How Was Rural America TRUMPED? Read "Bandits" by Eric Hobsbawn
I am only three chapters into this amazing book, but I need to share it. For anyone who ever wondered how Trump was able to win rural America with his "I am a man of the people and a liar and cheater who does not pay my bills and who grabs your wife's pussy and I will make America great again!" bullshit, this book explains it all. And it was written by a Marxist.
In a nutshell, Hobsbawn's thesis is that in times of economic turmoil, rural peasants (as opposed to city workers) feel justified in turning to banditry to feed themselves and their families. They justify this in their own minds by telling themselves that they are fighting the forces of an encroaching evil change----environmental, political, war. They are trying to restore the old balance, take their community back to a time when there was plenty to eat--i.e. the "good old days." During this time of economic hardship, anything goes---as long as you are doing it in order to restore some idealized past.
Banditry as opposed to regular organized crime is careful not to rob from its rural brothers and sisters. That is why they waylay coaches on the highway or pirate ships. They win the hearts and minds of their community by feeding them and never threatening them. They become Robin Hood.
Trump and Co. will, of course, rob and steal from their brothers and sisters. They will steal their insurance and their Social Security and water and clean air. We all see it coming--all of us except for those living in rural communities in the US who are desperate. Rural America is clutching at a bit of driftwood as it drowns. It just does not realize yet that the "wood" is actually a crocodile. Because people become desperate when they are marginalized----and it is oh so easy to steal from the marginalized. Meaning, please stop saying you want rural America to reap what it sows. That just marginalizes rural America more and makes it easier for Trump/Putin/Mogilevich to exploit them.
I'm betting that this book is on the bookshelf of whoever engineered this coup. Read it. Know the enemy and his/her methods.
If you are a city mouse (like me) you have absolutely no clue what it is to be a country mouse. This book will help you understand.
https://www.amazon.com/Bandits-Eric-Hobsbawm/dp/1565846192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482860225&sr=8-1&keywords=bandits+hobsbawm
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