"these are the demands of a peasantry, not a working class"

[Remember Me]

This was quite shocking to me, in a very interesting article about the demands of the Occupy folks, as elucidated in the We are the 99% Tumblr blog: http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

Let’s bring up a favorite quote around here. Anthropologist David Graeber cites historian Moses Finley, who identified “the perennial revolutionary programme of antiquity, cancel debts and redistribute the land, the slogan of a peasantry, not of a working class.” And think through these cases. The overwhelming majority of these statements are actionable demands in the form of (i) free us from the bondage of these debts and (ii) give us a bare minimum to survive on in order to lead decent lives (or, in pre-Industrial terms, give us some land). In Finley’s terms, these are the demands of a peasantry, not a working class.

The actual ideology of modernity, broadly speaking, is absent. There isn’t the affluenza of Freddie’s worries, no demands for cheap gas, cheaper credit, giant houses, bigger electronics all under the cynical ”Ownership Society” banner. The demands are broadly health care, education and not to feel exploited at the high-level, and the desire to not live month-to-month on bills, food and rent and under less of the burden of debt at the practical level.

The people in the tumblr aren’t demanding to bring democracy into the workplace via large-scale unionization, much less shorter work days and more pay. They aren’t talking the language of mid-twentieth century liberalism, where everyone puts on blindfolds and cuts slices of pie to share. The 99% looks too beaten down to demand anything as grand as “fairness” in their distribution of the economy. There’s no calls for some sort of post-industrial personal fulfillment in their labor – very few even invoke the idea that a job should “mean something.” It’s straight out of antiquity – free us from the bondage of our debts and give us a basic ability to survive.

more: http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/parsing-the-data-and-ideology-of-the-we-are-99-tumblr/

[Odin2005]

1. K&R

[WingDinger]

2. Jubilee, all you religious freaks. Demands GOD.

[ananda]

3. Interesting...

... considering how so many Americans have been
turned into unemployed or employed serfs.

[Marnie]

4. Big probelm in the first sentance. Peasants don't work?

[Remember Me]

7. If you read the article

you wouldn't have any question about that.

[Nostradammit]

19. Two big "probelms" in your first "sentance"

But yeah, calling someone a peasant does not imply that they don't work.

It means they work for nothing.

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. Perhaps this person should check their history books regarding peasant uprisings.

Occupy isn't a violent revolution, it's trying to prevent one -Occupy slogan

[malthaussen]

6. I think he's trying to show a disconnect

... between the position of Occupy and modern liberalism. It's not a proletarian revolution demanding fairer distribution of increasing resources, it is much more survival-rooted and simple than that. I think that the Democratic Party (and the POTUS in particular) don't get this point: they think Occupy is whining because they aren't getting their "fair share" of the American Dream (r).

There is an old shibboleth that revolutions are the result of rising expectations. The Occupy movement, however, is clearly a result of diminishing expectations. And that is what the PTB just don't get, largely because their expectations know no bounds.

-- Mal

[Remember Me]

8. Well, I'd encourage YOU to read the damn article as well

Or not.

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. Oops. Okay.

[Cleita]

9. Insightful.

True the demands of the counterculture of the sixties weren't about having enough money to pay rent and eat, or about providing safety nets for those who might not be able to keep up the pace of surviving in our society. We had that. They were about fixing the injustices in our society and ending a bogus war that was wasting lives.

Today it's about basic survival and not being taken for a ride legally by the corrupt and criminal institutions that are now dominating our society.

[Fumesucker]

10. For all practical purposes the working class _are_ peasants..

Certainly they are in the minds of their "betters".

[Cleita]

11. Not exactly. Peasants couldn't quit their jobs or move away

unless they were so clever and talented at something that they could break the generational bondage they were under. I have always been working class but back in better days, I could move and change jobs without any real trauma. I don't think that is true today. It's probably even worse today because people are losing their jobs and places to live and there is nothing out there to replace what has been lost.

[midnight]

13. Try and remember this next time a robot on T.V. tells you that austerity measures are neccessary....

And think and ask why the austerity is only neccessary for the 99 percent?

[white_wolf]

14. At least the peasents were guranteed a place to live, the same can't be said of people today.

Wasn't that part of the obligations of nobility?

[jimlup]

15. Excellent point - sometimes it is hard to see the forest for the trees... /nt

[AdHocSolver]

16. A more descriptive term than peasantry might be peons.

According to Wikipedia:

"A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally works land owned or rented by/from a noble, but is classified socioeconomically above a squire with regards to the era. The peasant was bound to the land and could not move or change their occupation unless they became a yeoman (free person), which generally happened by buying their freedom. The peasant also generally had to give most of their crops to the noble."

(Peon) "has a range of meanings but its primary usage is to describe laborers with little control over their employment conditions."

In American usage, "in a historical and legal sense, peon generally only had the meaning of someone working in an unfree labor system (known as peonage). The word often implied debt bondage and/or indentured servitude."

More discussion about peonage:

"Labor was in great need to support the expanding agriculture, mining, industrial, and public-work jobs that arose from conquerors settling in the Americas. To account for these jobs a system came about where creditors forced debtors to work for them. This system of involuntary servitude was called peonage."

"After the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment was added to the United States Constitution, which prohibited involuntary servitude such as peonage for all but convicted criminals."


The U.S. has the largest prison population (many of whom work for private corporations), and probably the highest amount of student debt of any country. Does anyone see a pattern here?

[Umbral]

17. Back in the day, we were known as the 'Proletariat'....

All though I'm damn sure all of us could read.

[alterfurz]

18. descriptive uniform

[Remember Me]

20. Haha. That's rich

Where'd ya get that??

[alterfurz]

21. T-shirt available from cafepress.com

get your cap to match!