Australian Commentary on…
How is a $100 dollar T- shirt more ethical than a $5 one?
– OCCIDENTAL LOTUS
“There is nothing wrong with diversity.
There is everything wrong with using diversity to speak down to the working class and hypocritically act like it’s all you need to fix the world”
-comiccorncarne
If we are to have a healthy society we must talk about our prejudices. I want to voice out the concern on the association people have between a romanticist perspective to a real lived experience perspective on political correctness and
exploring their prejudices; As I see the hesitancy in exploring peoples pre or existing prejudices being tantamount to having a not well informed society. And the main factor for one instance, in this hesitancy in people to explore prejudices stem from being labelled a racist person;
In this sphere it appears that progressiveness or the ideals of virtue seems to be the commune of the middle and upper class
Like how a 100 dollar T-shirt is more ethical than purchasing a $5 dollar T- shirt, that is cheaply made
To ethical greens to unethical greens
To healthy food to junk food
Or to high end all you can eat
to a Macca’s
It seems like what is ethical can be bought[it seems like what is respectful is through a position of power ]
As we can see in COVID -19 the supply chains are pushed to their limits and there is only so much that people can take until they are pushed to the brink of desperation
And like fuel for a temporal furnace
This adds fire
….Like how cruel leaders are elected by its people driven by desperation in the course of history, and ultimately its peoples may face depravity
…like how innocent people in positions of power who inherit perceived power by association still face critique from other classes because of what they represent 1
…to children in states facing a long period of imperialist interventions that are now facing an ideological transition, [and from within after this lengthy period face trauma that cannot be healed because of the history of conquest in its regions……. Kabul]
To reiterate being ethical seems to encompass your identity
Or
Being ethical seems to be prescriptive by a position of power or identity
And it is worth to look into this fragile relationship
Of what is being valued in the interactions we have with other people in regards to the nuances of respect
Although in the public arena you can see nonetheless
How blatantly people may pit respectful movements against the working conditions of people as if there is no dynamic that exists between them
As if respectful movements arise out of a different realm
And working conditions are treated as an aberration…
There is a growing resentment with the blue collared workers and the working class with the middle and upper classes;
In regards to their rights and the frustration of navigating a bureaucracy that fails
the working classes and that stand to profit from their misery 3
And more recently some of the working classes see that political correctness is being used as a tool to divide them from their search for understanding of other people. And also prevent them from expanding how others can be similar to them or human like them.
When you are a social worker you cannot have a knee jerk reaction to someone’s proclamation of being a racist even if it is being directed towards you. You need to see that it is an expression of what is existing in society and the power relations and the frustration that arises from it, and its not necessarily that the person who says a racist slur is a bad person
And you see political correctness being used towards the blue collared workers who some people may deem as uneducated because some of them express racist slang and terms,
Whilst ironically the working class [and other classes also may… ] depend on relationships for survival like helping a friend to fix their tyre, or giving a place for their friend to stay until they find success in their job hunt. Working class people have a sense of empathy for those in their position and take them under their wing despite them retaining their racist or classist perspectives towards the person they are helping.
Although it can be contested that this empathy or taking under the wing may be paternalistic instead and not morally sound
As if compassion and empathy or the action of caring of others regardless of their background, perhaps to some extent is not valid. As if expressing a sense of wanting to help perhaps has to be pure in order for it to be accepted
This implicates that you cannot be ethical or respectful or act in a way that is valid, when you have a dilemma with another person’s identity;
Because of Your Values, Your Backgrounds, Your Perspectives or Your Shared History that is conflicting.
But how can one so neatly act around this ?
All of life is full of contention and polarisation or diversity that you may meet a person, who may help you but upon deep inspection, they conflict with your identity.
We seem to whisper tribalism when it comes to a question of who is valid to speak about their rights, and this propels more division.
If someone is speaking about their rights no matter how foul their language is, it does not make sense to use tactics that divide working class, blue collared workers or classes from BIPOC peoples in this context.
It does not make sense to use diversity, to deflect the current conditions that the person that is speaking to you is facing.
[This is not to deny the existence of racism
this is an encouragement of an open dialogue with our perspectives in a respectful manner than a silencing manner]
This is not to discriminate against the middle class, this is simply to just provide an account of this fragile relationship.
If you play the illuminati card game you see how identity or movements are used as an agenda to further the interests of another entity or movement, and they will use the identity card to justify violence against other groups of people.
Like how passionate people who want freedom in the french revolution also condone putting others to a guillotine.
An eye for an eye can satiate the fire that people want to consume a state or village, because they want to feel its warmth. But an eye for an eye makes people go insanely blind and at the end there are no qualms that both at the hands of the scene are oppressors.
Clearly the discourse around prejudices seems to be held back instead of explored
And respectful terms or conduct,
are unfortunately in some instances being used to dress up the fact
that it is okay to continue with impeding on the rights of people
Because that person is a racist?
Playing mindgames with identity and movements is more common in powerplays. The most eloquent sometimes may have much to say and those who dont have that eloquence is put further back in their line of knowing their place. “the best lack all conviction whilst the worst is full of passionate intensity”, so that rose coloured intensity of embracing new movements needs to be examined. The roles are always the same in a strategy game, its just a revolving door of different movements and identity occupying that role or piece.
Civilisations like relationships have a tempo, that is cyclical that rises and falls
And with every polarisation, conflict, relationship
A vast image out of our “Spiritus Mundi” is shaped,
And in the “hours “of reckoning
It may be worth to examine what “beast” has actually been “borne”out
Of that dynamic
Because things do not seem clear cut and movements are drawn from paradigms
If we are to have a healthy society we must talk about our prejudices
What is worthy of attention in ‘policing’ or fighting for rights
is changing these practices that are systemically used to deny someone their rights based on their identity, which results in death, relative poverty, emptiness, lack of intimacy, lack of compassion, lack of connection, addiction, poverty, intergenerational trauma or indebtedness, loneliness and loneliness with trophies.
The issue around all the isms stem from how people structure the social division of labour, the implications of mechanisms from economic theories that are used, to the relationships between human endeavours (social structure and economics) affecting the physical and social environment. Especially the blindspots of what is not being valued.
Including how power is being distributed or denied access in relation to rights
Without the reflection there can be no healthy dialogue for expansion
Mere symbols or words do not constitute as violence without the systemic practices that perpetuate it through technology, social division of labour, how we justify economics, how we structure gains or losses or improvements needed to growth, to what is applied in the sciences, administration, the psych wards, vocational education and beyond the ivory tower…..
As Comiccorncarne on YouTube says
“There’s nothing wrong with diversity.
There’s everything wrong with using diversity to speak down to the working class and hypocritically act like it’s all you need to fix the world”
Notes
1
‘The Tragedy of The Romanovs Explained’ where children who inherit a position of power by association, are murdered, and face anger from different classes, despite being innocent but are seen as guilty by association with power figures at 7:25
The Second Coming Poem by William Butler Yeats, an allude to the tensions in society in this context https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming
2
Need Kolhaktar on ‘Woke vs Working Class’ about a Construction worker complaining about unsafe work practices at a construction site to a HR worker that has a PHD in Cultural Construction
3
Growing Up Poor Claymore Four Corners ABC about the Public Housing Suburb in Outer Western Sydney, and shows a real life example beyond the ‘welfare queens, bogans, dole-bludgers’ or any other stereotype about people in welfare in Australia »» https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/growing-up-poor/4279854
or Recent media example of the show ‘Maid’ Netflix about a white working class mother facing domestic violence with no job, and the struggles of navigating an American welfare bureaucracy, that profits from the misery or profit from the barriers that it imposes on welfare recipients who need resources to survive » https://time.com/6101999/maid-review-netflix/
Or the Korean movie ‘Parasite’ where the cleanliness or convenience that the lowest working classes provide is in a complex relationship with those above the higher or close rungs but still above rungs of society. Where the service helps to maintain the aesthetic or pleasures of the classes, whilst the lowest working classes suffer, and the failure is justified in meritocracy. The profit from misery is the service of convenience… [ Squid Game Netflix features Ali, a migrant worker who was exploited for his labour by not receiving the payment he deserved , which speaks to lower classes working expereinces]
OCCIDENTAL LOTUS 