Evolving Man Project

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

This quote has been attributed to the great American novelist John Steinbeck. Still, it’s been disputed if he ever said it. I can attest that whoever said this, I wholeheartedly agree with them. In the context of the 21st century, I say trade out the ‘millionaire’ with ‘billionaire’ to update it. 

To my fellow Americans, ‘none of you muthafuckers will ever be billionaires!’ I’ll repeat it for the people in the back. ‘None of you muthafuckers will ever be billionaires!‘ And for my fellow leftist and politically left-leaning Americans. Sorry, you’ll never be the cool ‘progressive’ rubbing elbows with the elites and famous celebrities at the Met Gala like AOC, either. I know it’s heartbreaking. The American dream is sold to us from birth. It goes like this, one day you’ll be like Oprah, Michael Jordan, or Steve Jobs. From rags to riches. Just work hard, gotta love that good ol’ Protestant Work Ethic! The problem lies in the fact most people don’t have the Cinderella story book ending. Those folks named are a small minority of individuals who had a luck, timing, and a big break all on their side. 

In reality, most of the elite in the United States come from the silver spoon club. Facebook CEO and humanoid, Mark Zuckerberg got a 100K loan from his dad to start the social media monopoly. Jeff Bezos, Lex Luthor himself, got a 300K loan from his family to start the union-busting, next day package delivering, conglomerate known as Amazon. Bill Gate’s dad was a successful corporate attorney, and his mother introduced them to IBM executives when he was a college kid at Harvard. Elon Musk, the wannabe Iron Man himself. His company also likes to union-bust the Tesla employees. Elon comes from a family that owned an emerald mine in South Africa. That’s not all you good people reading this post. You broke muthafuckers. Hell, I am a broke muthafucker too compared to Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg.

If I asked my mom and dad for a $100,000 loan, they would laugh in my face, and if I was serious, they’d have my wife commit me asap. But Americans are sold the lie if you work hard, you’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams! Despite seeing plumbers, teachers, grocery store clerks, hotel cleaners, Wal-Mart employees, social workers, day laborers, undocumented fruit pickers, and countless others workers bust their asses daily. Many barely make it out of poverty or, stay, working-class. The lucky few like myself become middle-class. But I know if I suffer from a serious injury or illness due to the shit social safety net in the U.S. I’d find myself in the poor house too. The rags to riches myth wouldn’t be so rotten if my fellow Americans admitted that classism was a real problem in the United States. We live in a current-generation that will be less well off than their parents were. #TheStruggleIsReal my fellow millennials.

Yet, you have countless numbers of everyday Americans who will defend tooth and nail the wealthy elite of this nation. Rather it’s Elon Musk, Barack Obama, or R. Kelly; people will defend their wrongdoing. Hell, there’s plenty of people who think that Bill Cosby was set up despite fifty-plus women claiming that he drugged and raped them. Or folks still stan Bill Gates despite countless amount of proof of his friendship with fellow billionaire and sex-trafficker Jeff Epstein. Billy Boy claims he had no idea what Jeff was up to. But it was an open secret in elite circles about what Jeff was doing. Probably explains why Jeffery mysteriously ‘killed’ himself in his jail cell. Hell, the American voters made two men with credible rape allegations, the president of the United States in both Joe Biden and the reality TV host and XL sized Oompa Loompa, Donald J.  Trump. 

Trump supporters and a critical mass of rappers undying love for “The Donald” is simply because he’s a wealthy New York businessman. Despite his shady dealings and countless failed business ventures on top of his long history of racism. People love him, and he might be POTUS again in 2024 if he decides to run again. We live in a culture that worships wealth and the wealthy in an unhealthy way. 

Americans vote against their best interest every two years at the local, state, and federal levels. Claiming that providing all citizens access to housing, food, universal healthcare, medicine, universal childcare, quality education, and free college would be entitlements and hand-outs to so-called moochers. Even if our tax dollars would benefit their fellow Americans versus our tax dollars going to more police and ungodly defense budget. Thus maintaining the status quo of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer; because politicians always love to give the wealth more tax cuts. The corporate media demonized Bernie Sanders and his supporters because they dared to barely challenge the status quo and suggest raising taxes slightly on the wealthy elite. 

Too many voters feel like this “hell, those might be my taxes one day that be raised to pay for some sick kid in Milwaukee with Leukemia to get free treatment. Not fair!” I’ve heard ordinary people say they have the ‘billionaire’ mindset and read ridiculous self-help books like The Secret. All in a vain attempt to be part of the 1%  super class one day. I’ve heard countless amounts of people claim ‘they’re proud capitalist, even if they have no capital. During my days of organizing and activism with Occupy Wall Street, I’d get shit from citizens who claimed we were just complaining. Despite us millennials coming of age during the freaking Great Recession. But a nation founded on Native American genocide and stolen land by wealthy slaveowners whose initial capital for their capitalism were humans in bondage.

The Stockholm Syndrome mindset of many citizens is inevitable, given that we live in a hyper-capitalist society. One of my favorite genres of music, hip-hop, has a strong penchant for glorifying mindless name-brand consumption and obscene wealth. Yet, many songs have a song sense of unhappiness to them despite their relative wealth. Biggie Smalls said it best, “Mo Money, Mo Problems’. Hip-hop is just a reflection of the culture in which it was created. When you’re an empire baby in the land of haves and have nots, having tons of money seems like the actual road to happiness. And god forbid if some pinko-commie like the Bernie Bros come and tax your hypothetical billions, you’ll have one day. All you have to do is read Rich Dad, Poor Dad one more time. 

In closing, the infamous comedian George Carlin was right about the folly of American’s worship of wealthy people. “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it!” So I’m sorry, folks, none of you will ever be a fucking billionaire!