As I read John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” I continue to be startled by the parallels to the present moment in the United States. With just slight alterations — a word or phrase here and there — Steinbeck’s narrative could easily be inserted in a paragraph in an article in any current publication today, without missing a beat.
Steinbeck was writing of the great migration west in 1930s, of dustbowl farmers during the period of the Great Depression and the economic disparities that drove some to starvation while others prospered. What he portrays is a society starkly divided between rich and poor which is not unlike our own today. A society in which wealth’s hugest share floats to top elites while what’s left trickles down, driving the rest more deeply into poverty and homelessness by means of the non-living wages of corporate power.
Then, as now, it was all about jobs. The conditions causing joblessness may not have been the same then as now, but the motivation of elites like the Koch brothers, big bankers, corporate and hedge fund managers, etc. to drive wages down stems from the same profound greed. And the method used to drive wages down was, then as now, to pit the poor against the poor (or, in 2017, to pit the diminishing middle class against the poorer). This is now done on both a national and global scale, of course, pitting foreign workers against domestic workers through trade pacts such as NAFTA, but the method portrayed by Steinbeck is precisely the same.
“And the migrants streamed in on the highways,” Steinbeck wrote, “When there was work for a man, ten men fought for it — fought with a low wage. If that fella’ll work for thirty cents, I’ll work for twenty-five … If he’ll take twenty-five, I’ll do it for twenty … No, me, I’m hungry. I’ll work for fifteen. I’ll work for food. Me, I’ll work for a little piece of meat.”
It was like that, and still is. At a time when the stock market remains high and corporate profits soar to billions while wages remain stagnant, or fall, it’s as if we’re caught in an echo of past events, a cruel déjà vu engineered by politicians and lobbyists (especially of one party) and owners of private interests fattening themselves on the misery and angst of others.
Steinbeck again: “And this was good, for wages went down and prices stayed up. The great owners were glad and they sent out more handbills to bring more people in. And wages went down and prices stayed up. And pretty soon now we’ll have serfs again.”
And then, as now, there was consolidation — acquisitions and mergers to get an even bigger piece of the pie.
And, as if predicting the anger that elevates bigots and egomaniacs and suited crooks to the position of saviors, Steinbeck goes on to give us our current circumstances as a sequel of America past, and for the companies and the banks it worked.
“The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line. And money that might have gone to wages went for gas, for guns, for agents and spies … On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment,” he wrote.
And that anger, coupled with ignorance and hate, is well on its way to splitting the nation apart as demagogues, like lice, prosper. It’s turning us in a direction starkly away from the ideals set down in our Constitution. We’ve seen this turning most starkly in recent weeks as men and women who bathe in wealth seek even more of its power and (as sure as God made little diamonds) are handed roles in a president’s cabinet and brain trust which will consolidate and seal that power: the Trumps, the DeVos’, the Gorsuchs, the Tillersons, and most dangerously, the self-proclaimed Leninist, Steve Bannon.
Being the man our unprepared, uninformed, ego driven and therefore, easily manipulated new president has chosen as his prime consultant, Bannon may get his wish and that may be where we’ll find ourselves in four years — or sooner — proving to many the old saw, “Be careful what you wish for.”
Culleny lives in Shelburne Falls, works in construction, is a singer/songwriter, and has done commentary for National Public Radio.
His email address is jimculleny@comcast.net.