I know. It feels like you’ve been asleep for a long time now, and you keep asking yourself how things ended up this way. Everyone is trying to figure it out, with books and studies popping up faster than toadstools after a rainstorm. The one thing I’m really starting to notice, however, is a threatening and disquieting social movement: the egalitarianization of inequality.
In other words, the social changes that so much of my generation fought, marched, and got arrested for—civil rights, gay rights, gender rights—have met with an equal and opposite movement that is just as widespread, and one that purports to be just as “egalitarian” at its core. At one point, we were working towards opportunities for all. Now, we seem to be “comfortable” (one of my favorite buzzwords in business Newspeak) with inequality.
The statistics on it are scary: a majority of people in the U.S. now believe that we have hit about as much “equality” as we are going to get. According to a December 2011 Gallup poll on attitudes towards inequality, 54% of Americans believe that income inequality is an “acceptable part of our economic system.” This is a 9% increase since 1998. So things are equal, just, and appropriate, and if you don’t measure up it’s own your fault, sucker!
Back in the Clinton era, when the new Ultra-Libertarianism (pace Ron Paul) was rearing it’s pretty head, I coined the term IGMNYGY (pronounced I-GUM-NIGGY), which stands for I got mine, now you get yours! This was similar to another buzzword from that time: NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard!), and it suited a period of expansion and short-sighted economy and culture. You could get as rich as you wanted, even if a lot of your wealth was only on paper and could disappear at any minute. Still, somebody had to be left with the goodies in the end, and it might as well be you (or me), but definitely not him or her—the poor schnorers out on the street who just forgot to get rich.
I credit a timeless corporate message for getting us to this point: Winning is not everything, it’s the ONLY thing. You win, you get the Lexus; you lose, you get McDonald’s. But what’s even stranger is the notion that you don’t lose with McDonald’s because McDonald’s is still as American as the Lexus. In fact, the only people who lose these days are those who aren’t American at all. This brings us the to rabid anti-immigrant sentiment in this country, though anyone who has ever worked in construction, agriculture, or tourism knows that without an immigrant population, much of American business would collapse. Who the hell else is gonna shingle your roof, clean out your chimney, wash your dishes, or make your bed at Motel 6?
So we have the charming idea that winning and losing is all the same thing: both are all-American, and the more media attention it gets, the more American it is. Daring to disagree with this economic structure—and its strange handmaiden the “culture”—means you don’t deserve to be in it anyway.
If all of this sounds as cold as Newt Gingrich’s testicles and even more Ayn Randian than she herself could stand, you’re right. And the thing that’s really peculiar about it is how young people have bought into it with such delight. It is now cool to not only ignore your neighbor (because you’re too busy on your iPhone), but to genuinely loathe him. Part of this is from being simply overworked: the stakes are now too high (like your rent), the fall too hard (I see way too many people who look just like me sleeping on cardboard), and the competition too cut-throat. Even our beloved billionaire mayor gets a whiff of it every now and then, acknowledging that there are “real people” out there beyond the Upper East Side.
Still, the idea that if you really did deserve to be in the “in crowd” (the Upper 1%, the big winners of the Lottery of Life) then you’d be in it, is rampant. And deadly. Twice as many people now die from suicide in this country than murder (who the hell ever thought we’d reach that stat?). And so we’ve arrived at a static plateau of horrifying nihilism, minus the groovy existential fun of the ’50s, when there were beatnik poets and bongo drums to keep us entertained.
The fun has been drained out of the system because there is no alternative. Nihilism is great when you have some bozos around who still believe in optimism. But I’m afraid those delightful clowns, the ones who really move the scenery back and forth in the great show of life, have left the stage.
Wouldn't you like to be part of the 1%? Just one of the many posters for New York Lottery's new "Yeah, that kind of rich" campaign.
Perry Brass’s latest book, The Manly Art of Seduction, is an IPPY Gold Medal Winner and very much about the “Wisdom of Desire.” His next book, The King of Angels, is set in 1963 Savannah and is described as “a gay, Southern, Jewish coming of age story.” For more information, check out his website HERE.
Kevin Crowe
Perry, A similar process is occurring over here in the UK (or Great Britain as some Americans may refer to it). There is the assumption that with new equality laws over the past decade, no-one should have any complaints about their social or economic situation. Those who argue in favour of increased resources for the poor or for progressive taxation that means the wealthiest pay more into society are increasingly referred to as “jealous” or “envious”.
Our right wing government is actually enacting legislation that will make this worse. Whereas bankers and CEOs continue to get bonuses even when their companies become less profitable and the wealthy continue to hide their wealth in off shore tax havens, the government is targetting the most vulnerable sections of our society.
For example, there are “reforms” planned for our welfare benefit system. Those who are unable to work either because of their dsability or illness, or because of employers who refuse to enact access and flexible working schemes that help the disabled and the ill to work will soon be penalised. They will have to prove that they are unable to work because of their medical condition, and they will be subjected to medical examinations by government appointed doctors who will be paid on the basis of the number of people they remove from benefit. There has already been cases of people who have been taken off disability benefit whilst still receiving chemotherapy for cancer.
People who are living with conditions whose severity and impairment can vary from day to day are already suffering as a result. These conditions include the various forms of arthritis (I have both rheumatoid and ostio arthritis, but fortunately I am self employed) or forms of cancer or HIV or MS or Diabetes often find they have good days and bad days, but the new legislation does not take this into account.
There are other examples relating to public housing, unemployment benefit and so forth.
Thanks for your blog.
Best wishes,
Kevin Crowe,
Highlands of Scotland.
Thomas
This piece clearly states an issue that needs to be aired out and addressed. Well done. I’m still numb over the Supreme Court burying the Florida recount in 2000. The state of being comfortable can be a synonym for ignoring what else is around you other than your own electronically connected life otherwise isolated life. Being too cool for compassion needs a rap upside the head.
Paul Fahey
Amazing article, Perry. Very true as well as sad. Well written as always. Love the simile about Newt’s testicles. Hands off those, for sure. Amazing how complacent we’ve become about equality. It’s a scary thought. Tonite is Hollywood’s night but I read somewhere that a huge majority of voters are white males. Says quite a lot right there.
David Ehrenstein
SING OUT LOUISE!
Billy Russo
…interesting read. I posted it to our FB page. Were you involved in GAA NY or GLF LA in the early Seventies? You seem familiar.
Christopher
great read, Perry. and yeah, those new lottery posters make me cringe.. as if the class warfare isn’t enough on the tube, now we can have the proverbial dangling carrot that quips, “sure, you can be a millionaire. just dump your life savings with us and hope you’re the one out of a billion to win a lifelong trip to the high chair!” intellect and ethics were both shot into outer space a long time ago. *sigh