Another Long One
Chapter 20
All day long his man would toil thus, his whole being centered upon the purpose of making twenty-three instead of twenty-two and a half cents an hour; and then his product would be reckoned up by the census taker, and jubilant captains of industry would boast of it in their banquet halls, telling how our workers are nearly twice as efficient as those of any other country. If we are the greatest nation the sun ever shone upon, it would seem to be mainly because we have been able to goad our wage-earners to this pitch of frenzy; though there are a few other things that are great among us including our drink-bill, which is a billion and a quarter of dollars a year, and doubling itself every decade.
Everything I’ve read/come across about the particular American paradigm is that we tend to work harder and play harder than almost anyone else. The drag-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps attitude that anything is possible through hard work and our massive consumption of alcohol seem to be two of our defining characteristics as a nation.
Chapter 22
. . . to be suddenly set loose beneath the open sky, to behold new landscapes, new places, and new people every hour! . . . and to now be his own master, working as he pleased and when he pleased, and facing a new adventure every hour! . . . What with plenty to eat and fresh air and exercise that was taken as it pleased him, he would waken from his sleep and start off not knowing what to do with his energy, stretching his arms, laughing, singing old songs of home that came back to him. . . . He never asked where he was nor where he was going; the country was big enough, he knew, and there was no danger of his coming to the end of it.
Did these passages make anyone else want to become a hobo?
Chapter 23
All of this might seem diabolical, but the saloon-keeper was in no wise to blame for it. He was in the same plight as the manufacturer who has to adulterate and misrepresent his product. If he does not, some one else will; and the saloonkeeper, unless he is also an alderman, is apt to be in debt to the big brewers, and on the verge of being sold out.
Chapter 24
He saw the world of civilization then more plainly than ever he had seen it before; a world in which nothing counted but brutal might, an order devised by those who possessed it for the subjugation of those who did not. . . . He had lost in the fierce battle of greed, and so was doomed to be exterminated; and all society was busied to see that he did not escape the sentence.
Chapter 25
Since it was Jurgis' first experience [of mugging], these details naturally caused him some worriment; but the other laughed coolly--it was the way of the game, and there was no helping it. Before long Jurgis would think no more of it than they did in the yards of knocking out a bullock. "It's a case of us or the other fellow, and I say the other fellow every time," he observed.
"Still," said Jurgis, reflectively, "he never did us any harm."
"He was doing it to somebody as hard as he could, you can be sure of that," said his friend.
Each of these three passages illustrates in my mind the harmful attitude that develops in the face of a competitive world. The idea that I have to cheat, rob, and steal to keep up because everyone else is. It’s really not that bad that I do so, because I’m just being like everyone else. And, in fact, I have to be better at it than them to really get ahead. There is no thought given to helping others or even the pain I might be causing them, because they will hurt me in the same way if given the same chance.
All day long his man would toil thus, his whole being centered upon the purpose of making twenty-three instead of twenty-two and a half cents an hour; and then his product would be reckoned up by the census taker, and jubilant captains of industry would boast of it in their banquet halls, telling how our workers are nearly twice as efficient as those of any other country. If we are the greatest nation the sun ever shone upon, it would seem to be mainly because we have been able to goad our wage-earners to this pitch of frenzy; though there are a few other things that are great among us including our drink-bill, which is a billion and a quarter of dollars a year, and doubling itself every decade.
Everything I’ve read/come across about the particular American paradigm is that we tend to work harder and play harder than almost anyone else. The drag-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps attitude that anything is possible through hard work and our massive consumption of alcohol seem to be two of our defining characteristics as a nation.
Chapter 22
. . . to be suddenly set loose beneath the open sky, to behold new landscapes, new places, and new people every hour! . . . and to now be his own master, working as he pleased and when he pleased, and facing a new adventure every hour! . . . What with plenty to eat and fresh air and exercise that was taken as it pleased him, he would waken from his sleep and start off not knowing what to do with his energy, stretching his arms, laughing, singing old songs of home that came back to him. . . . He never asked where he was nor where he was going; the country was big enough, he knew, and there was no danger of his coming to the end of it.
Did these passages make anyone else want to become a hobo?
Chapter 23
All of this might seem diabolical, but the saloon-keeper was in no wise to blame for it. He was in the same plight as the manufacturer who has to adulterate and misrepresent his product. If he does not, some one else will; and the saloonkeeper, unless he is also an alderman, is apt to be in debt to the big brewers, and on the verge of being sold out.
Chapter 24
He saw the world of civilization then more plainly than ever he had seen it before; a world in which nothing counted but brutal might, an order devised by those who possessed it for the subjugation of those who did not. . . . He had lost in the fierce battle of greed, and so was doomed to be exterminated; and all society was busied to see that he did not escape the sentence.
Chapter 25
Since it was Jurgis' first experience [of mugging], these details naturally caused him some worriment; but the other laughed coolly--it was the way of the game, and there was no helping it. Before long Jurgis would think no more of it than they did in the yards of knocking out a bullock. "It's a case of us or the other fellow, and I say the other fellow every time," he observed.
"Still," said Jurgis, reflectively, "he never did us any harm."
"He was doing it to somebody as hard as he could, you can be sure of that," said his friend.
Each of these three passages illustrates in my mind the harmful attitude that develops in the face of a competitive world. The idea that I have to cheat, rob, and steal to keep up because everyone else is. It’s really not that bad that I do so, because I’m just being like everyone else. And, in fact, I have to be better at it than them to really get ahead. There is no thought given to helping others or even the pain I might be causing them, because they will hurt me in the same way if given the same chance.
posted by Degolar at 3:40 PM
1 Comments:
I wanted to be a hobo when I read about Jurgis traveling on trains and uprooting lemon trees. I sort of hoped he would be like this for a while, and the book would end like that.
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