In his novella “The Pearl,” John Steinbeck tells the story of a young pearl diver, Kino. This novella is a piece of fiction that often reminds me of the cancerous greed that has taken root in our collective national psyche.
Steinbeck’s “The Pearl” is a story of immense poverty turned into immense wealth, of greed, alienation from family, murder and the subsequent death of Kino’s infant son, Coyotito.
In comparison, the obnoxious greed, nauseating individualism and the shameless and upward transfer of wealth in our country is not entirely unlike the story of Kino and his subsequent problems.
The truth of the matter is that we live in a profoundly sick society. It is a society that finds no distinction between greed and ambition, deception of the masses and standard financial practices, all together unmindful of politicians whom have become tools in the hands of their financial overlords.
The tragedy is not so much that relentless pursuit of financial enrichment has become the American way of life. It’s not even the disillusionment from the fact that the pyramid can only house so many at the very top.
It is the careless disposition of the people and their resignation to the repulsive mantra that “tax breaks for the wealthy create jobs” that is dreadful and repugnant.
For those who recognize the deep and growing economic disparity in our country, and those who are somewhat well-off — at least temporarily — the outright assault on the working class should raise the question of what now?
After all, as Jiddu Krishnamurti once wrote, “It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Such resignation becomes Kino’s attitude in “The Pearl” as well.
Once a humble and simple-minded family man, Kino becomes invariably detached from his sense of communal responsibilities, ultimately committing murder in order to preserve his newly found wealth.
It seems as if in our pursuit of financial prosperity and over-zealous drive to the top of the pyramid, we have grown careless to the plight of our brothers and sisters at the short end of the class warfare. As such, though without a tangible pearl, we’ve all become Kinos in our own right.
We’ve grown careless to the idea that since the financial collapse not a single person has been charged and prosecuted for their wicked practices.
We’ve become oblivious to the fact that while millionaires and billionaires get tax-breaks they don’t need, the burden of trillion-dollar deficits gets laid on teachers and firefighters.
Our politicians wax ecstatically over the idea of American workers becoming more competitive compared to workers around the world, as if to prepare us for worse days to come.
I wonder if life would be easier if we resigned to the fact that there isn’t a “we the people” anymore. Rather, though it was once a revolutionary phrase, it has now become yet another modern cliché.
Perhaps submitting to the lurking truth that it has now become the age of “we the corporations” would lessen our democratic expectations, making us more competitive with the rest of the world.
Reach Sohail at sbayot@asu.edu
