Millions

Photographer: Alfred T. Palmer [1941 or '42]
Library of Congress, FSA/OWI Archive

Caption: "The four freedoms. The people gather on a million street corners to discuss a million problems. Only in a democracy are they free to discuss the affairs of their nation and the affairs of the world. Only in a democracy would we find this free mingling of a dozen different races. The scene is Columbus Circle, New York."

Romantically overblown—and less than convincing about acceptance of "different races." The concept of "race" had even more weight then, with the caption writer detecting "a dozen" in this scene. That idea of "race" being determined by religion and country of ancestry isn't so common now, with skin color being the main preoccupation. Here, the camera here has caught a single, visibly uncomfortable, black person.

Hyperbole aside, it does seem that—way back then—our citizenry had some real eagerness to "discuss the affairs of their nation."

Today: millions of Americans are watching millions of TVs tuned to Fox, where Glenn Beck does the thinking for them.

This week, millions of workers took to the streets of Paris and other French cities, to protest Sarkozy's plan for raising the retirement age. Which is intended to subsidize the wealthy by imposing austerity on the masses.

Workers were soon joined by students—who understand that keeping older people in the workplace squeezes out younger workers.

From the Irish Times article in that link, above—

Sign:

GRANDPA, GRANDMA
AT WORK
YOUTH
UNEMPLOYED
NO THANKS

Photo: Reuters

While here, billionaires propagandize our youth, to turn them against Social Security and pit them against retirees.

A safety net for all being something the owners will never allow.

And after 30 years of capital flight and killing off of worker rights—our labor force closes ranks... behind the bosses.

This was a particularly bad week at the office, with my already unreasonable workload being made very much worse. The result of the latest power grab by someone my boss allows to call these shots.

It makes me livid. Especially when I don't have the freedom of speech to say a thing. There's just the single remaining right of America's peon class: the freedom to try finding another job.

It all brings up a lot of anger I can barely articulate. As the mindless demands increase, any pretense of civil society is dropped. Divide and conquer has always worked in this country, and the tougher the times, the more it's true.

I'm lucky to have a cubicle to myself; there's only the occasional unpleasantness of having to make trips to the area where my "co-workers" and the managers are. Where most of my encounters have a bullying undertone.

One person in the bunch is OK, another is semi-OK. From the majority I would expect to hear, "The guy didn't pay the $75, so he deserved to lose his house."