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October 26, 2006
WHITE TRASH, FAST FOOD
How Globalization Is Creating a New European Underclass
By Gabor Steingart
In the West, gradual de-industrialization has created a new underclass of the unproductive and intellectually depraved. The spiritual cousin of the American phenomenon of "white trash," these strangers in their own land have become a serious threat to democracy.
Editor's Note: The following essay has been excerpted from the German best-seller "World War for Wealth: The Global Grab for Power and Prosperity" by SPIEGEL editor Gabor Steingart. SPIEGEL ONLINE is publishing a series of daily excerpts from the book.
The modern-day member of the underclass is not hungry. He has a roof over his head, he is not disproportionately vulnerable to illness and he even has a bit of cash in his pocketbook. In every Western European country, he is both a citizen and a beneficiary of the welfare state, even if the state's services are no longer as generous as they once were.
Such luxuries, bare bones though they may be, are relatively new for the Western proletariat. The best lodging his pauper predecessor could have hoped for was a homeless shelter or a men's hostel. Food for the poor was meager and it was often delivered only after long waits in bread lines or in soup kitchens. The ill were neither insured nor could they afford to pay for doctors, let alone medication. Old men were, for better or for worse, turned over to the care of the younger generation, or put in the hands of church aid programs.
Still, even if the modern-day proletariat is materially much better off, he is actually in worse shape.
The destitute laborer of old had something that today's poor no longer have: He knew who the enemy was; he had a class identity; he often even had a well-developed culture. He sang songs, fought his political fights, founded associations and idolized social theoreticians, even if he didn't fully understand them.
During the days of the German Empire, he could still choose between political groups that, although technically illegal, sought his support. The pauper of yesterday was the subject of history, seen with the sober clarity of hindsight. So far, the pauper of today, in a united Europe, is little more than the victim of circumstances. And while his predecessor may have been on the margins of society, today he is an outsider.
Although they hardly have a voice of their own, we know a lot about today's members of the underclass. Though they keep largely to themselves, cocooned as they are within their apartment blocks, they are scrutinized by dozens of sociologists -- examined to almost the same extent as biologists have researched the common hare. And while they may be strangers in their own land, we have access to a clear typology that allows us to better recognize them.
Intellectual neglect
We know, for example, that today's proletariat is richer than the worker of generations past. Indeed, with a little skill, he can tap into the coffers of the state's social safety net, which provides him with access to an income comparable to those of police officers, warehouse workers and taxi drivers. Thus, it is not material poverty that separates him from others.
Rather, what stand out are the symptoms of intellectual neglect. The poor of today watch television for half the day. These days, television producers even refer to what they call "Underclass TV." The new proletariat eats a lot of fatty foods and he enjoys smoking and drinking -- a lot. About 8 percent of Germans consume 40 percent of all the alcohol sold in the country. While he may be a family man, his families are often broken. And on Election Day, he casts a protest vote for the extreme left or right wing party, sometimes switching quickly from one to the other.
But the main thing that sets the modern poor apart from the industrial age pauper is a sheer lack of interest in education. Today's proletariat has little education and no interest in obtaining more. Back in the early days of industrialization, the poor joined worker associations that often doubled as educational associations. The modern member of the underclass, by contrast, has completely shunned personal betterment.
He likewise makes little effort to open the door to the future for his own children. Their language skills are as bad as their ability to concentrate. The rising rate of illiteracy is matched by the shrinking opportunities to integrate the underclass. The Americans, not ones to mince words, call them "white trash."
European democracy's greatest threat
The new proletariat as a homogenous class first came into existence in the last 10 years. And it is by no means an exclusively German phenomenon: An underclass is emerging in every self-described leading industrial nation. The modern political economy clearly has nothing to offer to those who possess little knowledge.
It is no mere coincidence that the rise of the new underclass is happening in tandem with the erosion of industry jobs. In Europe, the process of de-industrialization may end up being more influential than the common currency or the effort to forge a shared constitution. The disintegration of society threatens the West today more than international terrorism, even if politicians are focusing on combating the latter.
Though bombs can shake a democracy or market economy, they cannot destroy it. But the process of economic erosion deprives the West of jobs, then money and, in the end, democratic legitimacy. What is citizenship worth if people are denied the opportunity to participate in the working world? What use are civil liberties if the right to an independent lifestyle is no longer among them? Would it be acceptable if the rights set down in the constitution were only applicable to the educated classes?
Questions of fundamental importance are forcing their way to the foreground: Can a democracy tolerate having part of its populace continuously shut out from the rising quality of life? And if that is accepted, will this decision come back to haunt us in our lifetimes?
Will nations again face off against one another because boiling anger seeks an outlet? Or perhaps the underclasses will revolt? Both scenarios are possible. The only outcome hard to imagine is that nothing happens at all.
The biggest of all mistakes would be to let this new underclass fall into lethargy and total nihilism. The process of capitalism hasnt stopped. The rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer. The socalled "underclass" will increase their numbers as well as the upper-class. The middle class will die out and dissolve into these two classes. The winners of "new economy" who will climbe to the upper class and the losers of this "brave,new world" who will fall down to the "underclass".
In the age of Globalization,its not the international Left,but the nationalist Right,which is the true anticapitalist force,which will set restrictions on the international Capital and will secure and improve the nation-state as a social shelter.
Posted : 27/10/2006 1:28 am
There's also a great item on U.S. decline/globalization in Der Spiegel's online English edition.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,439766,00.html
Posted : 27/10/2006 1:48 am
Topic starter
Yes here are the other excerpts of Gabor Steingart book : http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,k-6997,00.html
I highly recommend "Playing with the fire: America and the Dollar Illusion" , "A Superpower in decline: America's Middle Class Has Become Globalization's Loser" and "Asia Ascendant : Protectionism! The West Must Defend Itself" . But the rest it good too.
Gabor Steingart is expressing what nationalists have been saying for years, if not decades now. That the Western economies must defend themselves from the cheap asian labour by implementing nationalist measures.
Anyway a quick "who's who" on Gabor Steingart:
"Gabor Steingart, 44, heads DER SPIEGEL's Berlin office. His last book was titled "Germany: The Decline of a Superstar" and, like "World War for Prosperity," was a bestseller in Germany. Steingart was chosen as "The Economic Writer of the Year" in 2004."
In the age of Globalization,its not the international Left,but the nationalist Right,which is the true anticapitalist force,which will set restrictions on the international Capital and will secure and improve the nation-state as a social shelter.
Posted : 27/10/2006 2:16 am
The biggest of all mistakes would be to let this new underclass fall into lethargy and total nihilism. The process of capitalism hasnt stopped. The rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer. The socalled "underclass" will increase their numbers as well as the upper-class. The middle class will die out and dissolve into these two classes. The winners of "new economy" who will climbe to the upper class and the losers of this "brave,new world" who will fall down to the "underclass".
Once again, false premises lead to fairly useless analysis. Leaving race and the jew out of any analysis of Western society turns the analysis into meaningless mush.
Posted : 27/10/2006 7:35 am
Once again, false premises lead to fairly useless analysis. Leaving race and the jew out of any analysis of Western society turns the analysis into meaningless mush.
The false implied underlying premises are at least four:
1. There is only one race in White nations: tan -- since the apparent racial variances in multi-racial White nations is illusionary, given that there is no such thing as race.
2. There is no small hard callous murderous evil driving force behind world globalism: i.e., no jews.
3. "Globalism" is not REALLY a euphemism for tyranny and enslavement of the world by those jews.
4. The White Race is NOT being exterminated -- and all the points you (the author of this article) think you are making are NOT merely symptoms of the resultant effects on White people (the non-whites are irrelevant) by the jew propaganda warfare against them.
Posted : 27/10/2006 9:10 am
"Still, even if the modern-day proletariat is materially much better off, he is actually in worse shape.
The destitute laborer of old had something that today's poor no longer have: He knew who the enemy was; he had a class identity; he often even had a well-developed culture. He sang songs, fought his political fights, founded associations and idolized social theoreticians, even if he didn't fully understand them."
That paragraph really stood out. With all the new materialist high-tech gadgets on the market, people become blind to the differences in quality of life between the classes.
The poor kid can have an X-box 360 just like the rich kid. And the poor teenager can get a nice car just like the rich teenager.
It's an illusion. Poor people don't even know that they are poor.
Posted : 27/10/2006 6:33 pm
Isn't this what the punk movement in England was supposed to be about back in the seventies? That was a long time ago.
Is the political activity he is recalling commie activists who were breaking the balls of the dominant white culture the whole time they were singing songs, etc?
These countries had their glory days when they were white, Christian countries. He leaves that part out.
"Go, Nazis, Go!"
Posted : 27/10/2006 10:27 pm
Topic starter
Abzug Hoffman,
i think he refers to the worker's assosiations and organizations of the 19th -early 20th century who "broke the balls" of wealthy and greedy capitalists who were exploiting them,their women and even their children in 70 hour-week slave-wage "jobs".
These white and "christian" countries were a mess for the white working man up until the day he joined organizations defending him and his needs and forcing the "elites" to accept some of his demands.
In the age of Globalization,its not the international Left,but the nationalist Right,which is the true anticapitalist force,which will set restrictions on the international Capital and will secure and improve the nation-state as a social shelter.
Posted : 28/10/2006 3:54 am
What are you expecting from the lower classes? From what I have observed, they are easily bought off, for forty years now they have supported such openly pro immigration, Internationalist, politically correct parties such as the SPD and since the nineties the Left party and the PDS, do you see any of that changing any time soon? The way it looks like in Europe, the lower classes will sell their daughters to an African whore house as long as their social democrats keep promising to deliver bread and circuses.
_______
Political correctness is an intellectual gulag.
Posted : 28/10/2006 5:39 am
The thing about the class war is if you can get ordinary people to pay attention to the problem of their own material existence, and to work together to take care of this problem, you can, in fact, fight this System effectively.
Developing small scale production and trade among ourselves takes from the rich and gives back to us.
The process of creating and maintaining local trading networks would also create grass roots political influence.
The reason this isn't happening is simply that people are too lazy to bother. It works just fine.
I got an example for you. I see White people get their house foreclosed. I've told people who were just beginning to fall behind on payments, "Why don't you rent one of your rooms to such and such a person? Take a boarder or two, not a stranger, but someone you know living in a shitty, overpriced apartment." They look at me like I'm crazy and say, "No way."
The thing about having boarders is you can car-pool with them, too, reducing both your rent and your automobile expenses. Asians and spics do this all the time. Whitey needs to wake up and smell the bankruptcy of individualism and single-serving life.
Godzilla mit uns!
Posted : 28/10/2006 5:55 am
Topic starter
Right is Right,
you should have known that it was not the SPD or any "leftist" party that did bring all the Turks and other foreigners in here. It was the conservatives of the CDU. And the reason being more profits for businness. And what was true back then is true today also:
Immigration | 27.10.2006
Berlin and Paris Suggest New Model for EU Migration
French and German interior ministers have proposed a new EU migration policy from the European Union's six largest countries. The plan would allow migrants from non-EU country to work in the EU for a limited time.
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy proposed that a common immigration policy should be created for the European Union at an informal meeting Thursday in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. The proposal aims to create an EU asylum authority and open up the EU's labor market to temporary guest workers.
...
German skepticism
German politicians, however, expressed skepticism about the "circular migration" idea. The internal affairs spokesperson for the Social Democrats (SPD), Dieter Wiefelspütz, told the Berliner Zeitung daily that current rules were sufficient.
"I can't see any need for temporary guest workers," he said, referring to Germany's 4 million unemployed.
The spokesperson for migration issues from the free-market liberal FDP party, Sibylle Laurischk, called the suggestion "naïve."
"Evidently, they've forgotten the lessons from the 1960's," she told the paper, referring to a period then Germany brought many Turkish guest workers into the country. Many of them stayed despite the government's intention that they would return home after several years of work.
...
The issue of poverty in Germany has been discussed here http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=39649 with a link to the "Friedrich Ebert Stiftung" study in which the ideals,voting patterns and morals of the different classes are analyzed. The study shows very clearly that the lower the class the more traditional and nationalist views its members have. On the contrary the upper classes hold the individualistic, internationalist views we all condemn.
Anyway the importance of the article i posted above was a completely different. Some users like Kievsky and even Abzug Hoffman (in his ignorance) hinted at it :
The proletariat of the past was the revolutionary force turning the establishment upside down. The proletariat of today can do it again. Our big chance and fortune today lies in the fact that the proletariat of today is not been lead by marxist theoreticians and activists but it still searches for the people (movement) who will speak for them,fight for them and lead them to a better future.
What if nationalists become the new leaders and theoreticians of todays proletariat?
In the age of Globalization,its not the international Left,but the nationalist Right,which is the true anticapitalist force,which will set restrictions on the international Capital and will secure and improve the nation-state as a social shelter.
Posted : 29/10/2006 5:36 am
Wrote Alex:
The proletariat of the past was the revolutionary force turning the establishment upside down. The proletariat of today can do it again. Our big chance and fortune today lies in the fact that the proletariat of today is not been lead by marxist theoreticians and activists but it still searches for the people (movement) who will speak for them,fight for them and lead them to a better future.
Don't want to be a kill-joy but here's sort of our reality re starting a nationalistic revolution of the proletariat against the interests of the Jew World Order:
There have been NO PROLETARIAT REVOLUTIONS. Virtually all revolutions throughout history were initiated, funded, and led by JEWS. They were all implemented in order to decapitate the White Race -- and put THEMSELVES, CERTAINLY NOT THE 90 IQ PROLETARIAT, in charge of the White nation. The decapitation/jew-head-implant is complete in nearly every White nation.
Here's where that reality seems to leave us re proletariat revolutions (I hope I'm wrong):
We're going to have get major financial backing from the wealthy class (White or jew), jew permission to use that money for a revolution against them, and then jew instruction on how to implement that revolution against them.
Posted : 29/10/2006 6:44 am
Wrote Alex:
Don't want to be a kill-joy but here's sort of our reality re starting a nationalistic revolution of the proletariat against the interests of the Jew World Order:
There have been NO PROLETARIAT REVOLUTIONS. Virtually all revolutions throughout history were initiated, funded, and led by JEWS. They were all implemented in order to decapitate the White Race -- and put THEMSELVES, CERTAINLY NOT THE 90 IQ PROLETARIAT, in charge of the White nation. The decapitation/jew-head-implant is complete in nearly every White nation.
Here's where that reality seems to leave us re proletariat revolutions (I hope I'm wrong):
We're going to have get major financial backing from the wealthy class (White or jew), jew permission to use that money for a revolution against them, and then jew instruction on how to implement that revolution against them.
Is it hopeless then?
Not quite.
The ONLY solution is directly through the jew -- i.e., physical decapitation of the implanted jew head. World war aimed straight at the jew rulers throughout the world in every nation simultaneously.
Posted : 29/10/2006 6:53 am
Perhaps simultaneousness is not essential.
Posted : 29/10/2006 6:59 am
It must be world war -- because the jew leadership is actually increasingly extra-national, international, global.
Posted : 29/10/2006 7:03 am
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