Weekend Economists: It's a Jungle Out There! November 2-4,2012

[bread_and_roses]

24. Chapter summaries, quotes, more

here http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/jungle/

A sample from "quotes:"

5. To Jurgis the packers had been equivalent to fate; Ostrinski showed him that they were the Beef Trust. They were a gigantic combination of capital, which had crushed all opposition, and overthrown the laws of the land, and was preying upon the people.
Explanation for Quotation 5 >>

This quote from Chapter 29 illustrates the effect of Jurgis’s adoption of socialism upon his mind. He previously considers the capitalists “equivalent to fate,” believing them to be all-powerful, impersonal, inhuman forces that have total control over his life. But Ostrinski convinces him that the capitalists are merely corrupt human beings who immorally oppress other human beings. Jurgis realizes here that the only difference between the capitalists and the workers lies in money, for while the capitalists have “a gigantic combination of capital,” the workers have nothing. But, as the speech at the end of the novel emphasizes, there are many more workers than capitalists, which could enable the socialist party to overthrow the hegemony of capitalism in a democratic system. This quote demonstrates the opening of Jurgis’s mind to politics and economics, as he takes up the socialist cause with a fervor at least as strong as that with which he initially embraces capitalism and the American Dream.

The power of the zeitgeist .... where I live - an area that has been more or less in Depression/Recession since early '70s, the Rs and Conservatives predominate ... right down the road one of our villages has a municipal electric system ... people know it is MUCH less expensive than the Corporate provider serving the rest of the valley and used to try to buy houses in that village all the while descrying "socialism" etc like good Tea-Baggers.

Way back there were active Socialist and Communist Clubs right here - attended by ordinary working men (it would have been mostly men, in those days going to any sort of "club" I think - maybe there were women too - I haven't read enough about the era to know - am relying on info on our area from someone I know to have studied it).

And yet somehow we end up with our local paper and other sites where comments are allowed full of Rand-bot types and rock-solid Rs gnashing their teeth over public sector workers and the "Federal Debt" and full of racism and poor-bashing in general ....

It's enough to make you weep.