Ramona, Rosanne, and other Working Class Heroes

Where have all the working class heroes in pop culture gone? I remember as a child and teen watching Roseanne. I loved that show. The family lives in a modest home, they worry about money, wear flannel shirts, and they hang out at the Lobo. And Ramona Quimby, remember her? I've been reading my daughters those books by Beverly Cleary, and while I remember the stories from my childhood, it just occurred to me that they are working class, too. Money is always an issue in their household, the father smokes, and the kids sing "ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall." 

Now I'm not suggesting that stereotypical behaviors should be a determinant of which class a person belongs to, but television and stories develop their characters to be consistent with their other identifiers. I grew up with these, in the 80's, and loved them...I could relate to them. 

But look at what's on t.v. these days. Rich people with problems; and not money problems. Even the childrens' programming shows well-dressed children, living in cul-de-sacs, with parents who make enough money to take them on vacation, or have a separate vacation home, their vehicles never break down, and they never mention bankruptcy or working conditions. 

Roseanne worked in a factory and there were several episodes where she confronted her boss about the working conditions. Ramona is conscious of the fact that her father is without work, which means no dinners out for a while. It seems to me that even at the height of the Reagan era, there was a modicum of class consciousness in the media. But something has changed.

Now people watch Desperate Housewives and believe that's how they should live (in a material sense). People watch My Wife and Kids and think that most African Americans are comfortably middle class. The plight of the working class and working poor has been erased from the media and people have forgotten that there are still Roseannes and Ramonas out there who are constantly aware of their poverty or potential for poverty. 

Where is the working class programming now? Where are the books about children who live with the constant fear of not having enough money to pay the bills? Media may be another opiate that Marx didn't foresee. As long as people identify with the upper middle class characters that are on t.v. and in books, these days, they are given an opportunity to pretend their economic position is better than it is.

They Called it ’Manifest Destiny’

Another one I wrote in college: 


We’ve seen many examples, in history and today, of powerful groups using God and the Bible as an excuse to oppress others, commit genocide, justify exploitative capitalism, and other atrocities. There was the Inquisition, the Crusades, and I want to talk about Manifest Destiny and the expansion of whites into the plains of the U.S. 


These "pioneers" actually quoted verses from the Bible in order to support their perceived right to expand, colonize, and make a profit. (Hitler and Bush have done that, too). In fact, the U.S. can easily be compared to a theocracy. This is one of the precursers to the modern ideology whose slogan  is "God Bless America". It is a very egotistical, ethnocentric concept to believe that out of all the countries in the world, the United States has some sort of special blessing on it that gives it permission to engage in all sorts of unspeakable horrors against minority groups in order to fulfill its so-called destiny.


 Did God bless the genocide of Native Americans, the displacement of the Lakota in order to rape the earth of gold, how about Vietnam, or Iraq, etc? Is this the kind of god that teaches love and sister/brotherhood? Is this the kind of god you want to worship? So, with "God" on their side, these conquerors of the western United States seized land from the Natives, used their missionaries to purge the Natives of their culture and language, stealing children from their parents in the process, and ripped apart the Black Hills and other western mountain areas to pursue a "shiny rock" (as my friend Adam calls it) whose value is a social construction. How do modern Christians reconcile their beliefs with the blatant misuse of their god’s name? Do they accept it? Do they see it as a mistake that’s been redressed? Or do they even think about it? I would like to hear from Christians and capitalists.


 Let me know what is so blessed about Manifest Destiny. I would also like to hear from those of you who are aware of this phenomenon and see it for what it really is.  

Michel Foucault and Bentham’s Panopticon

This blog was written circa 2007-08:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with sociological theorists, Michel Foucault was a postmodernist/poststructuralist. He was heavily influenced by the San Francisco LSD scene and involved in its gay community, and unfortunately died of AIDS in 1984, at the age of 62. He studied power, knowledge, and sexuality. I still have a lot to learn about his thought, but will discuss here his exploration of Bentham's architectural concept: the panopticon.

The panopticon was seen as a revolution in total institutions. Built around a central tower, a circular formation of cells, separated from each other, and only viewable by the tower, this construction enabled a form of surveillance unparalleled by former architectural design. In lieu of the dungeon, according to Foucault, this design enabled the watchman, whether present or not to give the prisoners the impression that they are constantly being watched and since they are separated from each other, are rendered unable to conspire with one another.

Foucault points out that this scheme creates a situation where the power is both highly visible and unverifiable. The prisoners can see the tower, know someone that someone could be watching them at any time, yet cannot discern when. This, in turn, trains, if you will, the prisoners to become their own watchman. They, lacking any control over the authority weilded over them, develop a sense of the tower's influence within themselves. 

Bentham saw the possibilities for this type of arrangement in the area of schools, orphanages, scientific laboratories, etc. He advocated for the study of human beings in the panoptic structure to eliminate confounding variables. Of course, Foucault saw the insidious implications of this form of control (not to mention the ethical transgressions) and considered it an even more severe form of torture than the former, physical sanctions imposed prior to Bentham's idea. 

Foucault mentions that this idea is not completely original, but is unsure if Bentham was aware that it rivaled Le Vaux's menagerie at Versaille, which was more of an animal containment facility for the King. The king, in his central, octagonal salon, was surrounded by cages on seven of the salon's side, where he could monitor his captive animals. The eighth side was where the king entered the menagerie. Of course, in Bentham's creation, humans replace animals.

It is not at all difficult to realize how this type of authority is weilded in our own society. You know you are being watched, but you don't know when or by whom. It is not my intention to sound like a libertarian, conspiracy theorist, but the centralization of control and the group-think enforcement of laws within and among the citizenry is remarkably close to Foucault's prediction in regard to panopticism. 

What do you think?

A Nominal Qualification (or what the name of my blog means)

This is my first blog here. But I've been blogging for years...on Myspace. I am going to start importing those blogs here, so they can be viewed, trashed, appreciated, or whatever readers choose to do with them. I call this blog Sometimes Phoenix because (and don't think I'm all into mythology or anything) my life has been a cycle of being burned and rising back up, stronger than I was before my descent into ashes. Sometimes I am a phoenix. Sometimes I am not. But what's important, is that I can be a phoenix. I won't bore you with trite cliches about being knocked down and getting back up. I just want you to know that I do it from time to time.


So consider this an introduction. Sometimes I'm a phoenix. Sometimes I'm a loser in an ash pile. I've been an academic star. I've been homeless on the street. I've been supermom. I've been hippie girl. I've been hurt. I've been adored. Blah blah blah. The proof is in the blog(s) to follow.


Next post: an introduction with a more autobiographical flair.

Image Source: Phoenix Image Source