Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

I recently finished the book the Jungle by Upton Sinclair. I wanted to read this book, first for the socialist agenda that it puts forth. Sinclair made no bones about it. He went to Chicago to make the mantra of the working class. He wanted to expose the truth of “wage slavery” and the evils of Capitalism.

Secondly I thought the brutal subject matter was interesting. It spends a lot of time detailing the brutal work in a Chicago meat packing plant. It is a huge slaughter house and Sinclair provides a very vivid look at the horrible conditions of a 1900s stock yard. I know many read this in school (that amazes me considering how much this book tries to indoctrinate readers and just how downright disturbing it is), but I never got that opportunity.

The story revolves around Jurgis Rudkus and his family. They are Lithuanian, and move to America because they hear that it has better opportunities. When they arrive in Chicago, they do find work and are happy. After time goes by they start to understand why people who live in “Packingtown” are not content with the work in the yards. Through the book Jurgis and his family suffer terrible incidents that kill off several members.

Jurgis loses his job and ends up getting work in other factories, politics, and lives like a tramp for a season. Through all these experiences Sinclair shows the readers how Capitalism corrupts every aspect of American Life. Jurgis ends his journey discovering socialism. Sinclair is able to use Jurgis, an uneducated Lithuanian, to explain his simple truths of socialism.

It is a very moving story. Readers were not as moved by the socialist agenda as they were the horrid conditions of America’s meat packing industry. The book led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which established the Food and Drug Administration.

I highly suggest reading it if you haven’t. It is a very thought provoking story, and lets us look at the ills of the world as it was starting to be industrialized. You can get a copy of the text for free at the project Gutenberg site:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/140

The story to me brings up a couple of subjects that I think we wrestle with as a society. The first is immigration. Jurgis was an immigrant from Lithuania. What the book did not want to examine was why he left for America. There was propaganda distributed by the meat packing industry to get workers in other countries. This was done every time the workers started to unionize and talk of a strike would come.

The issue is why did they want to leave? What was their system? Jurgis left because he was peasant farmer and he wanted to marry Ona. He felt that in America he could up his lot in life. The issue to me is that no matter what happened he never wanted to return to Lithuania. He also left Chicago to bum through America. He went to Texas and Missouri. In St Louis he worked the harvest season and not was mentioned about it being the hell “Packingtown” was.

To me this is where the story did not ring true. If when he returned to Chicago he went to go see his family it would have made more sense, but he didn’t. He just went back to the worst place on earth because he could find work easier there in the winter. Well he should have known that wasn’t true. Why not go to New York, Boston, or stay in Missouri? They couldn’t have been worse.

To say there was nowhere else is disingenuous. He found different work outside the city at local farms but turned it down. I never like the idea that people are screwed with their life. In America we can just go to another area and start over. Too much governing and we could lose the basic freedom to change our situation and station in life. That does not mean we allow devastating conditions in any industry or allow slavery of any human. The issue is that he had already crossed the Atlantic to find new opportunities. Why would he not try other places in America? The west was growing and totally different industries than what he was finding in the Midwest.

The next issue is deplorable working conditions and “wage slavery.” “Wage Slavery” is where people are forced to work long hours to make just enough money to eat and survive. In the book they worked 12 - 14 hours to make enough money to pay rent and eat. Obviously this is unacceptable to most people. No one wants to see people in “the Jungle.” This is what pushes minimum wage. We want people to live with dignity in the US. The push for 8 hours days and OSHA working standards also helps with horrible conditions

The last issue is Capitalism itself. The Jungle revolves around commodities. Food mostly but a lot of the rhetoric at the end was indicting the oil industry, the steel industry and the railroad industry. Most of the thoughts on this will have to wait for another post. This one is getting huge and long winded. I think the book exposes the need for regulation in capitalism. How much though is what should be debated. To go from uncontrolled capitalism to government controlled industry is an extreme shift.

Sinclair tries to further the socialist movement by finding the most disturbing human experience at the time. He succeeded in revealing how bad Capitalism and industry can be unchecked. His solutions appear to be too extreme at the time, and appear to me the same now. I think many of the self proclaimed liberals and progressives today agree with Sinclair even though after a century things have changed.

The question we debate today is if we had too many changes for social justice or not enough. Sinclair lived in a world that was closer to anarchy and was crying out to have some regulation. We don’t live in a US anything like what Jurgis saw.

I'm with stupid!

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/20/news/economy/obama_cabinet_costcutting/?postversion=2009042016

So the President is trying to cut 100 million dollars from the federal budget. Wow don’t hurt yourself considering how small that is compared to the Federal Budget. The problem is that people actually think that matters. Well you got to start some where right? Well when you are competing against 100 million dollars in interest every 2 hours cutting 100 million a year is a joke.

http://www.uwsa.com/us-national-debt.html

Look at the counter. amazing how fast its going up. look how much each of us owe other countries individually. People for some reason don’t understand that we actually have to pay these debts back or we are F*CKED! The Great Depression will be happy fun time. It will be national Katrina. Currently both parties think they can punt this down the road. That has to stop. Republicans and Democrats have to stop this or we need to boot them out of office. They are stealing from us and our children to study frogs in California or refurbish museums.

They are taking wealth from the people of the US to get reelected. Just because people don’t pay income tax under a certain income level doesn’t mean they are not being fleeced in cell phone taxes, gasoline taxes, and many others. These are not just local taxes. They are also federal. The Federal Government has got to get out of local issues. They need to stop taxing and spending so much and let the states and local governments do that. Then people have a real voice on what they want and how its used. If you use my tax money for crap in another state than I had no true representation on that money’s use.

But we need police and fireman so stop complaining about taxes. Hogwash! Most of that money is local taxes. The federal government uses a lot of money to overpay for crap we don’t want or need. Hell the money we send to other countries is mind boggling. People need to stop allowing the media to force them into their partisan box. We have to stop thinking the other side is stupid and work together to get the country back. Get the country to stop seizing your prosperity from you and your children.

Only the rich care about taxes and spending. I know this is not true, but anyone who believes this is cursed to stay a slave to their government and  their station in life. I am not rich and almost 50% of my money is seized from me every year. It is my money. I worked for it. Why should anyone else have claim to it? The answer is usually that I get services for it. Unfortunately most of that money goes to waste and not services. No dice on that argument.

I am a dog lover. I think dogs have a very special relationship with humans. We are very blessed to have such loyal and helpful companions.

Yesterday Glenn Beck had a story about Marcus Luttrell’s Dog. Marcus Luttrell is a Navy Seal who wrote a book “Lone Survivor” about his ordeal in Afghanistan. He was the Lone Survivor of a Taliban attack and then helped by local villagers. After he came back with terrible injuries, he was given a dog to help him recover from his ordeal. He named the dog DASY after the 4 names of the people in his unit.

Last week a group of men were driving around and executing dogs for their amusement. They shot and killed DASY. Marcus was able to chase them through 4 counties and finally stop them so the authorities could capture them. Here is the video from the Glenn Beck Show on Fox News when he spoke to Mr. Luttrell about what had happened.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e93_1239056552

It is disturbing to me that anyone would find killing someones pet (of any species), as entertaining. This can only show a disconnect with the respect for life. If you can kill people’s pets for sh*ts and giggles then you can can kill people as well. Disturbing.

As of right now one of the people who killed his dog is still at large. Hopefully he will be found and punished. PETA, who I have not been a big fan, has offered a $5000 reward for the capture of this low-life. We can only hope justice will be done to these people.

Brian Regan

My family and I went to go see Brian Regan on Saturday at the Cobb Energy Center. We had great seats. We were on the center of the front row on the balcony. The show was fantastic and we could not catch our breath between laughs.

I have seen him live 2 other times. He never fails to bring new material. My family loves his routines. We quote him all the time. We watch every special and DVD. We know his material well and i am amazed at how he is able to fill his performances with 90% new material.

His brother Dennis opened for him. I like Dennis humor as well. Its a little bit different from Brian’s, but it is very funny. The last time we saw Brian live we were not impressed with his opening act. We were happy to see Dennis was opening this time.

The show was sold out. A couple months back we went to see Frank Caliendo at the Cobb Energy Center, and he was only filled about 60% of the venue.

If you have never seen Brian Regan you are truly missing out. He is one of the funnest people alive. He is also clean so you can take your children. Honestly it doesn’t occur to you that he is family friendly because his humor is not juvenile.

There is gloom and doom all around these days. The economy is bad. Lets be honest here. Its really bad. Its worse than the media and the politicians want to admit. So it is truly is scary times.

This is not the first time we have had bad economic times, but for many of us its the first time we have really been impacted by it. In the early 80s and the early 90s we had bad recessions. We lived through them and this one we will live through as well. Losing your job or all your money would be a bitch, but it is not your life. As one of my favorite quotes from Fight Club states, “You are not the contents of your wallet.”

So how do we deal with the current economic situation? By paying down debt and saving money. Sure the economy is fueled by spending, but you have to get in a good financial situation to do so. Don’t believe the idea that if everyone runs out and buys stuff the economy will rebound. It is a lot more complicated. Pay off your debt and/or save. Don’t continue down the road of uncertainty.

You can get great information about getting out of debt from Dave Ramsey. I have been listening and following him for several months and have found a lot more peace in my life knowing that my finances were under control.

I find it lately that I am having information overload. There is so much to process that I feel overwhelmed. From news, traffic, money, work, family, and everything else that we all deal with, I don’t know what I can do to silence the cacophony. I have been playing a lot more guitar lately to try and ease the stress, but it only helps a little.

I need to find a better way to relieve stress. I am not into drugs both legal and illegal. I have taken panic medications in the past after a family tragedy and it didn’t seem to help. I know I have sleep apnea. I have dreams of suffocating and my wife hears me at night stop breathing and then gasp for air. I am also a notorious snorer. Snorer is a strange word, but that’s what I am.

I wonder if I am not alone lately and most people are feeling overwhelmed. Terrible headlines and a real fear of the economy tanking nags at me with everything else going on. I have always been a political junky since Art School. I have changed my thinking over the years but have always been conservative. Socially I am more libertarian. I am just against the government seizing my money and giving it away to people who don’t work. Sure I am all for helpinh people but I have close to 50% of what i make go to taxes. Federal, state, medicare, social security, property tax, sales tax, and on and on. It adds up and I am giving half of what I make to an entity that takes it by threat of force or jail. And we are suppose to be free.

So I am not happy with the way things are going. More help for the irresponsible means less of my money I could save for when I need help. but I am greedy right.

From Dictionary.com:

–adjective
1. appealing to one’s prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one’s intellect or reason.
2. attacking an opponent’s character rather than answering his argument.

I guess it is a part of human nature to engage in ad hominem attacks. It seems to be so easy to argue a point by just discrediting the other debater. it takes the focus off your position and on the messenger of the other argument. It truly is small minded though.

If you are trying to persuade someone then persuade them. Appealing to their prejudices is juvenile at best. It is obvious that your argument can not stand up on its own. Usually ad hominem attacks are caused because people are insecure about their ability to make a valid point.

Next time you find yourself focusing on the person’s past problems or appearance remember that you are not judging the merits of the discussion, which an intelligent person should do, but rather just being led away from the topic.