This is one of mine and many others favorite cartoons. I like it because Hugh has captured a central truth that most of us recognize.
I have been thinking a lot about this. Last week I had a great conversation about it with Harold Jarche and wonder if you see what we saw in here?
Let's start with the "Losers". Most here know that the game is rigged. They are not stupid. They know that it is not about them, not about customer service. They know that people are not our greatest resource. They know that it not about performance. They know the truth - it is all about THE MAN.
So they support their union if they have one. They get excited about sports, hobbies, their families, life outside work. They do their time at work.
The saddest group, and the most foolish are the managers - the Clueless.
They think that if they work hard, if they get results, if they sacrifice, they will get to join the club at the top and participate in the pot. This is why they are Clueless. That was once true. But has not been so since at least the mid 1980's. They are the most vulnerable because of the price of their misguided aspirations. They send their kids to private daycare and kindergarten. They own homes. They send their kids to university. They buy health care insurance. They expect a pension. All the costs of these items have gone up way above inflation and their real wages. They have borrowed the difference. They are going to wake up in a few years and see the truth. They have been suckered.
For the club at the top is very small. Less than 1% of America owns most of the wealth.
This is now a hereditary system. Where more gets more. Where more marries more. This is France of 1780.
Back in the day, those who ran America could and did rise. But this is rare today. There is an elite channel all the way to the top. The right everything costs more than any aspiring middle class person can afford. The financial world is like the old church. Here the tiny number of the really aggressive can also find their way in.
As in France, it is all about them. They laugh at the idea of paying taxes, participating in the life of the larger nation. Look how many children of the elite serve in the military compared to 50 years ago!
So Hugh's cartoon is not really funny after the first laugh of recognition. It represents a tragedy.
It represents what the Greeks call Themis. Themis was the Goddess of all that is naturally right. We all know what this "right" is. It is the obligation of those in power, parents, politicians, business leaders to ultimately act for the larger good. So this is why incest is so terrible and why children never get over the betrayal. This is why so many vets from Vietnam could never get their lives back - they had been betrayed by their officers' careerism and their nation's disdain.
Themis will be the issue when the American middle class see they they have been taken for a ride. That they have been suckered and manipulated by the Sociopaths.
And when that happens, Themis' sister will arrive. And her name? Nemisis.
When the middle class sees clearly what has happened, watch out.
