Apparently, John Steinbeck was paraphrased by the Canadian Author Ronald Wright who wrote: ≈
- "SOCIALISM NEVER TOOK ROOT IN USA BECAUSE - THE POOR DON'T SEE THEMSELVES AS AN EXPLOITED PROLETARIAT BUT AS TEMPORARILY UNFORTUNATE BILLIONAIRES '
Whereas what STEINBECK ACTUALLY WROTE WAS:
- “I GUESS THE TROUBLE WAS THAT WE DIDN'T HAVE ANY SELF -ADMITTED PROLETARIANS. EVERYONE WAS A TEMPORARILY EMBARRASSED CAPITALIST.”
EITHER WAY - THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR! I HAVE PARAPHRASED THE PARAPHRASE!
BUT A WORKING CLASS NOT SEEING ITSELF AS WORKING CLASS IS A PROBLEM!
HOW CAN THERE BE A WORKERS MOVEMENT AND A UNITED WORKING CLASS? IF THE WORKING CLASS ITSELF DOESN'T RECOGNISE ITSELF AS WORKING CLASS?
ALAS I BELIEVE THIS, to BE the CASE - IN MOST OF THE: - "Western World"…
IN SWEDEN - A BIG PART OF THE WORKING CLASS, SPENDS ABOUT A TENTH OF THEIR DISPOSABLE INCOME, NOT TO THE CHURCH AS IN OLDEN DAYS…
BUT ON GAMBLING! STATE/GOVERNMENT OWNED GAMBLING - HOPING TO: - "STRIKE GOLD AND MAKE IT BIG"
HOPING TO GET OUT OF THE WORKING CLASS POVERTY BY WINNING MONEY!
INSTEAD OF FACING REALITY… RECOGNISING THEMSELVES AS AN EXPLOITED PROLETARIAT,
EMPOVERISHED BY THE CAPITALISTS/INDUSTRIALISTS/BILLIONAIRES - THAT HAS THEIR HANDS IN EVERY WORKERS POCKETS - BLEEDING THEM DRY - LEAVING ONLY ENOUGH SCRAPS TO GET THE WORKERS TO KEEP WORKING…
LETTING THE CAPITALISTS/INDUSTRIALISTS/BILLIONAIRES - REAP THE REWARDS AND ENJOY THE FRUITS OF THE LABOUR OF THE LABOURERS - THE PROLETARIAT, THE WORKING CLASS!
VULTURE CULTURE CAPITALISM, Industrialists/Billionaires and their hired: - "Henchmen, Hired, Bought and Paid for cronie Politicians Government enforcers" and "USEFUL IDIOTS!" - HAVE COMMITTED THE PERFECT ACT OF:
DIVIDE AND CONQUER - BY:
- CONVINCING THE WORKING CLASS THAT IT DOES NOT EXIST!
WITHOUT A UNITED, STRONG WORKERS MOVEMENT!!!
NOTHING WILL CHANGE! WITHOUT THE ENFORCEMENT TOOL OF STRIKES?
SOCIALISM IS A: - "TIGER WITHOUT TEETH OR CLAWS"!
AGING, WITHERING STARVING!
- - - - - - -
- "The idea comes from a 1960 essay he wrote for Esquire called “A Primer on the Thirties,” looking back on the Great Depression. Describing the political radicals he knew in those years, he wrote: “I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.”
In 2004, Canadian author Ronald Wright paraphrased that line in his book A Short History of Progress, summing up Steinbeck’s point with the word “millionaires.” Over time, Wright’s paraphrase spread online as a direct Steinbeck quote.
The meaning is close to the original. Steinbeck spent the 1930s writing about migrant workers and the poor, most famously in The Grapes of Wrath, which won the Pulitzer Prize. He saw how many struggling Americans believed they were just one lucky break away from success.
Steinbeck went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. He passed away in 1968 at age 66.
Added fact: In the same essay, Steinbeck joked that the self-described Communists he knew in the ‘30s “couldn’t have disrupted a Sunday-school picnic.”"…
