you're telling me?

“war is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking into the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.” george orwell. 1984_______________________________today's new york times book review section reviews three books under the banner headline" barely afloat in america"...that rubric covers, "give people money: how a universal basic income would end poverty, revolutionize work, and remake the world", "squeezed: why our families can't afford america", and "the war on normal people: the truth about america's disappearing jobs and why universal basic income is our future"...this seems to be a nest of utopians in these trumpist times..i cannot deny that there is a concerted effort to drive the general population into debt penury...there is a war on, if not in exactly orwellian terms then one with the same end...to deny the polity of any comfort...to keep them on edge...worried..harried..unable to think clearly about the political mechanism used to control them because of the stress of every existence...worrying about a sitter...or a new water pump...or the price of a gallon of milk/gasoline...or the looming "back to school" income drain...or health care costs...or "what if" there is some catastrophic expense..if you are thinking about all that you don't have time to educate yourself about what the political slime is up to much less formulate plans to somehow resist..that "too intelligent stuff orwell is on about...i cant help but think that Ms. quart( squeezed ) ms. lowrey ( give people money ) and mr. yang ( the war on normal people) must have written these as primers for those members of the elite that have any concern over the mass of us...everyone who works for an hourly wage already knows what's going on ...they don't need to be tutored about the concerted actions of the elite to debase their lives or the need for money to access goods and services...they have a wealth of empirical knowledge...enough even to satisfy david hume that they know of what the speak..they need a breathing space to think about what they can do in response...a space a guaranteed universal income might provide...which is why it doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of being enacted...it would be labeled "debilitating charity" by the faux calivinist fucks that run things and be subject to "shattering to pieces" with every smear tactic that politicians ( read bought whores ) can muster and, given the tenor of these trumpist times those would be many and foul...antonio gramsci's "prison notebooks" and the assessment of the intricacies of hegemonic culture and how it invades, pervades, and controls our daily life...the depths of its indoctrination...might serve as a better start to resistance than pipe dreams from the liberal left.