The Endangered American Childhood

I didn't want to be right about the GOP and capitalists ushering in a new era of child labor. Unfortunately, here we are.

Before we get going, a couple of things.

This Thursday, February 16th, I’ll be appearing at Left Bank Books in St. Louis with the one and only Sarah Kendzior, where we’ll be discussing THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM: A HISTORY OF POWER, PARANOIA, AND THE COMING CRISIS, as well as her book THE KNEW: HOW A CULTURE OF CONSPIRACY KEEPS AMERICA COMPLIANT. I’m looking forward to meeting anyone who can attend, but the event will also be streamed live on Left Bank’s YouTube channel, which you can find and watch HERE. This will be the first time Sarah and I have done an event together, and I have to tell you, this is a must-see kind of thing. So, either plan on coming out or watching live. It’ll be worth it.

For subscribers I’m planning on doing a Q&A this weekend, so if you have questions or topics you’d like for me to discuss feel free to reply to this article or shoot me an email. Also, as DISPATCHES FROM A COLLAPSING STATE continues to grow, I’m looking for suggestions for future exclusive content. What would you like to see? Interviews and discussions with other analysts and experts? More videos and podcasts? Some subscriber-only hangouts? Let me know. In the meantime, if you haven’t subscribed, remedy that in a hurry.

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This is one of those things I didn’t want to be right about. Which, to be honest, is growing to be quite the substantial and frustrating list.

Per The Washington Post:

It’s really something to behold. The casual brutality of it, the straightforward boldness of how it is presented. Linguistically, it’s all laid out in perfect clarity.

There’s a tight labor market. So, of course, states are looking to child labor for relief.

It is as open and as instructive a headline as there is. Because it reveals the way that these things happen and how they grow and gain momentum. There are plenty of jobs out there and, unfortunately, people are refusing to take them. And so, there’s really not much in the way of choices here. They’re going to have to draft your children into work.

This is the kind of thing that makes most people rear back in horror. The very notion of forcing kids into dangerous labor - including, according to the article, construction, manufacturing, and slaughtering - is repugnant. It’s a completely unacceptable notion. And yet it’s being presented as damn near inevitable.

The market demands it.

And, before we dive deeper, a reminder that the very nature of the market is this. The exploitation and dehumanization of all of us for as much profit as can possibly be extracted from us. Preferably it could be done painlessly and with a smile, but the inherent philosophy at the heart of the process harbors deep, dark authoritarian energies that will come into full focus as soon as situations demand it.

FOR MORE ON THE AUTHORITARIAN ELEMENTS OF CAPITALISM AND INDUSTRIALIZATION, CHECK OUT EPISODE TWO OF THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM LECTURE SERIES: CAPITALIST APOCALYPSE

There is a abhorrent logic to it. If adults aren’t going to accept these low-paying, backbreaking, soul-crushing jobs, and if they’re going to continue agitating for labor unions and better treatment, then somebody’s going to have to show up. Because the one consistent truth in all of this is that the machine will go on one way or another.

But it’s also a predictable return to a past idea that was only made obsolete due to the hard and tireless work of democratic movements that demanded better for their children. It should be stated, of course, that the United States, long after it dispensed of child labor, has been more than fine relying on the work of children around the world for its resources and luxuries. It is the larger concern with American children that provides the standard we’re now watching destroyed.

That American children are now being set up to return to the factory floor, to climb into the gears, to sacrifice their lives and childhoods, is a result of the observable decline of America. And as the American Century comes undone, the “progress” of globalism is being unwound as well. After all, it was never about improving American lives beyond the spoils of hegemony in a superficial sense anyway. Now, as globalism comes undone (see the article on the coming Cold War below), that progress is going to rewind itself and many of the rights, liberties, and privileges we have come to believe were permanent will now fall by the wayside.

Mutually Beneficial Terror: A New Cold War is Brewing

This notion that children would be off-limits is just as much of an illusion as was the idea that Roe V. Wade could never be overturned. Something we tell ourselves to feel better in times of peril. A simple fairy-tale to maintain the status quo while aggressively reactionary forces push and push to turn back the clock, all while whittling away at notions of dignity and sacrosanct “principles.”

Because, deep down, the idea that children should be protected was never anything more for the GOP or the Right, or even politicians and media members in general, than a slogan that hid the brutal and obvious truth that, in a society dominated by power and the power of the market, no one and nothing was ever safe.

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Our memories of presidential contests tend to get narrowed down. We forget strange moments that seemed so important at the moment, including blips on the radar like Rick Santorum’s brief bit of momentum in 2012 that previewed the rise of this new evangelical Right Wing movement.

And, in that category, is disgraced former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s moment in the sun that year. Gingrich, who is one of the most impactful and damaging figures of the 20th century, surged to the front of the GOP’s primary contests for a fleeting moment and seemed, for a second or two, as the possible torchbearer for a party that had seemingly moved beyond him. Included in Gingrich’s package of ridiculous “plans” were ideas for moon-bases and something that seems incredibly familiar now.

One of Gingrich’s weaknesses in politics has always been his inability to not just say what he’s thinking and, quite frankly, what is being discussed among the intellectual wings of the GOP’s ecosystem. This is a person who is steeped in the think-tank and donor-funded institute world and quite familiar with the strategies that are bandied about freely in their board rooms and salons. And when they’re said in public, especially by a figure like Gingrich, they have a tendency to sound brutal and uncaring.

Which they are.

But if you haven’t watched the above video, I ask you to take a second and do so. It lays the entire game out in stark detail. Child labor is a win-win for conservatives and the capitalist class. For instance, look at this incredible quote from The Washington Post I mentioned earlier:

It is a trend in hiring to look for younger, less-proven, more desperate workers than to reward existing employees for their expertise. That’s certainly true. But it also perpetuates a consistent push against labor unions and acts of solidarity from existing and established employees, which is something Gingrich begins to hint at when breaking down the “need” for child labor. Putting children into these positions is a perfect and insidious way to begin lashing out against and undermining the developing labor movement that is scoring victories with every passing day.

That would be enough to make this an appealing idea, but the moment you begin rolling back worker provisions to the point of welcoming child labor into the equation is when so many of the other “impediments” to profitable manufacturing begin to seem vulnerable. The 40-hour workweek has already more or less fallen and wild, endless deregulation has made the workplace a more miserable and dangerous space. Next, we’re talking about the dismantling of minimum wage and anything else you could imagine.

Remember, this is about actively dismantling the 20th century and its progress.

As is the case with all of this, the cruelty is hidden behind ideology. Stories about why you would do this manage to hide the stark self-interest of greed and capitalist profit behind a veneer of kindness and paternalism. The GOP’s continued assault on teachers as “groomers” and “indoctrinators” is about destroying public education, but in due time that will switch to also rationalizing why children would be “better off” laboring rather than being “subjected to wokeness.”

We know this because it’s happened before.

The rise of industrialization and its destruction of the notion of childhood was based on the idea that God intended their work to make them better and “instill” values, many of which people like Gingrich and other Republicans continually point to. They will wage not only culture war but also generational war, claiming degeneracy and decay demand a return to “traditional values,” including the reappearance of young people in the workplace, where they might learn the value of a dollar and the need for hard work.

It wouldn’t their children, though, as my co-host Nick Hauselman so aptly pointed out on the most-recent episode of The Muckrake Podcast. Because the mythology of the meritocracy and the holy-ification of wealth has that covered as well. Wealthy people got that way, they’ll tell you, based on hard work and an internal, genetic talent that can’t be taught or replicated. Poverty, they want to believe, is a symptom of internal, personal failure. A defect that has to be addressed through labor rather than cauterized through “welfare.”

As I discussed in the recent “A Crisis of Meaning” article, the really upsetting thing in all of this is how the trend in “liberal” and white, middle-class circles shows us that these awful notions have a chance of gaining traction. The pinch on the white and middle-class has always been a precursor to growing oppression elsewhere, including people of color, vulnerable communities, and the poor. The privilege depends on the brunt of the situation being transferred elsewhere, and history tells us this particular class will more than likely stand by and watch as people are shoveled into the maw of the machine, all in exchange for the protection, or immediate protection anyway, of their wealth and status.

I say all of this not to be alarmist, though I want to reaffirm that child labor is absolutely on the table should this authoritarian nightmare continue on. The signals are all there. The writing is on the wall. But I discuss it because the time to stand against this is now. Those notions that children were untouchable and any changes in the future would have to maintain the dignity of a childhood unspoiled are make-believe. Children are abused, exploited, and forgotten constantly in this country, and continuing to peddle these stories that they aren’t or couldn’t be is just far too dangerous.

There have to be lines in the sand. The way to handle this situation is to return to the progress of the 20th century and the New Deal consensus that created it in the first place. This is a false crisis with terrible “solutions” that we cannot afford to stomach. The time to realize this and make the stand is Now. Not tomorrow. Not afterward.

Now.

My new book THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM: A HISTORY OF POWER, PARANOIA, AND THE COMING CRISIS is available now. This is the story of how the modern world was built on the back of white supremacist lies, evangelical mythologies, and poisonous conspiracy theories. But, even more so, it’s the story of how we’re going to defeat growing authoritarianism and build a better future. Order your copy today.