"If Civilization has increased the producing power of the average man, why has it not bettered the lot of the average man? There can be one answer only -- MISMANAGEMENT. Civilization has made possible all manner of creature comforts and heart's delights. In these the average Englishman does not participate. If he shall be forever unable to participate, then Civilization falls. There is no reason for the continued existence of an artifice so avowed a failure. But it is impossible that men should have reared this tremendous artifice in vain. It stuns the intellect. To acknowledge so crushing a defeat is to give the death-blow to striving and progress. One other alternative, and one other only, presents itself. Civilization must be compelled to better the lot of the average man." (London, 314).
Once again we are up against this lie of progress.
Also in this vein, here is a link to George Orwell's essay on Henry Miller, entitled Inside the Whale,
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/essay/insidewhale_1.html
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
More from London's East End...
MORE FROM Jack London's The People of the Abyss
"The unfit and the unneeded! The miserable and despised and forgotten, dying in the social shambles. The progeny of prostitution -- of the prostitution of men and women and children, of flesh and blood, and sparkle and spirit; in brief, the prostitution of labor. If this is the best that civilization can do for the human, then give us howling and naked savagery. Far better to be a people of the wilderness and desert, of the cave and the squatting-place, than to be a people of the machine and the Abyss." (London, 288).
Is London's "howling and naked savagery" a sly comment on
Thomas Hobbes who comments in his book Leviathan (to paraphrase) that life without government is "nasty, brutish and short?"
I also came across a couple of poems by the English poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold, and one specifically about the East End.
After skimming through a fairly comprehensive Wikipedia article on The East End of London, I believe my next purchase will be a book by the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, entitled In Darkest England and the Way Out
.
"The unfit and the unneeded! The miserable and despised and forgotten, dying in the social shambles. The progeny of prostitution -- of the prostitution of men and women and children, of flesh and blood, and sparkle and spirit; in brief, the prostitution of labor. If this is the best that civilization can do for the human, then give us howling and naked savagery. Far better to be a people of the wilderness and desert, of the cave and the squatting-place, than to be a people of the machine and the Abyss." (London, 288).
Is London's "howling and naked savagery" a sly comment on
Thomas Hobbes who comments in his book Leviathan (to paraphrase) that life without government is "nasty, brutish and short?"
I also came across a couple of poems by the English poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold, and one specifically about the East End.
After skimming through a fairly comprehensive Wikipedia article on The East End of London, I believe my next purchase will be a book by the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, entitled In Darkest England and the Way Out
.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
More from The People of The Abyss...
"The application of the Golden Rule determines that East London is an unfit place in which to live. Where you would not have your own babe live, and develop, and gather to itself knowledge of life and the things of life, is not a fit place for the babes of other men to live, and develop, and gather to themselves knowledge of life and the things of life. It is a simple thing, this Golden Rule, and all that is required. Political economy and the survival of the fittest can go hang if they say otherwise. What is not good enough for you is not good enough for other men, and there's no more to be said." (London, 212-213).
Here is a link to the full text of the book, including pictures, online:
http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/PeopleOfTheAbyss/
Here is a link to the full text of the book, including pictures, online:
http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/PeopleOfTheAbyss/
Friday, May 16, 2008
London's East End of the 1900s
I'm currently reading The People of the Abyss by Jack London. I came across this book after having previously stumbled upon George Orwell's book Down and Out in Paris and London, and then having found out from a friend that Orwell was inspired to write the book by having read this book by Jack London growing up.
Surprising how persistent and identical the problems of poverty have been, perhaps unchanged since the start of industrial capitalism. The book has the tone of a documentary, but a sad and heartbreaking one at that. London effectively relates the tales of the "vast and malodorous sea" which he encounters upon submersing himself in the East End of London. I'd like to quote the following from the book, regarding the "efficiency," or lack thereof of workers, and the effect this inefficiency has on people falling into "The Abyss":
"It must be understood that efficiency is not determined by the workers themselves, but is determined by the demand for labor. If three men seek one position, the most efficient man will get it. The other two, no matter how capable they may be, will none the less be inefficients. If Germany, Japan, and the United States should capture the entire world market for iron, coal and textiles, at once the English workers would be thrown idle by hundreds of thousands. Some would emigrate, but the rest would rush their labor into the remaining industries. A general shaking up of the workers from top to bottom would result; and when equilibrium had been restored, the number of the inefficients at the bottom of the Abyss would have been increased by hundreds of thousands. On the other hand, conditions remaining constant and all the workers doubling their efficiency, there would still be as many inefficients, though each inefficient were twice as capable as he had been and more capable than many of the efficients had previously been.
When there are more men to work than there is work for men to do, just as many men as are in excess of work will be inefficients, and as inefficients they are doomed to lingering and painful destruction. It shall be the aim of future chapters to show, by their work and manner of living, not only how the inefficients are weeded out and destroyed, but to show how inefficients are being constantly and wantonly created by the forces of industrial society as it exists to-day." (London 200-201).
It's still the same sham being pulled on us today. No one realizes it because they don't bother to look beneath the surface, to turn off the television set and the biased flow of brainwash they feed us through the media. Question government statistics.
London, Jack. The People of the Abyss. New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1993.
Surprising how persistent and identical the problems of poverty have been, perhaps unchanged since the start of industrial capitalism. The book has the tone of a documentary, but a sad and heartbreaking one at that. London effectively relates the tales of the "vast and malodorous sea" which he encounters upon submersing himself in the East End of London. I'd like to quote the following from the book, regarding the "efficiency," or lack thereof of workers, and the effect this inefficiency has on people falling into "The Abyss":
"It must be understood that efficiency is not determined by the workers themselves, but is determined by the demand for labor. If three men seek one position, the most efficient man will get it. The other two, no matter how capable they may be, will none the less be inefficients. If Germany, Japan, and the United States should capture the entire world market for iron, coal and textiles, at once the English workers would be thrown idle by hundreds of thousands. Some would emigrate, but the rest would rush their labor into the remaining industries. A general shaking up of the workers from top to bottom would result; and when equilibrium had been restored, the number of the inefficients at the bottom of the Abyss would have been increased by hundreds of thousands. On the other hand, conditions remaining constant and all the workers doubling their efficiency, there would still be as many inefficients, though each inefficient were twice as capable as he had been and more capable than many of the efficients had previously been.
When there are more men to work than there is work for men to do, just as many men as are in excess of work will be inefficients, and as inefficients they are doomed to lingering and painful destruction. It shall be the aim of future chapters to show, by their work and manner of living, not only how the inefficients are weeded out and destroyed, but to show how inefficients are being constantly and wantonly created by the forces of industrial society as it exists to-day." (London 200-201).
It's still the same sham being pulled on us today. No one realizes it because they don't bother to look beneath the surface, to turn off the television set and the biased flow of brainwash they feed us through the media. Question government statistics.
London, Jack. The People of the Abyss. New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1993.
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