Can We Start With Politicians?

First, Eat All the Lawyers

 

 

 

Recently for our rhetoric class, we had to read a selection of short research essays.  The one I found most applicable to our current social situation with the government shutdown was “First, Eat All the Lawyers”.  It discusses our love affair with zombies of late and the rise in movies and TV programs that follow the “zombie apocalypse”.

 

I myself admit to having the guilty pleasure of watching zombie themed programming, and I completely agree with Bosch’s analysis of part of why we love it.  As one of the blue collar workers she discusses, I do see the end of the world themes as being ones of working class comeuppance.  The skills that I have learned in my life are far better suited than those that academia pushes as being important.  Take in consideration, this class.  While in a professional environment and even in college, the skills that my rhetoric class teaches may prove useful, they do me absolutely no good when my car is broken down on the side of the road.

 

As a society, we are developing this elite upper class of white collar workers who think that their skills are better than those of the blue collar class.  As you can see by books like The Working Poor: Invisible in America and Working in the Shadows these people don’t even pay attention to those that deliver their food, check them out at stores, or fix their toilets.  I would disagree with Bosch in her analysis that these workers will only have valuable skills if the world ends.  If her toilet was broken, she might value the skill set that every plumber in this country holds, but that she never bothered to learn.

 

I think that this article points towards the growing trend of demeaning those who work for a living, a major sociological change in our society.  Not that long ago, being a factory worker or an electrician were respected fields than made it possible for you to live a comfortable life.  When did working with your hands become demeaning and only fit for the lower classes?  Maybe if more journalists and even politicians spent a day in the life of those they employ on a daily basis, it might give them a bit more perspective on how most of the country lives.

 

I think the government shutdown might actually be a good thing for the country.  As things continue to function with little impact on most of our daily lives, maybe we will start to take a look at those we hold in such high esteem, and ask, would we need them if the world ended?  What are the skills that they have which make them so valuable to our society? Can we just let the zombies eat all the lawyers? Or would the poor zombies just starve?