The crucible

We can think of class as an experience that brings us all together. Whenever I talk to people on the bus or at work, men and women of different colors, increasing I find that everyone is very eager to talk about class. "There is a working class and a ruling class: One makes the rules while the other does the work." This is instantly recognizable to anyone whose existence revolves around work; all the more for those who have been doing it longest, having never attended university or graduated high school.

At least in reference to work, I find that people really want to pursue this commonality, to know what it is that we share. There really isn't any preoccupation with how we are different. The work experience is just so total: I'm talking to people who work two or three part time jobs, all day and all night, who literally do their sleeping on the weekends, if they want consecutive hours of it. It's certainly not the case that we experience this reality in the same way, but the fact remains that the vast majority of us are experiencing it, and suffer tremendously as a result.

My strongest bonds with people on the bus or at work has come from these conversations, which acknowledge what is happening to us. I wonder if many of the internal conflicts between those concerned about social justice couldn't be helped by anchoring them in the contemporary work experience, where their significance will grow or recede in direct proportion to their practicality. Those that remain in a given situation will be the ones to address. Perhaps a lot of interpersonal inaction could be dispensed with by introducing it to the crucible of work!