Inspired by John Steinbeck’s, “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires”

Wikipedia disputes the quote saying:

the remark is very likely a paraphrase from Steinbeck’s article “A Primer on the '30s.” Esquire (June 1960), p. 85-93:

"Except for the field organizers of strikes, who were pretty tough monkeys and devoted, most of the so-called Communists I met were middle-class, middle-aged people playing a game of dreams. I remember a woman in easy circumstances saying to another even more affluent: ‘After the revolution even we will have more, won’t we, dear?’ Then there was another lover of proletarians who used to raise hell with Sunday picknickers on her property. “I guess the trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.”

Another masterpiece! Thank you comrade, excellent material to meditate on, as always.

Now I have to research Glasnost and Perestroika. I do not have the fortitude to add Yeltsin (spit) or Gorbi (triple spit) to my reading list just yet.

Edit: I understand there was an insurrectionary effort against Yeltsin that was squashed, I wonder if there’s USSR parallels there with Trump’s increased measures and rhetoric against “organized crime”.

Love this.

I think all markers are that the west isn’t just risking sliding into obsolescence, but it is on the fast track to do so without any notable worker effort to organize or slow the collapse.

Trump’s efforts are dramatic, but my bet is they’re far too late to have the desired affect, so at what point will the proletariat take note of their trajectory and can China’s rise offer as motivating a factor for class consciousness as the USSR did?