I haven’t read Ms. Walls’ book yet, and your review has made it more compelling for me to grab a copy and peek into the life history of the Walls family.

It’s truly unfortunate that there are people who blame others for their economic/financial woes sans any regard for the broader context. It’s easy for these people to say so because they are in a different situation. Not everyone who is rich and privileged got their lot through legitimate or legal means though. And, in my humble opinion, JFK’s famous line telling people to ask themselves what they can do for their country is akin to saying “help feed your elected leaders because they are unable to feed themselves”. In another light, it could also mean “your government is inept at helping you secure a better life”.

If state governments are unable to make life better for the majority but are capable of protecting the status quo and serving the interests of the elite few, then these institutions are merely puppets and business agents of the rich minority who make life much difficult for the majority.

I agree that the problem is not simply capitalism, but that it is a problem of civilisation at large, which in the context of the U.S. gets expressed through capitalistic relationships. It would be interesting to see how you would respond to the points I raise in my response to Valerie. Since you do not expound on the reasons for which you believe human and non-human people can fall into poverty or get exterminated, you appear to also, like valerie, blame the people who get underpaid, unpaid, and otherwise exploited. Do you believe that everyone should participate in a uniform system of capitalist, industrial, and technological production and that those who are at the bottom are there because they deserve it or have chosen it? Don’t you see that this kind of rationale is justification of abuse? For instance: if someone got raped, he asked for it; if someone died because she couldn’t afford medication, it’s because she made the wrong choices in her life; if thousands of non-human persons got exterminated, it’s because they are “pests” and “bad”; etc.

Moreover, you know very well that all the ancestors who’ve “made it” in the U.S. did so because the indigenous human and non-human populations have been exterminated, slaves were kidnapped and forced to work, etc.. Unless you deny that part of history in the accumulation of social and material capital of those who pride themselves to “have made it”, you will have to concede that these relationships have everything to do with the misery and misfortune of those who did not make it.

As for capitalism being the cause of all the problems here… that is utterly ridiculous. These parents made their own decisions, and Rex was a heavy drinker long before he married (Read “Half Broke Horses”). He would have been this way if he had been a millionaire, because he would have turned right around and gambled it all away, in between drinking spells.

While I don’t believe government institutional schooling is beneficial to society (which is why I homeschool), neither would I blame it on the way parents, then or now, turned out–not to mention, the same water that softens the carrot will harden the egg. People can go through the same fire and come out of it completely different.

This is not about capitalism. Many, many different things can cause one to fall into poverty. But poverty need not cause utter dispair and ruin (or abuse or alcoholism); it did not with my ancestors. They prevailed. So could have Rex and Rosemary, if they had really wanted to.

Now, we all know that such abuse of working people results in abused childhoods and abusive social relationships. Yet, in spite of this, people manage to transmit values, kindness, and compassion to their children. Unless you believe that all those Haitians have brought it upon themselves to be brought there as slaves and continually being exploited and hence bringing children into an impoverished and abusive social order, you will have to concede that capitalism and civilisation are responsible for the cultures of poverty and the cultures of abuse. Whatever Jeneatte Walls’ intentions were in writing the memoirs, it is love and understanding that she has retained from her tough childhood, in spite of the ruthlessness with which her parents’ dreams were murdered by civilisation with its propensity for colonising lands, spirits and dreams. What interests me in all of this, is how unforgiving people who enjoy any sort of economic luxury are towards dreams and wilderness, their logic: “don’t have kids if you can’t afford them” is the logic of eugenics.

As for medical care, medical intervention as well as medical errors are the 3rd cause of mortality in the U.S., the first being cancer and heart disease (both diseases of civilisation and capitalism). In addition, 47 millions of Americans don’t qualify for medical care or become homeless should one of the diseases caused by civilised employment (they develop their diseases because they work in industries that increase the possibilities of cancer). I hope that you are not insinuating that all these millions of socially abused and neglected Americans are personally responsible for their poverty and ill health.

If you are willing to learn more about how all of these aspects of culture, literature, childhood, civilisation, work, parenting, politics, economics, domestication, etc. are interconnected, I invite you to read more or listen to some of my talks posted on my website.