We Must Dismantle the Myth That You Can Work Hard and Succeed In the USA

Thanks for your support: 30% off 💙 40% off 💙 50% off 💙 60% offThere are two sets of rules to the game of Monopoly. One is based on cooperation. If you play it that way, everybody finds success and has a good time. The other version is competition based. If you play it that way, one person advances at the expense of all others. The board gets flipped over and everybody stops talking to each other.We only play it the second way. In fact, that’s the way we’ve designed our entire society.Aren’t you sick of it?From an early age, I hated school. I hated how I was forced to march like all the other kids. I hated that I was forced to repeat the same cult like chants. But most of all, I hated how I was groomed to revere certain kids for reasons I couldn’t fathom.Everything they said was right, even when it was wrong. When they moved, the whole class was expected to get in line behind them. When they gave an order, we were required to jump.When you’re confronted with a situation like that, the first thing you think is, “Well, how do I get to be among that group?”If you work up the nerve to actually ask that question, they might say, “Kid, you can’t. This isn’t for you.”“But why not?”“Because you’re not good enough.”This conversation will go on for a long time. The members of the elite class will dangle their privilege before you like a reward. They’ll snatch it away whenever you grab for it. They’ll make their status seem like the best thing in the world to distract you from the fact that everything about these kids is phony.Everything.They have no merit. They have no talent. They have no special skills. They have nothing. They just sat down to play a game of Monopoly and they were handed all the deeds and all the money and they use that advantage to shove their sense of superiority into your face.When faced with a situation like that, you should refuse to play. You should recognize the unfairness of it all. You should recognize that all their accolades are based on lies and illusion rather than merit. You should flip over the game board before the first roll of the dice.The members of the privileged class know this will be your reaction, that’s why they spend so much time indoctrinating you. That’s why they scream, “You’re just jealous” if you ever complain. They take advantage of your innocence and your basic decency and they twist all your virtues to try and make you like them.When we’re young, we take things at face value. We accept the proposal that if we work hard, we too will be accepted as they are. Never mind that the division is artificial. Never mind that classes are a construct. Never mind that money is nothing more than ink on paper.We accept their rules and we start to play even though everything is rigged against us.I remember sitting in class and watching the awful children of privilege receive all the praise. The rules didn’t apply to them. They could speak disrespectfully to their classmates and even the teacher, and nobody said a word. But if you talked back to them... watch out!It became a complex dance. The trick was to act as if you were playing their game. If they insulted you, you could toss something back and as long as you didn’t immediately humiliate them with your response, they’d continue to play. What you come to discover is that these awful people who are handed everything love to think that they’re actually worthy of all their advantages. They have a delusional self-identity that’s something you can exploit.But if you push them too far, they are the ones who end up flipping the table. Despite all their advantages and privileges and ease, they’re the ones who are most likely to destroy everything. They also do this if it appears as if you’re going to beat them.I didn’t know this on the first day of school, but I learned it quickly enough. You accept the reality you’re presented with. At first you actually assume that if the privileged class is so revered, they must deserve it. So, you buckle down, you do the work. You wait for an opportunity to prove your merit.But you also watch the privileged class. You watch how they act. You watch what they do. You try to perceive their secret. How is it that they have so much and you have so little? They never seem to show their hand. They never seem to reveal their tricks. It just seems like they’re awful and then they somehow surprise you with something you have to take as evidence because you lack any other clues.It takes a long time before you even dare to think that there might not be anything special about them at all. Preventing you from thinking that is the only thing they’re good at.We have all these artificial divisions in the United States of America. I’ve lived in other countries. I’ve taught in schools there. The kids don’t separate themselves into cliques. That’s a cultural crime of the USA. Dividing people into cliques is how the small class of wealthy elite maintains their status of ease and luxury and unchallenged oppression.If marginalized people cooperated, we could topple their monopoly overnight. But we’re too distracted by the lie that if we play the game well, we’ll be welcomed into their club.The truth is we’ll never be welcomed. All of it is for them, none of it is for us. That’s the way it’s going to be forever, because if we got close enough, it would be impossible to hide their fundamental lack of quality.So, they remain hidden in their mansions behind high walls and servants and fake money that was printed, stolen, or inherited. You only walk among them if you learn to lie, cheat, steal, and deceive. That’s the key to entry, not achievement, merit, or decency.I remember being young and working hard and biding my time sure that my time would come. That’s what they said over and over again. “Work hard and your time will come.” I watched these other kids and I saw where they were lacking. They couldn’t do math. They couldn’t read. They refused to do work defiantly. They refused not because they lacked the skills, it was just because they were too entitled to bother trying.They failed to do assignments. They spent the work time engaged in distractions. They threw things. They guffawed. They made a mockery of those in the “lower class” who actually tried.“You’re nothing but a bunch of ‘try-hards!’” They cried. “Teacher’s pet! Nerd!”On the day the teacher announced a math test where the best student would be rewarded, they showed a flicker of concern. Those of us who worked thought, “Ah ha! Now we’ve got them!” Because we knew, we knew the privileged elites couldn’t count to twenty without taking off their socks.But lo and behold, when the tests are done and the grades were handed out, it was determined that the members of the elite class had won. The rest of us were forced to applaud and recognize them, just like always, as they marched to the front of the room to receive their prize.We weren’t allowed to look at the tests. The teachers lectured that was being “a poor sport.” We weren’t even allowed to suggest that there might be something untoward. The members of the privileged group, that made it clear we’d never be good enough to join, looked down at us and smirked.That’s when we learned to sit silently and seethe.I’ve been seething for 51 years. I’ve gathered up ember after ember after ember of injustice. They sit in the center of my being like a pile of white hot coals. I’m not the only one. Rather than flipping the game board, I’m ready to flip over the brazier and burn the whole system down.This monstrous group of cruel elites set us down at a table and forces us to play a game that we can never win. We the marginalized have to recognize that there’s no opportunity for meritorious advancement when your quality is predetermined based on prejudices instead of facts.If you beat them in a foot race, they find a reason to disqualify you.If you manage to get your hands on a fortune, they find a way to strip it from you.Only they are allowed to produce books and music and songs and films. Only they are allowed to take pictures of themselves because as far as they’re concerned you’re not even worthy to be their co-inhabitants of the world.They don’t see you as human. The universe revolves around them. As far as they’re concerned, you don’t exist in all.How did we get trapped in this torture chamber of injustice?It’s because despite everything we’ve learned, we still sit down and try to beat them at their own game. We still abide by their rules. We accept the boundaries of their false reality.Stop. Kick over the braziers. Flip the table and send the game pieces scattering to the floor. It’s time to reverse the burden of shame and place the weight firmly upon the shoulders of the liars, cheaters, and oppressors. Today is the day.Thanks for your support: 30% off 💙 40% off 💙 50% off 💙 60% offI'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe