The Grapes of Wrath: What's to Come?

"Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won't all be poor. Pray God some day a kid can eat.

"And the associations of owners knew that some day the praying would stop.

"And there's the end."[pg. 326]

I have just finished reading John Steinbeck's novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," for the first time. Yes, there is a reason why I have chosen this book, because I want knowledge about what is to come. Millions of folks worldwide are losing their jobs...all at once. What's to come?

"The Grapes of Wrath" follows the Joad family on their journey of forcible removal of their family from their farmland and they head to California looking for work.

In California, the growers, especially the giant landowners, force down the prices of labor because they know people will work for food (or less) and when you are starving, and when your family is starving, and when your children are starving, most likely you'll work for what you get. What this type of behavior does for the corporations is INCREASE profits. Of course, they have to hire thugs, pay for guns and equipment to keep the PEOPLE down to the levels of starvation, but by gum, they're gonna do it because...most folks aint rich.

Then, of course, folks try to organize and the paid thugs of the wealthy do their job of bringing them down, and that is what happens to the Joad family.

Many MANY human beings died of starvation while the wealthy made out like, well, the bandits that they are.

"...A great owner bought a cannery. And when the peaches and the pears were ripe he cut the price of fruit below the cost of raising it. And as Cannery owner he paid himself a low price for th fruit and kept the price of canned goods up and took his profit. And the little farmers who owned no canneries lost their farms, and they were taken by the great owners, the banks, and the companies who also owed the canneries. As time went on, there were fewer farms. The little farmers moved into town for a while and exhausted their credit, exhausted their friends, their relatives. And then they too went on the highways. And the roads were crowded with men ravenous for work, murderous for work.

"And the companies, the banks worked at their own doom and they did not know it. The fields were fruitful, and starving men moved on the roads. The granaries were full and the children of the poor grew up rachitic, and the pustules of pellagra swelled on their sides. 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, for blacklists, for drilling. On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment."[pg 387-8]

And along with all that comes the issues of today's world. There are not going to be jobs that magically appear. The stimulus is being handled by the wealthy. The banks were given billions to reboot the billions they STUPIDLY squandered.

Rewilding is a good thing to learn. Learn to identify what you can eat around town. Most importantly in my opinion...HELP EACH OTHER!

Not only have their been excesses in inhumanity by the wealthy against the rest of us, there is also a lot of humanity within all of us. There is one tool we can use. Defend yourself, defend the territory, learn to survive, help your friends and family, help each other.

Shusli just pointed out: "Funny how the Mexicans are getting treated like the Okies were treated."

Time to stop fighting each other and help each other instead.