The Untermenschen

Trey Smith

You must understand, neoliberal capitalism is a heinous belief system. These neoliberal capitalists do not believe in human society, they do not believe they are their brother’s keeper, they don’t believe in the principles of the Magna Carta, the Constitution or The Rights of Man. Neoliberals believe that human beings are a commodity, like bushels of wheat, barrels of oil or broods of pigs. To neoliberals, there is only one right on earth which actually exists – property. To them, all other human rights are just made up play pretties, not worth the paper on which they’re written.

A generation ago the world faced a brutal Fascist regime, which declared by race, some as the masters and others as untermenschen — subhuman. Under neoliberalism, rather than judged by race, you are judged by your wealth. Why do so many in government insist that tax cuts for the rich brings jobs, when all evidence is to the contrary? Because you are untermenschen, you need only be placated by the media circus, while they do as they damn well planned to do all along. George W. Bush lied about 9-11 and lied about Saddam and he walks the streets drawing a fat pension and lucrative speaking fees. Untermensch! You dare to argue with a police officer? You’ll be arrested, tasered or worse.

Rather than building concentration camps, the neoliberalist simply siphoned off the jobs turning whole cities into concentration camps. Millions of Americans left behind, abandoned in the ruins of post industrial combat zones, with drugs and crime as the only prosperous occupations with positions available. Wall Street celebrates success, with all the accouterments, whores and cocaine parties. The President and the Congress pontificate about responsible consumers, not content to simply destroy our economy, they must blame you for it.
~ from If They Were You by David Glenn Cox ~

I share a portion of this fine essay because I keep returning to this notion of "shared sacrifice". It sounds like a fair way to handle things, but the problem is that the only sharing of the sacrifice is borne by the unwashed masses -- the untermenschen -- while the ruling elite continues on with business as usual.

Profits on Wall Street are high. CEO pay continues to go up. When it comes to war and surveillance, the money keeps flowing. All the while, living wage jobs are shrinking and our infrastructure is crumbling beneath our feet. The American middle class is a shell of its former self and millions have been thrown into low wage servitude.

Sooner or later, something has to give. We can't remain on this trajectory forever. This nation is being hollowed from the inside out and one of these days a stiff wind will blow and most of the house of cards will come tumbling down. The weight of this collapse will fall on those of us the elite consider the untermenschen. That weight may be so heavy that many of us won't survive.