The sad part is our societal pressures and molds are fucking ingrained in us. On some level we derive pleasure from being better and that ain't always bad. It can push us to improve ourselves but it's what creates Beverly hills and the ghettos people make "hood pranks" about. Honestly, that shit’s fucking sad. We're either demonized as trash for politicians to sound tough, we’re there for politicians to take a seat and fucking sit on their asses for decades while toting what they did 50 years ago as proof for why the past 20 years of their service in inner cities wasn’t awful, or we’re just a fucking punchline for suburban people to get some reaction,views and money (youtube hood pranks). The caricature and politicization without regard to the factors behind the problems do nothing to stop the ghettos’ problems.
For the second example, look at Elijah Cummings. All credit due for what he did in the 60s but he hasn't done shit since. This man even had his fucking home broke into and robbed a couple months before his death and he refused to do anything about it here as a fucking public official and lawmaker. He then died and we all jerked off to him for what he did over 50 years ago. Then, I think about all the fucking activists who were killed. We all know the names: MLK, Malcolm X, Huey, Tupac, and I think maybe they would have ended up like him and just lost the will to continue. Perhaps, they’d just feel they’re done and basically retire in fucking work? Is the ghetto just eternally fucked when everyone got that mentality? They’re just content with doing the job as low grade as possible because no one else's there to represent us? They’re just saying “fuck it”?
It’s not like I’m saying we’re the victims. We are one of the victims but honestly every class of people are victims and oppressors of someone else in some way. We fuck ourselves on a daily basis. We are our own oppressors. We grinding every day to survive and we hurt each other to survive a little better. So in that way the bitch made guys are at the lowest in the fucking totem pole and yeah it’s the same in prison. Man, I fucking tell people prison is just highly crowded street shit except the only goal is surviving and no slanging or nothing. It’s especially sad when we convince ourselves that we’re doing better because the other guy’s doing worse and we fucking fail to see it’s the same shit the higher you fucking go.
In a way I see the suburban class as something of a middle child. They live rather comfortably but not lavishly which irritates them. They're not grinding and surviving really but they ain’t throwing money either. They're surface level content with sitting on the couch playing whatever fps they play, studying for whatever test they got all the resources to fucking ace, and thinking about how they’re gonna talk to people in their clean nice school or college or workplace. While that’s fucking nice, it’s also stagnant. They're stuck which is why you got so many in the suburbs trying to act all "hood" for seriousness while in their living rooms because they wanna feel badass. We see this with mobster movies so it’s less about poverty necessarily and more about that sense of surviving purpose that brotherhood bond gives (hood love or the mafia code). Essentially, it serves as the escape from stagnancy that they feel oppressed them in their position in the hierarchy. Therefore, in that way, suburban people characterize themselves as ones with struggles because they hate their stagnancy and at least they're better than the hood savages so they feel they deserve a spot in Beverly Hills. After all, they shouldn't toil in the repetition and just experience the fantasies of those in lower classes than them through a screen. After all, “I'm always better than the lower guy and shit still feels bad so it’s unfair.”
For the hood, it’s that “we're harder than the weak guys here who couldn't last and we’re still poor so we deserve a shot at some fucking dough for our blood and troubles.” For rich people, it's that “we're better than the lowly hood savages or the boring suburban stickups but we feel lonely despite our excess because people only want us for our money.” “Can’t we have genuine relationships?” is what the lower two classes in the rich person's mind seem to have more of. It’s a fucked up cycle that reinforces the victim and oppressor mentality wherever you are so people can't show empathy for other classes of people because it’s seen as a "You don't got my problems and/or “I deserve better because I'm better than you socially and financially" type deal. Therefore, we get a society that's totally broken apart from each other finding itself chasing its fucking tail and chasing different tails altogether.
At the end of the day we're all at fucking fault for this because we all victimize ourselves and express contempt for people perceived as below us while simultaneously wanting whatever those people have. It’s that hood love or that perceived (mostly fake) brotherhood that’s also poverty-stricken and frequently violent, or that comfy ass suburban life with the clean ass safe places that is also probably stagnant and depressing as hell with the 9 to 5. After all, it feels like they’re getting nowhere and being bored out of their mind where they gotta escape by living through the realities of other in the comfort of their own home. We can see the amazing excess in rich life with everything materialistic that they would want. It shows it’s about as impersonal as it gets with them being surrounded by highly materialistic people who just want real bonds, like how people see street or hood nigga love or mobster brotherhood.
Ironically, it’s about as opposite and polar as it gets when it comes to social and financial status yet the highest class desires something from the lowest class and that fucking eats them up inside because even with all the fancy shit, they lack that something and so it goes round and round. Similarly, we accuse the other of having what we don’t have and jeer at them for not having what we have. We feign empathy to a class in order to gain power (rich politicians pretend to care about the hood for black votes, rich politicians pretend to care about middle class suburban people for those middle america votes) so we can two time fuck society while the suburban people hate the hood for being leeches and the hood hates suburban people for being fucking elitist. It’s truly a soulless cycle of greed and falseness and accusations through and through.
There are good examples like in Black Lagoon: Second Barrage. Rock's internal struggle on whether to go back to stagnant suburban life or stay with the thrill of the Black Lagoon Company is prevalent throughout the show. Ultimately, his belief that his life has more meaning than an office job causes him to join the criminals even when his middle class tendencies keep him on shaky moral glass. Rock is essentially what many middle class people want to be when they watch snazzy mobster or scammer movies. The anime runs with that with Rock having his morals tested by Revy, a hardened criminal who lives a life of freedom and ghetto excess (merge of elite and poor) but he wants to straddle the line between his middle class life and the merge between ghetto and excess. Revy's confrontation over the grave robbing highlights in no uncertain terms the stark contrast in outlooks between two people of completely different backgrounds and values. What would look absolutely amazing through the safety of a screen becomes much more harrowing as moral lines continue to be tested with the nonchalant murders of the disturbed twins because it was just business. Rock's return to middle class Japan while on an errand by his criminal boss brings back memories and uncertainty. He sees the sheltered children play with guns like gangsters with Revy and he's surprised when he sees Revy, someone who he thought was the opposite of the calm normal middle class play with the kids. Revy is surprised too as while the viewer always assumes someone working a dull existence would love to go guns blazing in a world different than their own, far less recognize the value of the opposite. Of how returning to a so-called dull existence can be life affirming when the knowledge of that crazy lifestyle is mixed with that child-like innocence of the kids playing around. Rock's inevitable choice between two feet in the underworld or two feet in middle class Japan with no half measures as the bloody gang war between Balalaika and the yakuza intensifies, is a slap in the face of escapism. What he thought would be so damn refreshing before has slowly taken a turn culminating in his conversation with Yukio, the yakuza princess embroiled in it all and the deaths that occur at that time. Black Lagoon breaks apart the structured classes of society we blindly follow to preserve ignorance, never letting the viewer settle in his/her prejudices.
However, the negativity exemplified by society in how it handles class relations is shown by how after almost 30 years since Gotti and his crime empire were taken down, people are still fucking obsessed. That movie Gotti came out and i ask just why? It can’t be just history and badass guns. Nah it’s power fantasy and wanting to live the dangerous hectic brotherhood life through the screen. If the writers wanted to be real, they'd show some fat fucks in italy extorting some small businesses but they don't show that. They just show the whackings and show these guys making these cheesy fucking quips about them in the accent. In that way you got the rich and middle class living through something thats part ghetto due to the brotherhood aspect but everyone's fucking rich so its elite. It’s basically the best of both worlds for its target audience which is the middle class. People watching it can pretend to be everything they're not without feeling the hatred they have for the other 2 classes because its fucking sanitized. All of it is shown as cool because even with the betrayal, the actual consequences aren't shown. What ripples? Nah you just see someone get whacked and on to the next scene with the whole thing being as legitimized as possible. It’s surprisingly similar to The Wolf of Wall Street. The initially close knit brotherhood of Stratton Oakmont and the fact that everyone's fucking rich, makes it everything the middle class isn’t which is why they fucking love it. The opposite of stagnancy is the brotherhoods’ inspiration of passion and tension coupled with the excess wealth and snazz making it look awesome. The self hate expressed with the FBI agent feeling like shit going home on a crowded subway while Belfort plays tennis in prison with his “cool” monologue really brings this home. Truthfully, it’s all a temporary highly distorted image.
From this, we can see hood love or mobster code might look like that initially but there’s no honor among the selfish whether they’re rich or poor. There’s no such thing as selfish individually but selfless as a group.That just doesn’t coincide with reality yet that’s lost on people when they rave about how amazing these guys are and even attend their motivational speaking tours or buy into their lies in their mixtapes. Both the poor and middle class are fucked by this yet they attack and divide each other because they’re so focused on their differences. It’s really just your average joe and hood nigga being unable to realize that this is the reality or them just having a distinct lack of caring to try more. In that sense, the comfy ass suburban life might look appealing but with nothing to work towards besides cardboard cutout people at work and a 9 to 5, the stagnancy sucks joy and brings depression. It’s a complete detachment from people who are not like them where the only way they can experience their lives are tailored by the rich in the depiction of the rich and the poor in the depiction of the poor. As far as the poor go, it’s simply nonstop depiction of an idealized version of the ghetto. It’s just propaganda so people don’t change. The only thing people are being exposed to from people not like them is sanitized biased propaganda since no one seems to want to actually engage with someone unlike them. Everyone’s fucking embarrassed of who they are so they obfuscate and accuse.
The excess of the wealthy lifestyle of being able to have anything they want sounds really fucking appealing but as a consequence, they really lose any sense of genuineness in bonds. Money can’t replace human emotions after all. It’s the middle class magnified so the pleasure they get when they get bored of excess is through greed and control whether it’s grabbing political control like the Koch Brothers or seizing financial control causing the 2008 crash and then attempting to exploit the situation and move on business as usual. There are many more examples but I'll keep it relatively concise. All of these factors are used to compensate for the hollowness just like how sitting on the sofa consuming entertainment 24/7 compensates for the grueling stagnation of life or how slanging with niggas and doing dumb shit with them compensates for the poverty. Escapism is a key component of life regardless of status and so criticisms of escapism to one specific group without self awareness just shows ignorance and lack of self reflection.
There’s nothing perfect about any of us in whatever position we're in. We got glaring flaws because we bring those flaws as humans and much of it is due to the environment we were born in. I would fucking know. Furthermore, it’s because of those same flaws that we go after people who look or act different because that difference might be something we’ve been missing in our lives. We bring out the worst of us in that regard and just fucking magnify it.
Honestly, I think as the differences between people grow, what I've described will get more magnified and if shit doesn't change, we'll eat each other metaphorically. The ones with most power will "win" but what's the use of life after that? After all, much of our worth,like it or not, is decided by our value to others. An employee's worth is his value to his employer because whether we like it or not, without those checks he's homeless. However, worth can also come in love or trust or anything that’s substantial. Just pick two different positions that are connected with each other and you'll see how worth has such an important pervading effect. Consequently, the power that "wins" would just fade away. It ain’t gonna be like the movie Elysium where you’re either poor or rich because in reality it’s the middle class that builds a society and its infrastructure. They’re establishing the backbone. Without them, the poor would try to reach middle class but without any resources due to it being all usurped by the rich elite, they'd die out and/or stay poor, leaving the rich elite with no source of income. If they were smart, they'd help the poor reach the middle class just so the middle class could create in order to fund the elite's lifestyle. Elysium paints a childish ignorant look into society feeding into already established prejudices. Truthfully,I think that’s what we gotta do now, not when shit is already done and that’s the last hope but now. We can’t just quarantine ourselves in our respective places. It ain’t sustainable because our house continues to become more and more divided, thus hastening its inevitable fall. I don't fucking want that.
↧