Class System on The Battlefield
If you belong to the lower class in peace time, you’ll die as one in the up- coming World War 3. This is based on two messages, profits and patriotism.
During peace time, workers must understand that the economy comes first. For example, they lose their jobs because of technology or when investors move operations to Africa and Asia for cheaper wages.
The wartime message is different. It invokes patriotism. Workers must go to the war to fight for their country. The upper class benefit from both messages because they script them. They are the boss during peace time and war.
Take the two World Wars for example. The British upper class that had plantations in the Caribbean, country estates, town houses and titles that made them sit in the House of Lords, were majors and brigadiers. They drank whisky and pored over military plans on how to attack Germany and its allies.
The actual attack consisted of men unfortunate to be born working class and socialized in pubs such as the one featured in Coronation Street, the television series. They were railway workers, boiler men, delivery men, miners, chimney-sweepers, carpenters, plumbers, stable boys, gardeners and other workers with grime under their nails.
That working class became black when the Queen’s forefathers acquired ‘free land’ called colonies. Indigenous people became slaves and also foot soldiers for Britain’s war effort. They died to preserve their own slavery as British ‘subjects.’
Therefore, the year is ‘22 and war is still not an equalizer. It makes men and women who join the army more wretched. They are unemployed because they were laid off or worked menial jobs. Those jobs are waiting for them in the army, when the message says lay down your life for your country.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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