Business men say
that because everybody is selfish
business must necessarily
be based on selfishness.
But when business
is based on selfishness
everbody is busy
becoming more selfish.
And when everybody is busy
becoming more selfish,
you have classes and clashes.
Business men create problems;
they do not solve them.
A politician is an artist
in the art of following the wind
of public opinion.
He who follows the wind
of public opinion
does not follow
his own judgement.
And he who does not follow
his own judgement
cannot lead people
out of the beaten path.
He is like the tail of a dog
that tries to lead the head.
When people stand behind their president
and their president
stands behind them
they and their president
go around in a circle
getting nowhere.
Politicians used to say:
“We make prosperity
through our wise policies.”
Business men used to say:
“We make prosperity
through our private enterprise.”
The workers did not have anything to say
about the matter;
They were either put to work
or thrown out of employment
And when unemployment came
the workers
had no recourse
against the professed makers
of prosperity,
politicians and business men.
Next Sunday I’ll be starting a new series of posts from the words of Peter Maurin,replacing “Today’s Debs” as a weekly feature of this blog. Surely, Gentle Reader(s), you must be wondering who this Peter Maurin bloke is, and why he’s taking over for the great Gene Debs, and I’m here to tell you.
Peter Maurin was the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Very little biographical information is known about him (his Wikipedia entry gives you a sense of just how slim the pickings are), in fact, very little is know about him at all, except that he dropped in at the home of friends where Dorothy Day was staying, started talking to her and didn’t stop until she agreed to start a paper called the Catholic Worker (he wanted to call it the Catholic Radical, she insisted on the “Worker” because of the resonance with the Communist Party’s Daily Worker).
Maurin was a weird guy by all accounts, with questionable personal hygiene, the propensity to lecture at great length whether or not it was desired, and the habit of appearing or disappearing like a ninja. His lasting legacy (aside from the Catholic Worker movement) is a series of short poems he wrote called “Easy Essays.” I’ll be posting one of those a week.
The stye of Maurin’s Easy Essays is pretty unique – basically a string of one-liners with little or no transition in between. Maurin thought they would be easily accessible to the “common man,” but the truth is they’re challenging to digest. Still, he comes up with some pretty good zingers that make it all worth it…
The capitalist employer has very wisely adapted himself and his interests to the changed conditions resulting from this industrial development. He is not only thoroughly equipped with all of the latest means of production, but he is organized in an ironclad corporation, which furnishes a magnificent illustration of capitalist solidarity. There are no craft union divisions and weaknesses in his armor when it comes to facing his hereditary enemy, the exploited worker. He is thoroughly united, class-conscious, and his battery consists of the latest 16-inch guns; whereas the tattered and half-starved workers that confront him under craft union leadership still use the flintlock and blunderbuss of their ancestors, in waging their warfare against starvation and slavery.
from “Getting Together“
This seemed appropriate. Long but worth it…
The labor movement in the United States, in proportion to the working class, is the weakest and most backward in the world. Most workers belong to something in the way of a labor union or a labor party, but there is utter lack of coherency and clarity and unity of aim and purpose when it comes to organization, economic and political, as a whole.
from “Why Are We Not Stronger?“
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free…
I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.
from “Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act“
Beware of the liveried hypocrites of the landlords, the usurers, the money-changers, the stock-gamblers, the exploiters, the enslavers and despoilers of the people; beware of the ruling class politicians and preachers and mercenary menials in every form who are so profoundly concerned about your “patriotism” and your “religion” and who receive their 30 pieces for warning you against socialism because it will endanger your morality and interfere with your salvation.
from “Politicians and Preachers“