Last week the world-renowned political scholar Joseph Biden reminded us of the danger to democracy down the ages from political garbage. Said he, after years of careful research and deep philosophical reflection:
The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters[.]
Meaning Trump’s supporters.
As a political scholar, of course, Biden knows that political garbage has been a problem for most of the past millennium.
In the United States, the problem of political garbage emerged early in the phenomenon of White Trash. There’s even a book about it: White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg. And I must say that I was shocked by the book. It inspired me to create my own Narrative about the founding of America, “My 1584 Project.”
And now the unthinkable has happened, with the son of White Trash, JD Vance, nominated as Vice President.
Did you know that the first shipload of “waste population” from England arrived off our shores in 1584, a full three decades before the racist arrival in 1619 of the first shipload of African slaves?
Here’s the story of political garbage in America, that I’m sure historian Joseph Biden can confirm if he can spare a moment from his busy research schedule.
It all started in Britland, in about 1200 CE, when the feudal system started to break down and the “enclosure movement” began. Wikipedia:
Enclosure or inclosure[a] is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of “waste”[b] or “common land”[c], enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege.
On the other hand, there was this:
Many farms were bought by yeomen who enclosed their property and improved their use of the land. More secure control of the land allowed the owners to make innovations that improved their yields.
Other enclosures were made by big landowners who grazed sheep on their enclosed property, kicking Black Death of 1346-53. The destitute wandered around, outlaws and brigands, celebrated in legends like Robin Hood, who, as we all know, prevented the Sheriff of Nottingham from solving the squirrel problem.
At some point, experts began devising comprehensive and mandatory programs to solve the “waste population” problem. And what could be easier than shipping the garbage off to the wastes of North America? Naturally, the White Trash would pay for their passage with years of indentured servitude in The Waste Land. Shipowners can’t work for nothing.
What fun it all was! The Guardians of the Pejorative had a field day playing the garbage card. Who knew that, way before garbage collection was mechanized by garbage trucks, there was such a great variety of garbage. According to Nancy Isenberg, the garbage included:
Waste people. Offscourings. Lubbers. Bogtrotters. Rascals. Rubbish. Squatters. Crackers. Clay-eaters. Tuckies. Mudsills. Scalawags. Briar hoppers. Hillbillies. Low-downers. White [n-word]. Degenerates. White trash. Rednecks. Trailer trash. Swamp people.
Really, our current pejorative favorites like “bitter clingers… deplorables… garbage” ain’t got nothing on the slurs of the olden time. Scholars agree that’s because today’s tippy-top leaders aren’t up to the level of the leaders of the olden time, philosophers Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris excepted.
Back when I first posted “My 1584 Project” and its list of White Trash pejoratives on Blogger I published “White [n-word]” unredacted. Pretty soon I got an email from Google telling me that my post had been disabled for violation of its “Google Publisher Policies.” Said Google:
We do not allow content that:
incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.
After I removed the unredacted [n-word] Google re-enabled my post. It’s good to know that pejoratives like “Bogtrotters. Rascals. Rubbish… White trash. Rednecks. Trailer trash” do not constitute an incitement of hatred, according to the scholars at Google.
It’s odd, isn’t it, that all the White Trash pejoratives are insults directed at the bottom of the status hierarchy. Really? You would think that the big problem has always been garbage elites: kings, emperors, princes, landowners. And in our own day we have corrupt leaders of city machines, secret police, dictators, and greedy bankers.
Down the ages, of course, the big problem in improving social hygiene has always been how to take the garbage elite to the landfill. There are all kinds of options: elections, peaceful protests, marches, riots, insurrections, rebellions, revolutions, civil wars.
Which one should we choose?
Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill blogs at The Commoner Manifesto and runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.
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