The People

In my youth, when I thought of "the People" I thought of the ending of the film Grapes of Wrath with Ma Joad's inspired "we're the people" speech, a proclamation of survival and victory for the dispossessed against great odds. "The people" was the labor movement, all the men and women put to work in FDR's New Deal, "the people" were a part of the progressive end of the political spectrum.

With the rise of a strong middle class, with more and more people having possessions and a lifestyle they didn't want to lose, the fabric of "the people" began to change. I witnessed this dramatically during an outdoor Labor Day performance of my labor play 1934: Blood and Roses at a Longshoremen's union picnic. The play generated a heated controversy between generations, older union members, some of whom participated in the 1934 General Strike, on one end, saying the play was too safe; younger union members on the other, saying the play was commie propaganda. The fathers and the sons were at it again (i.e. Norman Brown)! The new generation of labor seemed not to appreciate the incredible battles and sacrifices that led to their present well-being. "The people" was different from the days of the Joads.

The trouble with any definition of "the people" is that it belies the diversity, and growing diversity, that should be the country's strength. Whites mean one thing, blacks another, immigrants another, when they invoke "the people" at their political rallies.

I've always appreciated our constitutional protections of dissent and individual expression. I've always appreciated the "majority of one" concept of Thoreau. This often gets lost in the heat of political debate today. Perhaps no movements more than advertising and marketing have done as much damage to our appreciation of minority opinions. "A majority of one" is the worst kind of consumer. You market to the masses, not to the fringes of taste. More and more in the culture, minority anything gets ignored and dismissed as insignificant.

In politics today, a 55-45 victory is talked about as if it were a landslide. It's a decisive victory. The minority of 45% loses, period, it's a mandate to the other side.

And even as I write, a TV is advertising a new book, Become a Green Millionaire. There you have it. Ah me, there you have it.

Fortunately, I'm an old man, not a young man. I remember it wasn't always this way.