The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy

Every so often, there is an article I find that shatters the doom and gloom of our new oligarchical, robber baron era, and gives me hope that at some basic level, most people remain decent and caring, trying their best to prevent or avoid the infliction of bureaucratically decreed nonsense, pain, and humiliation. This is one of them: an recently posted excerpt from one chapter of a 2009 book by Sociologist Lisa Dodson, The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy.

I will not quote from the excerpt here, just urge you to go read the entire piece. But, here are two sentences that moved me to tears:

. . . when everyday institutions and ordinary rules harm people right in front of you, that provokes a kind of soul searching, looking for what some called their “roots” or their “true self.”

I heard a murmur of history, voices from generations who taught that the survival of tomorrow’s children matters more than rules or laws.

Read the entire post. And, keep in mind Chris Hedges' articles about the need to resist the corporatist state.