As a kid during the Depression — and lucky enough to find a couple of nickel deposit soda bottles — I would head for the 10¢ movie theater. Aside from all the western and gang-busting films, I would occasionally hit on a high society kind of film and could not help but wonder about such lavish existence in face of such sprawling poverty. Yet there was as a rule a hero or heroine who stood out by being aware of troubled times and set about relieving a small pocket of suffering, whether it be by charity or slumming to understand the suffering more.

In “Mr. Deeds,” of course, he gave his inheritance away by buying acres of farmland for the victims of the dust bowl. In Sullivan’s Travels, in spite of feeling the pain of the hobos while pretending to be one so he could write a serious screenplay, the successful comedy screenwriter — resigning to the stark inevitability, though handing out $5 bills — chose that the best medicine was more comedy films for these unfortunates in rags in order to enliven the morale of the nation, though hollow, thereby accepting the grimness that most people are doomed to non-identity.

Of course, the real solution was governmental redirection of industry to where it mattered most. But It actually took a World War wherein average people were able to show the right stuff by fighting abroad and working nobly on the home front, for which the country was grateful. Together with the G.I. Bill and women discovering themselves at work, the nation became prosperous: poverty, and the number of hobos dwindled. Although no one was duped into believing that they, too, would join the lavish class — the increase in technical or skilled jobs through the availability of advanced education — at least afforded them a relatively worry-free existence, particularly in the more enlightened states where commoners were valued because of bustling cities.

However, the prosperity was lopsided and the southern and rural regions — in spite of generous farm subsidies — also demanded a piece of the metropolitan pie and the government and industrial magnates could no longer keep them down on the farm, resulting in blighted areas and massive welfare costs by inundated migration to the cities of elite states. The solution was outsourcing jobs to the south and sparsely populated north and southwestern states, including mammoth agricultural industries but at much lower pay for the workers. In a sense, reconstruction was reborn and more widespread. However, this eco-democratized effort in fairness was primarily controlled by the investment class and the generous spirit of the nation diminished. The bottom line was manifest.

Is there any wonder that the mean spirited of the ruling class has returned with smug indifference equal to the moguls of the ‘20s and ‘30s?

Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: August 31, 2004.