Munich

We arrived in Munich on a large pink bus.

Some of the students headed straight for Oktoberfest (which eventually led to me learning the virtues of socialized medicine, but that's a different story). Those of us prone to curiosity and thought headed towards the city to explore. Wandering the old streets of Munich in modern times could make one forget that this city had been the birthplace of one of the greatest atrocities mankind had ever committed against itself.

Then I saw the gate and could not forget. "Arbeit macht frei." Work makes you free. The Nazis had made it their slogan to mask their true intentions for their concentration camp system - the systematic murder of all people they did not like - Jews, gays, immigrants, minorities, Jehovah's Witnesses, communists, social democrats, and anyone who disagreed with those in power.

I had been fascinated by the existence of war since I was a child. Some of my first news memories were of the Beirut hostages and the bombing of the US embassy. I was fascinated by the Genesis video for "Land of Confusion." I was in 8th grade when I watched the Wall come down with sledgehammers and jubilation. The Soviet Union crumbled, Clinton was elected POTUS, the European Union came into reality, Fukyama proclaimed the "end of history," and I thought the world had finally decided enough was enough. I spent all of my formative educational years during the Clinton administration, including that junior year in Europe and an internship in a peace and reconciliation center in Ireland. It was truly a time of hope.

Dachau was the first time I had come face to face with the actual relics of conflict. I had been to Arlington National Cemetery and the American and German Battle of the Bulge cemeteries in Luxembourg, but Dachau was different. Dachau was a concentration camp. Dachau was hate, fascism, Nazism, the Holocaust.

As one of the first concentration camps, Dachau was established to house political prisoners who criticized the regime. Himmler justified its existence as "a way to restore calm to Germany." (Make Germany Great Again!) It originally could hold 5,000 prisoners, but the regime used prison labor to double its size. As the Nazis invaded more countries, their captured soldiers were also sent to the camp. In the end, there were 32,000 documented deaths at the camp; the true number will never be known.

I was 20 years old when I passed through those gates. I had walked through a portal that took me to a reality I had never known growing up in sheltered Ohio. I was forever changed by that experience, one that raised more questions than answers. Eventually I went to two more camps - Terezenstadt on the outside of Prague, and the one that housed the gates of Hell itself - Auschwitz. Both of those experiences shaped me in profound ways, but Auschwitz chipped away at my soul. I will never shake the feeling I had on that day. It is as strong now as it was then.

I've since spent most of my life working on conflict issues and with people who've suffered under authoritarian regimes.

I just can't believe Americans have let it happen here.

Working Class Elitism

On Friday afternoon I went to Tunny's for a couple of beers just to get out of the house, as I had not really gotten off the couch since I arrived home from California on Monday. One of their appliances had broken down and they were waiting on a plumber.

When he arrived, I had a brief chat with him. He was an affable guy and concerned because it was about 5pm and he still had two more jobs to do before the end of the day, which was a problem because he lives on the eastern shore and it takes him three hours to get home. He'd most likely stay in a hotel, which is not uncommon for him. He was hoping to get some jobs on the shore in the coming days so he didn't have to cross the bridge. I asked him why he'd come so far and he said, "I do it for my kids." Then he repeated the toxic way of thinking that so many of what we'd consider the traditional "working class" are repeating these days.

"I <want> to work," he said, his emphasis on want implying that others don't. He went on to say, "I don't hate working," as if he were a hero for having a job.

I was about to say that he was lucky to have found something he liked to do that paid well, but the manager came over to discuss the invoice.

And he is lucky. So many people aren't so fortunate to be paid well for something they like to do. Some may be blessed with skills in areas that aren't valued by American society, such as the arts, so they have to take up other jobs to pay the bills. Others have rewarding hobbies that they'd rather spend time on than "work," but they can't find a way to make a living from it. You can't tell me that gardening isn't work, for example. (I work harder at that than most plumbers do plumbing.) Still others may hate their jobs because of poor management, a toxic work environment, or poor wages and benefits. That's the society we live in, where the haves steal labor and resources from the have nots, and we're supposed to be happy about it?

The tiresome narrative that people don't want to work is simply false. It's propaganda designed to sow division by using archaic, Calvinistic, ideological notions in pursuit of profit. The truth is what people don't want to do is work for these billionaires who pay them a pittance and try to control every aspect of their lives. We aren't slaves. We want to do something of value, and by value, I mean something that contributes to society rather than to some wealthhoarder's pocket.

Still, those I'm calling "working class elitists" repeat the lie ad nauseam. It makes them feel superior to something, even if the something isn't real. And let's face it, that something is us city dwellers, who are apparently all simultaneously black communist drag queens on welfare who don't want to work and also coastal elite lawyer types taking away Freedom!™️ I've lost track of the Narrative at this point.

That mentality has pervaded every corner of our society. FarmersOnly.com (City folks just don't get it.) Hallmark Channel (The unhappy city dweller returns to the small town and finds love.) Country music (So many songs about how country life is the best.) This has been going on for so many decades now that these folks are terrified of our fantastic American cities and believe every lie about them - fake riots, fake high crime rates, etc. One of those lies is that "no one wants to work anymore," and by "no one" they mean city dwellers.

I realize coastal elitism is real and played a role in the development of this "working class elitism" as a response, but it is exaggerated. What so-called coastal elites are frustrated with is middle America continuing to vote against its own interests, dragging us all down into the muck with them while billionaires suck up all the wealth. To watch their propaganda working so well is horrifying. To watch people gleefully throw their lives away because they think work itself is a virtue, even if they are working for peanuts and continue to struggle while they worship the wealthy, is a tragedy of the soul.

Let's face it. Many of us are indeed working class. Just because we sit in front of a computer screen all day instead of getting dirty doesn't mean we are not. Most of us are one misfortune away from the poor house, because medical bankruptcies are through the roof while our overlords profit.

That plumber shouldn't have to drive three hours and spend the night in a hotel "for his kids." Americans shouldn't have to waste time and money going to an office when they can work from home. We shouldn't have to work 40 hour weeks simply because Henry Ford decided that was the maximum number of hours his laborers would work before rebelling against him. No one should have to work two hours just to afford one egg.

That plumber isn't better than me because he's a plumber, and I'm not better than him because I work an office job.

Work for the sake of work is not noble. That's the mentality of a dull mind, uninterested in the beautiful things that make our brief existence on this planet worth living. Those things are being taken from us. Cherish them now.