the new mason-dixie line

As most people reading this probably already know I'm not a big fan of the current capitalist paradigm. The primary reason for this is that I think the sort relationships fostered by this system is inherently detrimental to being a human being. In antebellum America their was an invisible line dividing the north and south called the Mason-Dixie line. It was in essence a line dividing two different sorts of exploitation, one centered on slave labor, the other on industrial wage earning labor. In our modern world the entire planet is divided by an invisible line much like it was then. That line divides the exploited and exploiter, it acknowledges no national or geographic boundaries and applies to every life on earth. It is difficult for people in the west to swallow this rather rough fact, but I believe it is essential if we are ever going to move beyond it. Those on the bottom (e.g. a textile worker in Bangladesh subsisting on starvation wages) and the top (e.g. a CEO or corporate manager in a G8 country) have a pretty clear view where they stand on the class line, but all those millions of people in the middle often don't. A great deal of people in America like to think of themselves as middle-class, seemingly dodging any need to be classified as exploiter or exploited, just hard working American folk. I take issue with this view for one simple fact. From its inception during the middle ages the bourgeoisie has never been anything but a buffer class for the elite. It was a sort of compromise struck between the traditional medieval aristocracy and the ambitious members of the population that demanded a bigger piece of the pie in return for their tireless labors. This also marked the beginning of nationalism as more and more people began to identify themselves as members of a nation rather than subjects of a king. In time the bourgeoisie came to realize that they didn't need this entrenched elite and joined with the poor to break free and forge their own fate, starting with the French and American Revolutions. The result was to replace the lazy and inefficient exploitation of the blue bloods with the far more avaricious and relentless exploitation of those ambitious members of the bourgeoisie who formed the new upper crust of the world. Unlike the old elite this new one had absolutely no sense of duty to the lower classes, except the occasional humanitarian, religious or nationalist feelings, and thus acted without conscience. In reaction to this class betrayal the poor began forming unions and political parties. With the help of some intellectuals they even invented different means by which to establish a society. Around this same time the capitalists started joining together to form uber-exploitation machines called corporations that made their heartless behavior even easier because it seemed to remove them from any guilt since they were all just working for share holders now. Despite this development it appeared that the proletariat might succeed in creating a workers paradise at such points in history as 1848, 1917 and the 1960's, but alas it was not to be and they ended up utterly loosing on all fronts to the subterfuge and sabotage of the rich. This epic struggle sees us today in a situation where the bourgeoisie of the rich western nations are bringing the whole world together under their dollar sign flag for the more efficient exploitation of all peoples. By keeping the masses abysmally educated and horribly busy they have established a status quo that perpetuates their power ad infinitum. To my eyes however things appear to be looking up. This corporate victory lap that we've seen during the 15 years since the fall of the USSR is causing a great many people in the Global South to realize that the externalization of authority is only going to lead to more betrayal and exploitation. They are as a result taking power into their own hands. So don't despair my readers, for if anything good can be said about human kind its that our ability to rearrange the world knows no limits.