Teach
02-21-2017, 01:18 PM
“I heard her cries,” the man said. “She was screaming at the top of her lungs,” he continued. “Yet, I couldn’t help her,” he added.
When I was a college student in the early 1960s, I took a course in sociology. One segment of that course was devoted to social stratification. As part of that unit, we spent a lot of time discussing India’s caste system. One might have likened that caste system to “apartheid” in South Africa or the “Jim Crow” laws here in the United States.
Our professor, a native of India, related the story above (girl screaming) as part of our class. He went on to tell us that the girl, a member of the Brahmin (priestly class), the highest stratum of India’s caste system, had fallen into a well. The only one who was within in ear-shot of her cries was a member of a group called The Untouchables. (Untouchables were the pariahs, “the lowest of the low”). They were called the Untouchables because their touch was believed - by the upper castes - to transmit pollution. Disease. Untouchables were to be avoided. Thus, this Untouchable (in this story) was unable to help the girl because contact with her was forbidden.
In addition to the Brahmins (the apex of the Hindu caste system), there were the: Kshatriyas (warriors, kings), Vaishyas (merchants, landowners) and Sudras (commoners, peasants, servants) The Untouchables were outside of and below those upper caste groups. They were the street sweepers and latrine cleaners.
In fact, I learned in that sociology class that even the shadow of an Untouchable shall not cross the path of upper echelon members of the caste system, e.g., Brahmins, Kshatriyas, etc.
In those 50+ years since I graduated from college, I can only assume that things have changed - for the better – in India. But what about the United States.
Moreover, the once numerous middle-class here in America is sliding swiftly down the economic pole. Although the latest figures indicate that our total national wealth continues to grow, even as incomes have stagnated for most Americans. Where did the money go? Or, more aptly, where does the money go? In short: To the wealthiest among us.
What is being created is a top-heavy oligarchy headed by a small minority of a society’s wealthiest citizens, not only here in America but throughout the world.
The top 0.1 percent – just 160,000 families – own as much wealth as 90 percent of the country as a whole, or about 150 million families. Just over 500 people had a shared net worth of $2.6 trillion at the end of 2015.
Further, Middle-class Americans are the economy’s largest group of consumers, which makes them “the engines” of economic growth. If they – the middle class -- fall by the wayside, who will keep the economy humming? The wealthiest among us can only buy so many cars, so many yachts, so many vacation homes, so many resort memberships, etc.
Question: Are we heading toward our own caste system, an economic one? Will the top of the economic pyramid be made up of tiny number of ruling-class billionaires? Will the middle-class then make up a small, shrinking stratum just below the upper class? And will that vast portion of the pyramid from below the middle-class to the base make up the vast majority of American families?
And I thought – as a college student decades ago - that the caste system was something endemic to India. Well, I don’t think it’ll be too long before we experience our own socio-economic caste system, if we haven’t already.
When I was a college student in the early 1960s, I took a course in sociology. One segment of that course was devoted to social stratification. As part of that unit, we spent a lot of time discussing India’s caste system. One might have likened that caste system to “apartheid” in South Africa or the “Jim Crow” laws here in the United States.
Our professor, a native of India, related the story above (girl screaming) as part of our class. He went on to tell us that the girl, a member of the Brahmin (priestly class), the highest stratum of India’s caste system, had fallen into a well. The only one who was within in ear-shot of her cries was a member of a group called The Untouchables. (Untouchables were the pariahs, “the lowest of the low”). They were called the Untouchables because their touch was believed - by the upper castes - to transmit pollution. Disease. Untouchables were to be avoided. Thus, this Untouchable (in this story) was unable to help the girl because contact with her was forbidden.
In addition to the Brahmins (the apex of the Hindu caste system), there were the: Kshatriyas (warriors, kings), Vaishyas (merchants, landowners) and Sudras (commoners, peasants, servants) The Untouchables were outside of and below those upper caste groups. They were the street sweepers and latrine cleaners.
In fact, I learned in that sociology class that even the shadow of an Untouchable shall not cross the path of upper echelon members of the caste system, e.g., Brahmins, Kshatriyas, etc.
In those 50+ years since I graduated from college, I can only assume that things have changed - for the better – in India. But what about the United States.
Moreover, the once numerous middle-class here in America is sliding swiftly down the economic pole. Although the latest figures indicate that our total national wealth continues to grow, even as incomes have stagnated for most Americans. Where did the money go? Or, more aptly, where does the money go? In short: To the wealthiest among us.
What is being created is a top-heavy oligarchy headed by a small minority of a society’s wealthiest citizens, not only here in America but throughout the world.
The top 0.1 percent – just 160,000 families – own as much wealth as 90 percent of the country as a whole, or about 150 million families. Just over 500 people had a shared net worth of $2.6 trillion at the end of 2015.
Further, Middle-class Americans are the economy’s largest group of consumers, which makes them “the engines” of economic growth. If they – the middle class -- fall by the wayside, who will keep the economy humming? The wealthiest among us can only buy so many cars, so many yachts, so many vacation homes, so many resort memberships, etc.
Question: Are we heading toward our own caste system, an economic one? Will the top of the economic pyramid be made up of tiny number of ruling-class billionaires? Will the middle-class then make up a small, shrinking stratum just below the upper class? And will that vast portion of the pyramid from below the middle-class to the base make up the vast majority of American families?
And I thought – as a college student decades ago - that the caste system was something endemic to India. Well, I don’t think it’ll be too long before we experience our own socio-economic caste system, if we haven’t already.