a sort of super-bourgeoisie group that doesn’t necessary produce anything. This ruling class mainly consists of Wall Street pinheads, big bankers, lawyers, corporate executives, and other heroes of the oligarchy . If you are one of these?individuals, you are likely not reading this. If you are, your skin is thick and your wallet thicker, so I think?you can handle a jab from a recovering financial representative.
Victorian “pauper’s patch”
Back to The Field Guide of Fields; at one point Laws discusses the history of field enclosures and?allotments. In doing so, he writes of the “paupers patch,” which was an allotment of land most often used?for gardens given to commoners in Victorian era England. He explains how the program wasn’t too?popular as land owners feared laborers might steal seeds or not work as hard as they could. After all, how?could they put sufficient effort into working bourgeoisie land when they had their own land to cultivate?
The quote
This direct quote from a landowner is revealing, “The extent of the garden of a labourer ought never to be?such as to interfere with his employment as a labourer.” This seems to be the mantra of too many of?today’s executives.?The idea that the wealthy want people working for them is not startling. The tragedy is how much the?working class still falls for the mind numbing gimmicks of those with the means. Self-sufficiency lost its?glory when it was traded for wage slavery.
Working class cooperation?& freedom from poverty
What happens when the working class wants a better standard of living? The executives take the labor?elsewhere. If they can’t do that, they bring cheaper labor in to replace the less compliant wage slaves.?Freedom from the bourgeoisie, or the American elite, and self-sufficiency is not easy, and there are many?checks in place to keep it that way.?However, for those who want to change, there are opportunities. The more the working class cooperates?with one another, the more likely these opportunities produce results. And cooperation among the working class threatens the ruling-class, which doesn’t care about your race. It only cares about money.
