Bourgeoisie Fear of Self Sufficiency

While reading The Field Guide To Fields by Bill Laws, a pretty cool book for being published by National Geographic, I came across a revealing quote from an English Victorian era bourgeoisie landowner. It seems the bourgeoisie's fear of self-sufficiency was very much alive in Victorian England.

I Don't Like The Word Bourgeoisie

I don't like the word bourgeoisie, probably just not "Americanized" enough, but no other word really fits, so I'm using it. Additionally, Google AdWords tells me that 368,000 people search for this term in an average month-not that I'll get any respect from Google. The fact remains that a few people are looking for the term. Regional interest is highest in Canada, Switzerland and France.

What is Bourgeoisie

If you're not familiar with the term bourgeoisie, it's the Marxist term for the capitalist class that owns the means of production and gives laborers wages. We now have a sort of super-bourgeoisie class consisting primarily of Wall Street pinheads, big bankers, lawyers, CEO's and all those other scumbags. But that's another story, and if you're one of these scumbags, you're probably not reading this. If you are, your skin is thick and a your wallet thicker, so I think you can handle a little name calling from some under-paid Midwesterner who is himself, a recovering loan officer.

Victorian "Pauper's Patch"

O.K., back to The Field Guide of Fields. In one section, the author discusses the history of field enclosures and allotments. In doing so, he writes of the "paupers patch", which was an allotment of land-most often used for gardens- given to commoners in Victorian era England. It's explained how the program wasn't so popular, as land owners feared laborers might steal seeds or not work as hard, so they could have the energy to work on their own lands.

The Quote

There's even a direct quote from a landowner, "The extent of the garden of a labourer ought never to be such as to interfere with his employment as a labourer." This could be the mantra of today's corporate elite!

The idea that the wealthy want people working for them is not startling. The tragedy is how much we, as the working class, still fall for the mind numbing gimmicks of those with the means, when they were openly displaying their tactics even in the Victorian era. Self-sufficiency lost it's glory when it was traded for wage slavery in the industrial revolution. What happens when the working class wants a better standard of living? They take the labor elsewhere. If they can't do that, they bring the cheaper labor in to replace the less compliant wage slaves. Freedom from the bourgeoisie-- or whatever you want to call the class of people-- and self sufficiency is not easy and there are many checks in place to keep it that way. However, for those that who want to change, there are opportunities. The more the working class cooperates with one another, the more likely these opportunities produce results.