1 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:11,240 The American dream. 2 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:12,640 What does that phrase even mean? 3 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:15,240 Cos it's wildly open to interpretation. 4 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:17,080 But I think to a lot of Americans 5 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:21,000 it's being given the chance to do your work with dignity. 6 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,520 So, for the next 90 minutes or so, 7 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:26,360 we're going to examine the old American work ethic, 8 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:29,400 and try to understand how, far too often, labour 9 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:31,680 seems to get in the way of work. 10 00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:34,920 If you don't know the difference between labour and work, 11 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:38,080 it's like the difference between sleeping and dreaming. 12 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:41,280 In other words, the American dream is littered 13 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:43,480 with a lot of lumpy mattresses. 14 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:44,720 Did you like that metaphor? 15 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:47,520 I did. There's going to be plenty more, so stick around. 16 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:53,080 The notion of the American dream 17 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:55,600 has been embedded in America's creation myth 18 00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:59,200 since the day the first Pilgrims planted their buckled boots on 19 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:01,200 Plymouth Rock. Which actually never happened 20 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:04,720 because Plymouth Rock is the size of a small garden feature. 21 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:08,960 But the hard work ethic and the very definition of success itself 22 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:10,920 has mutated over the years. 23 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:13,960 From something spiritual, to something material, 24 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:17,600 to something that nowadays seems almost undefinable. 25 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:21,480 Still, it's the cement that unifies Americans. 26 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:24,120 From industrialists... 27 00:01:25,320 --> 00:01:26,360 ..to politicians... 28 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:28,920 ..to artists... 29 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:31,400 ..to writers... 30 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,040 ..to the everyday working stiff, 31 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:36,720 the message is the same. 32 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:38,560 Put in a little elbow grease, 33 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:40,560 and your efforts will be rewarded. 34 00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:44,120 But it doesn't always work out that way. 35 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:46,280 Sometimes the dream turns into a nightmare. 36 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:13,840 America was founded on the idea of redemption, second chance, 37 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,600 a fresh start, if you're willing to put your back to the plough. 38 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:22,880 No country has condensed its creation myth more than America - 39 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:26,640 you were a slave, or an indentured servant, 40 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:29,160 lazy, alcoholic, landless, 41 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:31,720 impoverished, riddled with typhoid, 42 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:34,440 or accidentally tomahawked by a Mohican, 43 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:38,640 guess what? You're not making it into America's history books. 44 00:02:38,640 --> 00:02:42,760 Americans celebrate exceptionalism and progress. 45 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:45,760 It's a reason that we call ourselves "the" land of opportunity 46 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:47,360 and not "a" land of opportunity, 47 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:51,120 because apparently most Americans have never heard of New Zealand. 48 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:54,320 But here's the thing - for every industrial achievement, 49 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:58,280 for every rags-to-riches story, for every great invention, 50 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:03,680 from this incredibly pliant but durable jacket, to this smartphone, 51 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:07,760 somewhere scores of people are hunched over workbenches 52 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:11,960 trying desperately not to stitch or solder their fingers together. 53 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:14,200 If hard work is so ethical, 54 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:16,200 how come there's seldom anything ethical 55 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:17,800 about making people work hard? 56 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:22,760 When Americans talk about a work ethic, 57 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:26,440 what they mean is hard effort is its own virtue. 58 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:29,080 It's a doctrine that came across on the Mayflower 59 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:31,520 the day the Puritans set sail for Plymouth Rock. 60 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:35,840 The Mayflower sailed into Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 61 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:39,320 in November of 1620 after a 66-day voyage. 62 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:42,040 Now, it's generally noted about half the people on the boats were 63 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,480 separatists, Calvinists - but here's a more specific breakdown. 64 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:47,080 33 of those people were elderly, 65 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:49,320 and pretty much wished they'd died on the boat 66 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:50,760 before they ever arrived. 67 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:53,920 Another 57 realised immediately what a horrible, 68 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:56,440 horrible mistake they made leaving Europe. 69 00:03:56,440 --> 00:03:58,840 The remaining 42 set about making 70 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,560 the lives of the other 90 excruciatingly miserable. 71 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:04,680 It's kind of like Butlin's, but worse. 72 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:09,680 The first couple years were really hard, 73 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:13,360 they came over, and the first year they planted their crops 74 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:17,400 and enough of them came up that they could survive another year. 75 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:19,840 But the following year it didn't do so well, 76 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:21,920 and it looked like the crops would fail 77 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:24,360 and that would have been the end of the colony. 78 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:26,640 So the Puritans who settled the colonies 79 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:29,080 in North America were predisposed to misery. 80 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:32,560 They believed they were the people that the Book of Revelations 81 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:34,480 had chosen to go into the wilderness 82 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:36,520 because some shit was about to go down. 83 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:40,160 So they were willing to flagellate themselves with toil because that 84 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:43,040 is an inherent Calvinist principle. 85 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:47,360 OK, in essence, Calvinism goes like this - God has predetermined who's 86 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:49,560 making the team and it's the hardest workers. 87 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:51,320 But just because you're on the team 88 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:53,160 doesn't mean you're in the starting line-up, 89 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:55,720 but if you don't act like you're in the starting line-up you're 90 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:57,400 not even going to make the team. 91 00:04:57,400 --> 00:04:59,520 Man's character, fate, and morality 92 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:01,400 are determined by his labours. 93 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:09,120 If you were educated or aristocratic, 94 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:10,840 you were called master or mistress. 95 00:05:10,840 --> 00:05:14,280 If you were a craftsman like a wheelwright or glass-blower, 96 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:16,320 you were a goodman. Beneath the goodmen 97 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:18,080 were the indentured servants. 98 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:20,600 Beneath the indentured servants were the kids, 99 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:22,480 who were exploited beyond belief. 100 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:24,720 Put out to labour from sun-up till sundown. 101 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:31,360 So a typical day in a Puritan kid's life would probably consist of 102 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:32,880 awakening before dawn, 103 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:36,520 sitting down to a hot steaming bowl of grubs and larvae, 104 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:40,680 then they would be sent out into a field where they might be strapped 105 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:43,480 to a large immovable boulder in the hopes that 106 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:46,400 a sudden growth spurt would dislodge the thing. 107 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:49,640 Afterwards, four or five hours in a dank schoolhouse, 108 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:51,840 where the only books were a Bible 109 00:05:51,840 --> 00:05:55,640 and a trilogy called Thousands And Thousands Of Mohicans, 110 00:05:55,640 --> 00:05:59,160 Not So Many Mohicans, Last Of The Mohicans. 111 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:03,120 And afterwards, chores such as sewing by candlelight 112 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:04,800 until you went blind, 113 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:07,200 or assisting Mom through yet another stillbirth. 114 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:10,440 Good times. 115 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:15,000 Everyone knew their place, and everything was achieved 116 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:16,400 for the greater glory of God. 117 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:19,640 If you think about it, there is no more effective incentive to work 118 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:23,320 than the notion that when a flashing white-hot streak of lightning fills 119 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:27,800 the sky, and a blindingly bright figure of Christ descends to Earth 120 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:29,120 to pluck his chosen ones, 121 00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:32,320 you don't really want to be caught goofing off at the water cooler. 122 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:52,800 The belief in personal salvation through work 123 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,200 is how the Plymouth colony survived. 124 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:57,080 Work, work, work, work, work. 125 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:00,120 Idle hands are the devil's workshop. 126 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:03,120 They proved that you could tame the American wilderness, 127 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:06,280 but the flood of people who followed - the Amish, the Quakers, 128 00:07:06,280 --> 00:07:08,200 the Lutherans, the Protestants, 129 00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:10,880 the Catholics - they didn't adhere to that same aesthetic. 130 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:14,400 Probably because they looked at these right-wing religious zealots, 131 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,680 and thought to themselves, "Hey, wait a minute, 132 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:18,600 "if hard work is the core of spirituality, 133 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:21,040 "how come the most spiritual people of all - 134 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:22,640 "monks - don't work at all?" 135 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:26,200 Major paradigm shift. 136 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:29,680 Religious freedom gave way to personal motivation. 137 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,120 By the middle of the 18th century in America, 138 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:42,360 a good deal of secularisation had taken place. 139 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:44,680 The idea that one worked for the glory of God 140 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:48,680 was slowly replaced with the byword "usefulness". 141 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:50,720 America was still a spindly legged puppy, 142 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:54,040 and the only way it was going to survive was if every man, woman, 143 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,080 and child expended some dogged persistence. 144 00:07:57,080 --> 00:07:59,080 Benjamin Franklin, more than anyone else, 145 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:01,560 condensed this idea into the kind of aphorisms 146 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,480 that stuck easily into people's heads. 147 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:07,360 He invented the bumper sticker before there were bumpers. 148 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:25,200 Franklin was America's first 149 00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:28,280 exemplary model of the self-made man. 150 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:32,280 He was born poor in the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1706. 151 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,920 At the age of ten, taught himself to read Latin, 152 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:36,440 but dropped out of school. 153 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:39,200 He invented swim fins for the hands. 154 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:41,880 So you knew this guy was going places. 155 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:43,520 Then he became a printer's apprentice, 156 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:44,880 and that the age of 24 started 157 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:49,080 publishing, under a pseudonym, Poor Richard's Almanac. 158 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:53,640 A compendium of idioms and weather forecasts and predictions, 159 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:56,800 written in a vernacular that regular people could relate to. 160 00:08:57,800 --> 00:08:59,560 "A penny saved is a penny earned." 161 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:04,320 "Fish and visitors stink after three days." 162 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:07,920 "I believe that once all the hoopla has died down, 163 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:10,720 "that The Dave Clark Five will be bigger than The Beatles." 164 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:16,000 1730, he was elected official printer for Pennsylvania, 165 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:17,920 cranking out state currency. 166 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:21,560 The man was literally given a license to print money. 167 00:09:21,560 --> 00:09:25,440 He would go on to invent the Franklin stove, bifocals, 168 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:26,920 American independence, 169 00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:30,840 and something else but I can't quite think of right now. 170 00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:32,440 It'll come to me. 171 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:34,480 He was an abolitionist and a vegetarian. 172 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:40,880 It would have been useful if Franklin had invented the wristwatch 173 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:43,440 because his exhortations about time equating money 174 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,680 would have been lost on most 18th-century New Englanders. 175 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:48,720 They didn't know what time it was. 176 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:51,360 They knew when the sun came up, when the sun went down, 177 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:53,520 they knew when it was planting season, 178 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:55,440 harvest season, fallow season. 179 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:57,640 It was a self-employed nation. 180 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:00,720 Industrious but not yet industrial. 181 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:03,120 It was a very simple economic tenant. 182 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:05,360 A man's efforts are his to exert, 183 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:07,920 and the successes are his to be reaped. 184 00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:15,680 For a short period, this pure fiduciary equation worked. 185 00:10:17,560 --> 00:10:22,400 But then that pesky old southern bugaboo, cotton, raised its head. 186 00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:26,520 Cotton. It's hard to believe that a huge chunk of America's problems, 187 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:31,600 racial tensions, the Mason-Dixon line, the Civil War, Reconstruction, 188 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:35,440 Jim Crow laws, the KKK, civil rights, 189 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:39,800 some bigoted 20-year-old kid running a Dodge Challenger into a group of 190 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:44,400 protesters, every dumbass, redneck, 191 00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:48,640 cracker-barrel shred of racism that exists in America is the indirect 192 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:52,880 result of a fabric - a fabric. 193 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:56,160 God, if only northerners had been happy wearing wool 194 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:59,920 or hemp or muskrat pelts, America would be a different nation. 195 00:10:59,920 --> 00:11:01,640 A nation itching and 196 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:06,080 scratching its sweaty ass off but a less racist nation. 197 00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:19,160 In our historically redacted world, we like to think that the north was 198 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:21,560 anti-slavery and thus morally superior to the south, 199 00:11:21,560 --> 00:11:23,880 but that's not remotely the case. 200 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:26,200 Southern slavery and King cotton 201 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:29,320 were inextricably intertwined with the north. 202 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:37,640 The founding of the Merrimack Mills in lower Massachusetts in 1822 203 00:11:37,640 --> 00:11:39,320 changed the industrial order in America. 204 00:11:40,680 --> 00:11:43,040 It was the first mega-factory. 205 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:48,600 All that cotton picked by bonded slaves from the south came here, 206 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:51,000 where it was loomed by wage slaves 207 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:53,640 or, as we like to call them, women. 208 00:11:56,280 --> 00:12:00,960 The way the mills first got their employees was Francis Cabot Lowell, 209 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:04,240 the founder of the Lowell manufacturing industry. 210 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:07,360 He went out to farm communities throughout New England, 211 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:11,640 himself, and he would talk to groups of farmers, and say, "Send us your 212 00:12:11,640 --> 00:12:13,640 "daughters, we're going to take care of them, 213 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:16,800 "we're going to keep them on the morally straight and narrow, 214 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:19,040 "we are going to make sure they're educated, 215 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:20,240 "we're going to pay them well. 216 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:24,320 "Send us your daughters and they'll be working in our companies, making 217 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:27,640 "American products, and you can be proud of them." 218 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:31,840 Ranging in age from seven to 35, 219 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,840 the mill girls - or mules, as they came to be known - 220 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:37,320 worked an average of 73 hours a week. 221 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:40,760 They slept six to a room in dormitories and after work they were 222 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:44,240 encouraged by the mills' matrons to read and write and paint - 223 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:46,520 you know, to improve their standing in society. 224 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:50,520 They even had their own publication - the Lowell Offering - 225 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,040 full of poems and short stories celebrating the enlightened culture 226 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:56,760 of being strapped to a card spinner for 14 hours a day. 227 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:01,880 When the girls first came here it was really seen as 228 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:05,960 this revolutionary new way of running America. 229 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:07,920 This new industry, this new opportunity. 230 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,920 I'm not sure if they were looked up to but they were applauded - 231 00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:13,360 they were applauded for taking the chance 232 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:15,120 and going to work for themselves. 233 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:18,480 Almost immediately, a kind of proto-feminist argument arose. 234 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:20,760 Were these mill girls being exploited, 235 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:24,720 or were they emancipated because they had paying jobs? 236 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,960 As opposed to staying on the farm and earning zilch. 237 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:31,440 Sure it was a lousy wages, they were medically misunderstood, 238 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:37,840 they were an nonentity at the ballot box, but they were making money. 239 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:40,240 No. 240 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:43,280 ALARM AND MACHINES RUNNING 241 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,440 SHOUTS: It was shit! 242 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:55,120 God! 243 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:58,000 Imagine listening to this for 16 hours a day. 244 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:00,080 This is worse than a Kasabian album. 245 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:04,880 The more highfalutin members of New England Society 246 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:08,440 took the term "mill girl" and turned it into a class slur. 247 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:16,520 There were rumours started about loose morality, 248 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:19,280 that they were going out and doing things 249 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:22,520 that girls of New England shouldn't be doing, 250 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:24,160 so the reputation started to change. 251 00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:28,120 As the decades went on and more and more mills were built, 252 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:29,360 wages went down, 253 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:32,680 and it was the immigrant women who started to work in the mills. 254 00:14:32,680 --> 00:14:35,320 Then it was seen really as dirty work 255 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:37,800 that only dirty people would do. 256 00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:41,080 Because these women weren't home scrubbing and baking and ringing 257 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:44,040 and washing, they weren't fit for breeding or marriage, 258 00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:46,320 and that's where we get the term spinster. 259 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:53,880 So, off the backs of slaves and through 260 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:56,280 the gnarled fingers of young women, 261 00:14:56,280 --> 00:14:58,480 America entered its industrial age. 262 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:08,240 The self-employed enterprises gave way to factories. 263 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:12,280 People engaged in mind-numbing specialised tasks 264 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,360 making things for the nation to use 265 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:16,360 when the nation wasn't working. 266 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:20,320 Which was practically never. 267 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:24,280 The work ethic had become a maze of paradoxes. 268 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:27,760 On the one hand, it impelled the restless energy of a young nation. 269 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:30,880 America had become a powerhouse and there was a sense of mission. 270 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:36,160 But these same workers were trapped in a cycle of monotony, 271 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:39,520 forced discipline. Where was the individual creativity? 272 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:42,400 Where was that sense of usefulness that Franklin liked to talk about? 273 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:45,280 By the mid-1800s, 274 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:49,000 the northern United States was one giant steaming workhouse. 275 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:51,680 Consumed by the idea that a man's physical output 276 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:53,320 determined his destiny. 277 00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:59,800 So, there was no excuse not to bust your butt. 278 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:01,520 Now maybe you're thinking, "Geez, Rich, 279 00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:03,360 "didn't people ever lighten up back then? 280 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:05,600 "They couldn't have spent all their time working." 281 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:08,560 Well, of course there was leisure time. 282 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:11,360 There was baseball and cracker jacks. 283 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:13,600 A day at the track. Parades, 284 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:17,680 capades and county fairs, where the gals dressed in gingham. 285 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,720 If you had a little cash you could take in the follies. 286 00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:25,640 Now, if you were a kid, you might spend a lot of leisure time 287 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:27,960 sitting down with your McGuffey Reader - 288 00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:30,280 the most popular schoolbook at the time, 289 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:32,520 full of wisdom and lifestyle tips. 290 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:38,120 "Lucy has a new box, a big box, let us go and see it. 291 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:40,000 "Lucy's box is red. 292 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:44,440 "It is a hot day, let us go out. 293 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,560 "Let us go out with our dog, to the new cut hay. 294 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:50,000 "Let us put hay on our dog. 295 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,240 "It will be fun. Let us go." 296 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,320 And in the evening, the family would sit around and play a wildly popular 297 00:16:57,320 --> 00:17:01,360 board game called The Checkered Game of Life. 298 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:03,320 # The game of life... # 299 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,920 It was invented in 1860, by a man named Milton Bradley, 300 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:10,720 and quickly became the favoured parlour pastime in America. 301 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,280 The object of the game was to reach successful old age - 302 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:15,840 which, at the time, was about 45 - 303 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:21,720 along the way trying to avoid such misfortunes as disgrace, property, 304 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:26,920 crime, prison, the fat office, and suicide. 305 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:28,040 Fun for the whole family. 306 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:34,560 That's life! 307 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:40,200 The game is still popular today, but it's been updated a bit. 308 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:42,480 For instance, you now achieve success 309 00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:44,840 by graduating college, getting a job, 310 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:48,800 finding a spouse, finding a home, buying a car, 311 00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:52,160 the suicide option has been replaced by bankruptcy, 312 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:55,640 but you can work your way out of total financial devastation 313 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:58,560 by merely helping the homeless or recycling. 314 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:00,240 Just like real life. 315 00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:08,600 The whole notion of the American dream, 316 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:10,440 the land of opportunity, 317 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:12,760 is predicated on cultivation. 318 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:15,520 Anyone who's ever seen some fossilised septuagenarian 319 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:17,520 pottering around their sad allotment 320 00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:19,800 can see how elated they are when they coax a few 321 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:22,040 runner beans into existence. 322 00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:26,120 Why? Cos dirt makes people happy. 323 00:18:26,120 --> 00:18:29,120 The notion of owning the proverbial 40 acres and a mule 324 00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:33,400 was irresistible to a lot of Americans. In 1860, 325 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:36,760 true freedom for a lot of Americans lay out west. 326 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:43,000 The famous John Gast painting, 327 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:44,360 American Progress, 328 00:18:44,360 --> 00:18:46,400 sums it up pretty succinctly. 329 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:50,200 Old America was a greasy mechanic trapped in a mind-numbing production 330 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:53,600 line with some fat, rich boss breathing down its neck. 331 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:56,320 New America, an ethereal female spirit 332 00:18:56,320 --> 00:18:59,640 stringing telegraph wire like a Wichita lineman. 333 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:04,360 If the Wichita lineman was wearing a diaphanous negligee, 334 00:19:04,360 --> 00:19:08,080 shepherding steam engines and wagon trains across the Great Plains 335 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,760 towards untold riches, 336 00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:15,120 while terrorised buffalo and Indians scampered off into the margins. 337 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:16,840 Who wouldn't want a piece of that? 338 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,840 As America expanded, more and more Europeans followed, 339 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:29,440 trailing in the celestial prop wash 340 00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:32,600 of that floating female godhead of fortune. 341 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:34,760 I told you there'd be more metaphors. 342 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:38,720 One group in particular made the most of their new-found opportunity. 343 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:39,760 Germans. 344 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:49,800 46 million Americans have some kind of German ancestry, 345 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:53,760 and that makes them the largest ethnic majority in America. 346 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:55,680 How did this happen? 347 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:58,880 Well, in 1848 a wave of rebellion broke out 348 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:03,680 against the autocratic princes and barons who ruled Germany. 349 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:07,440 Which at the time was a loose collection of near-feudal states. 350 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:09,880 After the revolt, some of these rabble-rousers 351 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,080 and organisers hotfoot it for America. 352 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:15,400 Fortunately their arrival coincided with the signing of 353 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:18,240 the Homestead Act, which had opened up the Midwest to settlers. 354 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:28,600 So, these God-centric German folk moved West, 355 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:33,280 settling along the Mississippi River in places like Iowa, or Illinois. 356 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:36,080 They brought with them a more precise work ethic 357 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:39,800 and some pretty nifty inventive ideas. 358 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:43,280 A lot of these early German colonies were very hard-core religious - 359 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:48,560 Moravians, Waldensians, Amish, Hutterites - you know, old school. 360 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:52,120 But even the most pious German can't seem to help himself when it comes 361 00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:55,120 to work. By God, they've got to invent something! 362 00:20:55,120 --> 00:20:57,000 That's why here at the Amana colonies, 363 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:02,280 a religious commune which, up until 1939, operated off of a mill race 364 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:04,320 invented the microwave. 365 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:12,280 The Amana radarange 366 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:16,840 is the first home-use microwave technology ever 367 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:19,560 invented, and you're looking at the very first model 368 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:21,160 ever made in the whole world. 369 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:23,520 So this actually wasn't called a microwave, 370 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:26,120 this is called a radarange. It's a Radarange, yes. 371 00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:29,720 They trademarked the technology and everything, and eventually of course 372 00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:32,760 that technology was taken to other places, 373 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,600 and so they obviously couldn't call it a Radarange, 374 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,840 otherwise that was copyright infringements and so people 375 00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:41,720 called it a microwave, and that's what it's been called ever since. 376 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,080 Right. But it's really a Radarrange. 377 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:46,400 Correct. There's radar in there. Yeah. 378 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,360 By the 1960s, 379 00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:54,280 Amana appliances had become a household name - 380 00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:58,440 what every housewife and game show contestant dreamed of. 381 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:01,640 So, while some Germans made a life for themselves in the Midwest 382 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:03,880 trying to revolutionise how we eat popcorn, 383 00:22:03,880 --> 00:22:05,880 a good number moved to big cities, 384 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:10,480 trying to revolutionise the labour movement. 385 00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:13,720 The Germans who settled in Chicago in the 1800s were a completely 386 00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:15,960 different culture than those pious, 387 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:18,880 prune-faced Puritans who settled in Massachusetts. 388 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:22,560 Let me put it another way - Germans don't take a lot of shit. 389 00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:31,880 The atmosphere of labour relations in Chicago in the late 19th century 390 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:34,120 was a tinderbox to say the least. 391 00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:37,760 There were relentless strikes, raw-knuckle demonstrations. 392 00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:41,400 Flash-point confrontations between workers and owners. 393 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:45,280 Often organised by outside agitators who wanted a radical change 394 00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:46,680 in how America worked. 395 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:57,000 There's a term in the United States for the lethargy and the lack of 396 00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,880 productiveness that Americans feel at the beginning of the workweek - 397 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:01,840 it's called Blue Monday. 398 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:04,960 The saying goes, "Never buy a car made on a Monday." 399 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:08,600 Well, Germans had the same term - blaumachen. 400 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:11,560 But it describes the restlessness that Germans feel 401 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:13,720 when they're sitting around on a Monday 402 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:15,520 waiting for indigo dye to dry. 403 00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:19,520 Germans don't like not being productive. 404 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:24,200 Do you understand? Chicago in 1880 was full of Germans and Bohemians, 405 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:26,640 companies like Pullman and MacCormick 406 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:28,400 paid them $1.50 a day, 407 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:30,360 they worked 60 hours a week, 408 00:23:30,360 --> 00:23:35,280 six days a week, and because Germans expect to be paid for their efforts, 409 00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:38,960 things weren't exactly Gemutlichkeit. 410 00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:41,120 The Haymarket tragedy of 1886 411 00:23:41,120 --> 00:23:44,360 is probably the singular most critical event 412 00:23:44,360 --> 00:23:46,560 in the history of American workers' rights. 413 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,360 May 4th 1886, 414 00:23:53,360 --> 00:23:59,800 when a protest was held against police brutality in Chicago 415 00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:02,200 with the hope that 20,000 people would come. 416 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:06,960 The background of all this, of course, 417 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:08,840 is a fight for the eight-hour day, 418 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,520 the right to organise, the right to free speech, 419 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:16,840 all the things that were suppressed by the owners of industry. 420 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,120 The rally is called, it's disorganised, 421 00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:27,840 it's terrible weather and only 2,000, 2,500 people show up. 422 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:31,840 So they mounted these hay wagons to talk, 423 00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:33,600 and used fiery rhetoric about, 424 00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:35,760 "This has to stop, this attack on workers, 425 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:37,600 "we are trying to organise unions." 426 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:43,280 Towards the end of the rally, most of the crowd had left, 427 00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,000 there's 250 people in the crowd, 428 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:50,480 and the final speaker, Samuel Fielden, is speaking, 429 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:56,560 and the Police Inspector Bomfield marches his 176 police officers 430 00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:58,840 up to the crowd, and says, "I command you 431 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,640 "in the name of the people to disperse." 432 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:06,000 And Samuel Fielden says, "But this is a peaceable meeting." 433 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:07,720 And at that very moment, 434 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:11,000 what is observed is a five-pound dynamite bomb 435 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,800 that lands at the foot of the police and kills a policemen. 436 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:17,880 That explosion blew out the lights, 437 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:20,200 and the police were armed and they started shooting. 438 00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:27,720 The bomb blast killed seven policemen. 439 00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:30,440 In the ensuing violence, four workers were killed, 440 00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:32,160 many more were injured. 441 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:35,280 The next day, martial law is declared in Chicago, 442 00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:38,000 and within a short period of time 443 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,560 this great, incredible, unfair trial takes place 444 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,920 and eight men are convicted of conspiracy 445 00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,600 to commit violence and murder. 446 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:51,640 Six of them German-born, one American-born and one from England. 447 00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:57,800 Americans were being told that long-haired, creepy, socialist 448 00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:03,400 German agitators, bomb-throwers are trying to ruin our way of life. 449 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:05,360 That was the rhetoric in the newspapers. 450 00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:12,880 It's about the basic fundamental democratic, and what is so much an 451 00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:16,280 American ideal, the right to freely assemble, 452 00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:17,960 the right to organise, 453 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,000 and the suppression of that is really what 454 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,680 the Haymarket story is about. 455 00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:35,800 One of the great anomalies of the US is that, unlike the UK or Australia, 456 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:37,840 it's never had a Labour Party. 457 00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:41,880 You know, a political party made up of and representing workers. 458 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,680 Why? Because the first labour movements in America 459 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:47,520 managed to let anarchists slip into their ranks. 460 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:49,920 Ever since, labour movements have been infected 461 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:51,840 with that dreaded word - socialism. 462 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,720 Which in America is a word that easily morphs into the next 463 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:56,520 word - communism. 464 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:01,000 The Haymarket Tragedy in Chicago reverberated 465 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,760 throughout the world and Chi-Town was now being perceived 466 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,200 as a hotbed of pink-tinged radicalism. 467 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:09,160 Social decay, poverty, 468 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:11,720 still smouldering from the devastating fire 469 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,280 that had nearly destroyed it in 1871, 470 00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:17,240 and even worse, it had never won a World Series. 471 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:18,800 Frankly, the place was a mess. 472 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:29,960 So what do you do when you want a makeover in the eyes of the world? 473 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:32,720 When you want to show the big boys in London and Paris 474 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,120 that you're a major player on the world stage? 475 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:36,960 You throw a party! 476 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:42,360 The 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago was a World's Fair that made 477 00:27:42,360 --> 00:27:45,400 other World's Fairs look like one of those skanky, syphilitic, 478 00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:47,760 fun fairs in Skegness on a Friday night. 479 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:57,600 The city dredged 200 acres of swampland in South Chicago, 480 00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,320 constructed an entire city out of plaster, 481 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:01,920 built a midway, 482 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:05,120 and introduced the world to carbonated drinks, hamburgers, 483 00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:07,320 indoor lighting, bearded lady midgets, 484 00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:09,680 the Ferris wheel, ragtime music, 485 00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:12,960 hoochie coochie shows and the Pledge of Allegiance. 486 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:18,200 It really shined a light on Chicago and the work ethic of Americans 487 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,040 because people were aware of the fire in 1871, 488 00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:22,960 and you're talking that 489 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:27,720 the city burned to the ground only 20 years prior to this. 490 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:32,080 So the amount of work and the amount of work even leading up to 491 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:35,280 even possibly competing to have the fair was huge, 492 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,480 but this was kind of proof positive 493 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:40,040 that they had really risen from the ashes 494 00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:41,960 and had really shone a light on 495 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,080 the American worker, the Chicago worker, 496 00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:47,600 and what people can accomplish 497 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,640 if they really put their minds to something. 498 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:53,680 And really everybody wanted it - from the hourly wager 499 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:55,720 to the rich elite people. 500 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:59,040 It was here that Henry Ford saw the internal combustion engine 501 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:01,680 that would give him the idea for a horseless carriage. 502 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:05,280 It inspired L Frank Baum to write The Wizard of Oz. 503 00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:08,160 It was the template for future prefab wonders 504 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:10,960 like Disneyland and Las Vegas. 505 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,440 20 million people visited the Columbian Expo 506 00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:14,880 in the six months it ran. 507 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,040 Shortly after it closed, it caught fire, 508 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:20,160 and melted to the ground like a 600-acre marshmallow. 509 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:22,080 But it changed the way the world viewed America 510 00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:25,200 and the way Americans viewed themselves. 511 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,080 The designers of the fairs originally wanted this to be 512 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:30,000 greater and grander than any other fair. 513 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,600 I mean, when you talk 200 buildings over 600 acres 514 00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:34,400 just placing your eyes on everything 515 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,600 would be over 300 miles of walking and it would take over two weeks. 516 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:41,040 And this was an opportunity for someone who had never...probably 517 00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:46,240 never left Chicago to actually go and see things from, like, over 51 518 00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:48,800 different countries that were represented at the fair. 519 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:52,480 What the Expo achieved was to create 520 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,400 the concept of mass marketing and packaging. 521 00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,600 After the Expo, Americans became brand-conscious - 522 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:00,560 they didn't want any pancake syrup, 523 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:04,040 they wanted the pancake syrup they'd seen at the Expo. 524 00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:06,920 The one that emanated from the corpus of a smiling black woman 525 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:08,560 who called herself Aunt Jemima. 526 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:11,240 America had become a consumer economy. 527 00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:17,720 The beginning of the 20th century was the singularly most mind-blowing 528 00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:21,680 decade of progression in the history of history. 529 00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:24,400 What? Did you get a new iPhone X in 2018? 530 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:26,760 Good for you. Do you know how much things changed 531 00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:29,760 between 1900 and 1910? 532 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:35,520 Well, in 1900, 533 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:39,760 an American might be sitting around trying not to contract diphtheria, 534 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:44,320 waiting for a horse-drawn cart to deliver some unpasteurised milk. 535 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,080 A mere ten years later, 536 00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:49,800 conceivably that same person could be driving to an airfield in Dayton 537 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:54,400 Ohio in a model T car, listening to a wireless radio broadcast through a 538 00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:55,880 plastic headset, 539 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,640 wearing clothes freshly laundered in an electric washing machine, and 540 00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:02,320 taking pics along the way with a Brownie camera. 541 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:06,240 While in an alternative universe, if you believe this guy's theory, 542 00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:09,160 people were doing the same thing, except they were moving slower and 543 00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,640 they would have shrunk somewhat in mass. 544 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,440 America had become a consumptive nation. 545 00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:16,760 Its trade output was the largest in the world. 546 00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:18,840 Stuff, stuff, stuff. 547 00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:21,640 The world could not get enough of what America was cranking out. 548 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:23,840 Now, you would think with all this innovation, 549 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:27,120 that workers' rights would have progressed, but no. 550 00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:29,560 Things were rolling along, but health care? 551 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:31,600 Forget it. Paid vacations? 552 00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:35,200 Come on. Labour unions had no power whatsoever. 553 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:44,560 Still they continued to fight for shorter hours 554 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:46,200 and better working conditions. 555 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,680 The phrase that became popular during that period was, 556 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:53,400 "Eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, 557 00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:55,320 "eight hours for what we will." 558 00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:58,800 Right. And the idea that eight hours for what we will would be to 559 00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,520 get educated, and to be able to finally 560 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:05,840 have the things that the wealthy seemed to be able to have. 561 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,400 Of course, the wealthy bosses, the Scrooge McDucks 562 00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:12,600 swimming in pools of 100 dollar bills resisted this fiercely. 563 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:19,880 Most of the captains of American industry 564 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:23,880 have at one point or another had their workers shot. 565 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:26,800 Go on, named any rich American industrials. 566 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:30,880 George Pullman, school dropout, 567 00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:34,760 invented the Pullman car. Hooray! Everyone can sleep on trains. 568 00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:39,200 Except for the 30 protesting workers at the Pullman brand in Chicago, who 569 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:42,480 were gunned down by federal marshals acting on Pullman's behest. 570 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,920 John D Rockefeller, school dropout, 571 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:50,600 founded standard oil. Everyone can heat their homes! 572 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:54,520 Except for the 66 striking miners, wives and children killed by 573 00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:57,920 Rockefeller's deputised militia in Ludlow, Colorado. 574 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:02,920 Henry Ford, school dropout. Every American can now afford a car. 575 00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:07,360 Except for the 64 laid-off employees machine-gunned by security guards at 576 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,120 Ford's plant in Dearborn, Michigan. 577 00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:13,640 The evil-eyed Thomas Edison, school dropout. 578 00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:17,000 OK, he never had any of his workers shot but he once electrocuted an 579 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:19,880 elephant just to spite his arch nemesis Nikola Tesla. 580 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:25,120 When Edison wasn't shooting current through circus animals, 581 00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,760 he was illuminating America, with his light bulb. 582 00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:30,040 But technological advances like this 583 00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:33,240 actually had a detrimental effect on the average worker. 584 00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:38,520 The great saviour of modern progress, indoor lighting, 585 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,320 just meant that people worked longer hours. 586 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:44,720 Manufacturers, who by nature are cold-blooded bastards, 587 00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,680 strived to get even more out of their workers. 588 00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:49,880 Something called Taylorism was born. 589 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:59,160 Frederick Taylor was a mechanical engineer from Philadelphia, 590 00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:02,600 who, while working at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Pennsylvania, 591 00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:07,240 became obsessed with time, motion, and human productivity. 592 00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:12,240 He invented the term "management consultant" and then became one. 593 00:34:12,240 --> 00:34:15,200 Now basically Taylor was that jobsworth twit at work. 594 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:17,000 You know - the one who insists 595 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,640 there's only one right way to do anything. 596 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:22,600 Except he took it to lunatic lengths. 597 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,240 He watched men loading pig iron and calculated the most efficient way to 598 00:34:26,240 --> 00:34:30,480 wield a pig iron shovel, so that the maximum amount of pig iron could be 599 00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:33,320 lifted in the shortest amount of pig time. 600 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:36,800 He invented something called the auto stereo cyclo chronograph, 601 00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:38,400 and ran around the country 602 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:42,240 delivering his pig iron calculations and micro motion studies. 603 00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:47,000 So naturally Taylor's studies were adopted by factory owners and 604 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:48,920 workers were stripped of the last few remaining 605 00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:51,480 ounces of dignity that they owned. 606 00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,920 Victorian nervousness, the Protestant ethic, craftsmanship, 607 00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:57,720 pride - they were gone. 608 00:34:57,720 --> 00:34:59,160 In fact, Taylor was so efficient 609 00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:02,440 that he accomplished everything he wanted to with his life 610 00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:05,080 by the age of 45, so then he retired and spent the 611 00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:08,400 remainder of his life staring at his stopwatch waiting to die. 612 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:16,120 The workers of America were once again becoming dehumanised. 613 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:20,720 Reduced to mindless repetition just like 614 00:35:20,720 --> 00:35:23,080 in those old Northern factory days. 615 00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:27,000 Where had the craftsmanship gone? 616 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:31,320 To live the American dream you need to be happy in your work. 617 00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:34,200 Otherwise it's not a dream, it's a nightmare. 618 00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:40,120 You're lucky enough to have an occupation 619 00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:43,120 where you're making something artistic or creative, 620 00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:45,080 you're probably a happy worker. 621 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:47,000 If you're making something out of scarcity, 622 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,000 you're probably a happy worker. 623 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:51,920 That's why luthiers are probably a lot happier 624 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:53,600 than people making smartphones. 625 00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:01,680 There's an old saying, 626 00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:03,960 "I hope they make Martins in heaven, 627 00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:06,400 "cos I know they make Gibsons in hell." 628 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,080 Actually, I just made that up. 629 00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:10,080 But if there is a workers' heaven, 630 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:12,480 then it's here in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, 631 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:14,520 home of Martin guitars, 632 00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,480 where every instrument is still crafted by hand. 633 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:21,000 And if you own one, the chances are the person who made it 634 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:23,280 is just as happy about that as you are. 635 00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:30,840 A lot of people have been here for a long time, 636 00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:33,480 there's a lot of pride in what we do, 637 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:36,080 but the question specifically about the work ethic, 638 00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:38,880 I think they see that when they come in, nobody is sweating, 639 00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,960 but we're working pretty hard and consistently focusing on quality. 640 00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,720 There's a tremendous satisfaction in working with your hands, 641 00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:51,200 creating something by innate skill, 642 00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:54,120 whether you're carving it from scratch out of rosewood 643 00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,000 or restoring it to its former glory. 644 00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:00,440 The best part of this job is making, and is 645 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:03,320 you know, getting an instrument together 646 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,400 for someone to play, and enjoy playing music with. 647 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:09,800 That's what music is all about, so that's what I get to do. 648 00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,200 I get to make people happy with 649 00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:14,640 getting an instrument for them, you know? 650 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:17,520 So you worked in England and you worked in America? 651 00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:21,480 Do you see a difference in the work ethic between Brits and Americans? 652 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:23,640 Yeah, yeah, there's a difference. 653 00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:29,880 I think the Americans, they like to work longer hours. 654 00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:35,200 Several of my colleagues here, they have two or three jobs, 655 00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:39,560 and I think that's part of the American dream, is to strive for the 656 00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:41,080 materialistic things in life. 657 00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:50,040 What truly makes work a happy experience? 658 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:54,400 Well, obviously, you know, a positive work environment, 659 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:56,640 a balance between work and leisure, 660 00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:58,800 being rewarded for your efforts. 661 00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:00,440 But there's something else. 662 00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:03,640 Making something of quality. 663 00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:05,240 Something with a soul. 664 00:38:05,240 --> 00:38:06,920 Look, I don't want to get all 665 00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:10,320 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance on you here, 666 00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:13,760 but when a worker knows that his efforts are going to result in 667 00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:16,120 something useful, something lasting, 668 00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:18,560 something infused with artistry, 669 00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:21,000 well, it's a beautiful thing. 670 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,920 You only have to look at a 55 T-bird. 671 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:25,360 The Golden Gate Bridge. 672 00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:27,440 An airstream trailer, for crying out loud. 673 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:31,000 Like, the workers who build them are rational people - 674 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:32,680 you're a rational guy, right? 675 00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:34,960 Yeah. And the product itself is romantic. 676 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:38,960 If you get a combination of rational and romantic, you get quality. 677 00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,880 And that's the secret to worker happiness. 678 00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:44,400 Love the thing you do. 679 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:46,040 It's that simple, folks. 680 00:38:56,320 --> 00:39:00,840 1920s America was a time of dramatic social and political change. 681 00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:04,360 For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. 682 00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:06,920 It was roaring, the Jazz age. 683 00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:08,760 Prohibition. Hemingway. Fitzgerald. 684 00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:12,440 Why, if you didn't know better, you could swear Americans were 685 00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:13,840 starting to get a little culture. 686 00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:18,760 An art movement began to gestate. 687 00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:21,800 A movement that at its core was anti-industrialist. 688 00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:25,720 The arts and crafts movement in the '20s 689 00:39:25,720 --> 00:39:27,880 wasn't just an artistic construct. 690 00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:30,080 It was a backlash to the barbaric crap 691 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:31,600 America was churning out 692 00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:34,880 and the conditions in which that crap was being produced. 693 00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,240 It advocated economic and social reform 694 00:39:37,240 --> 00:39:40,800 by returning to simplicity and traditionalism. 695 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,560 This derived more or less from the British social critic 696 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:48,280 John Ruskin, who believed that the moral and social health of a nation 697 00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:51,240 was directly related to its art, its architecture, 698 00:39:51,240 --> 00:39:53,840 and to the nature of the work itself. 699 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:58,840 This is a mission-style oak 700 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,000 handcrafted rocking chair, 701 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:04,720 based on the works of Gustav Stickley, 702 00:40:04,720 --> 00:40:09,200 one of the many artisans and craftsmen of the early 20th century 703 00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:11,000 who built Utopian societies, 704 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,040 so that they could abide and work in peace in an effort 705 00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:18,280 to rekindle the true meaning of the phrase "work ethic". 706 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:23,040 This isn't just a rocking chair - oh, no. 707 00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:26,320 This is a revolt against conventional life 708 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:29,560 and its insensibility to beauty. 709 00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:33,600 Against cheap industrial progress and the even cheaper cheapness of 710 00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:36,600 the lives that were lost for that progress. 711 00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:39,800 It was made well and sold cheap. 712 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:45,480 Today a genuine Stickley chair can go for upwards of five figures 713 00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:50,240 and many of them, many of them are owned by Barbra Streisand. 714 00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:02,360 Ultimately, the arts and crafts ethos would inform the work 715 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:06,000 of Frank Lloyd Wright, a name that inspires reverential gasps 716 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:09,640 whenever a highbrow discussion of American architecture takes place. 717 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:16,600 Frank used a unique vocabulary of form and space and pattern which, 718 00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:19,040 when he wasn't banging the wives of his clients, 719 00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:21,600 changed the notion of what architecture should be 720 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:22,720 to most Americans. 721 00:41:22,720 --> 00:41:26,400 He used open spaces and horizontal lines, 722 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:30,120 and a free-flowing sense of proportion, 723 00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:32,640 all the while maintaining a heady arrogance 724 00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:36,080 and usurping the talents of the underlings who work for him. 725 00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:38,520 And banging the wives of his clients. 726 00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:44,040 Among his most notable creations are his house here in Oak Park Chicago, 727 00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:46,360 Falling Water in Pennsylvania, 728 00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:48,240 the Usonian homes of New York, 729 00:41:48,240 --> 00:41:50,120 the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, 730 00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:53,000 Taliesin in Wisconsin, where a disgruntled cook 731 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,120 named Julian Carlton buried 732 00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:57,880 an axe in his mistress's head while Wright was away in Chicago 733 00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:00,040 on a so-called business trip. 734 00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:03,080 The cook then set fire to Wright's home and burned it to the ground, 735 00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:05,480 killing six more people. 736 00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:09,000 Many of these rooms are open to the public now, and allow visitors to 737 00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:13,600 wander around and gaze in amazement at Frank Lloyd Wright's handiwork, 738 00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:19,560 somehow conveniently overlooking the fact that a man put a fucking axe 739 00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:21,800 into the head of the woman Frank loved, 740 00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:25,040 and he had to bury her in a casket that he made with his own hands. 741 00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:29,240 Just about the most gut-wrenching, heartbreaking thing you can imagine. 742 00:42:29,240 --> 00:42:32,160 But, hey, come on, look at this filigree. 743 00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:40,360 What's the message here, folks? 744 00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:44,080 Life is a mixture of achievement and tragedy. 745 00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:45,960 If you've achieved something with your life, 746 00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:47,480 that's how the world remembers you. 747 00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:50,200 If you haven't, you're just some poor schmendrick 748 00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:53,280 whose mistress got killed by an axe-murderer. 749 00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:06,400 In terms of social reform, 750 00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:09,720 the arts and crafts movement was just a blip on the radar, 751 00:43:09,720 --> 00:43:13,000 pretty much killed off by the arrival of the Great Depression. 752 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:15,600 It's pretty hard to take pride in your work when there isn't any. 753 00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:25,160 At the start of the 1930s, 754 00:43:25,160 --> 00:43:29,200 more than a quarter of America's wage-earners were on the skid. 755 00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:30,440 For most of that decade, 756 00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:32,680 America was in the throes of depression, 757 00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:34,080 and amidst this upheaval, 758 00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:36,200 writers and artists used their work 759 00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:38,520 to document the working man's struggles. 760 00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:40,240 To try to dignify it. 761 00:43:40,240 --> 00:43:42,640 John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice And Men 762 00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:44,920 told the story of George and Lennie, 763 00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:49,000 two fellas trying desperately to get a slice of the American dream. 764 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:50,960 And guess what - it doesn't end well. 765 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:53,600 The struggle for the American dream 766 00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:57,080 was a compelling narrative not only in much of America's literature, 767 00:43:57,080 --> 00:43:58,200 but in its art as well. 768 00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:03,200 Grant Woods' American Gothic is arguably 769 00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:05,880 the most recognisable painting in America, 770 00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:09,000 and its meaning has always been open to speculation. 771 00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:10,360 What's going on here? 772 00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:13,360 What's the relationship between this apparently 773 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:14,760 humourless-looking couple, 774 00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:17,080 who look like their faces are being dragged into 775 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:19,960 the fertile aisle of the soil right underneath their feet? 776 00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:21,800 What's with the pitchfork? 777 00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:23,680 And the frivolously ornate window? 778 00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:25,560 In an otherwise claptrap house. 779 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:29,760 It's a real chin-scratcher, folks, but what the hell does it all mean? 780 00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:34,080 To me, these were the quintessential Americans. 781 00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:36,000 This was the American couple. 782 00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:40,400 A little kind of worn out but hard-working, really durable, 783 00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:44,920 resilient people, and for a long time that was my image of what the 784 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:46,440 American people look like. 785 00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:50,920 This is like the stalwart 786 00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:54,760 and pretty grim or at least not very humorous 787 00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:58,480 people that were the backbone of the country. 788 00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:00,600 I think that's maybe what it meant. 789 00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:02,640 If you look at the painting, it's almost as if 790 00:45:02,640 --> 00:45:04,840 you can see two different images at the same time. 791 00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:09,520 One is of this hard-working, simple, rugged, Midwest couple, 792 00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:14,680 and at the other time you see this dour, maybe doubtful, adrift, 793 00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:18,640 lonely couple who don't seem particularly happy 794 00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:21,840 with the lot that life has given them. 795 00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:26,400 I think a represents a kind of 796 00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:30,800 joyless austerity in work. 797 00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:33,120 We don't quite know what to make of these people, 798 00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:35,560 we don't know what to make of their age differences, 799 00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:40,040 we don't know whether they are being ridiculed or celebrated, 800 00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:43,440 we don't know if they're from the 1930s or the 1890s. 801 00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:45,760 This is not an easy painting, it's very dour, 802 00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:50,480 it's very severe, and yet it does suggest 803 00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:54,800 one's complex relationship to work. 804 00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:57,800 The painting isn't called American Gothic because of the emotionally 805 00:45:57,800 --> 00:45:59,880 vacant couple, it's called American Gothic 806 00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:01,600 because of the house behind them. 807 00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:04,440 Which you could buy in a catalogue at the time. 808 00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:08,160 And the house's defining feature is the ornate window, 809 00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:10,520 that's what drew Grant Wood to it. 810 00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:13,560 In this sense, Gothic doesn't mean Teutonic, 811 00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:18,280 or Edgar Allen Poe, or The Cure, it just means ornate. 812 00:46:18,280 --> 00:46:21,080 To a lot of Americans, 813 00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:23,960 American Gothic represents the stigma of landlessness, 814 00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:27,800 the sort of poverty always hanging right over our heads. 815 00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:30,440 Because, in America, if you don't work, you starve. 816 00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:32,280 Literally, figuratively, 817 00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:35,280 spiritually, when American strangers meet, 818 00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:38,560 first thing they ask each other is, "What do you do?" 819 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:41,040 Not, "What do you think? What do you feel?" 820 00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:42,680 "What do you do?" 821 00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:46,520 An American's character is defined by his labours. 822 00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:48,480 What is why this posing couple looks like 823 00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:51,280 they can't wait for Grant Wood to finish his portrait, 824 00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:53,040 so they can get back to pitchforking. 825 00:47:02,720 --> 00:47:05,960 Wood was a regionalist painter trying to capture the essence of the 826 00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:07,880 Midwest in his portraits. 827 00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:10,840 He put remarkable detail into the human characters he painted. 828 00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:16,800 But his landscapes are cartoonish. 829 00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:20,800 Grant Wood's version of Midwestern American is fat, bulbous, 830 00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:23,360 impossibly pregnant with greenery - 831 00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:25,400 why, a weed would be blasphemy. 832 00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,400 But Wood wasn't being naive, he was being satirical. 833 00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:35,080 In the real world, Wood's bountiful Midwest was blowing away. 834 00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:37,600 The Dust Bowl had devastated the land. 835 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:40,440 Those hard-working farmers of the Midwest 836 00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:42,880 had actually overworked the soil. 837 00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:44,680 And the promise of endless abundance 838 00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:46,800 that America was built on had become a joke. 839 00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:55,080 When we think about the real landscape of farming 840 00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:57,360 in the Midwest in the 1930s, 841 00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:02,320 you have droughts, the Dust Bowl, farm strikes, labour unrest. 842 00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:06,960 None of this comes into the sunny landscapes of Grant Wood. 843 00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:10,440 He is as far removed as you could imagine, 844 00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:13,680 from the kind of turmoil of farming in the 1930s, 845 00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:15,840 and the reason for that is that, for him, 846 00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:19,480 farm-scapes had very little to do with the reality of farming. 847 00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:26,000 They are homages to the farms in an idealised sense of his childhood. 848 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:29,840 Grant claimed to be the plainest kind of fella you can find. 849 00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:33,280 "There isn't a single thing I've done or experienced," he said, 850 00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:35,760 "that's been even the least bit exciting." 851 00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:41,960 He was a modest, homespun-looking guy, 852 00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:45,640 who you'd pass on any small-town streets and barely notice. 853 00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:47,520 But that was deceiving because, in fact, 854 00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:49,360 Wood was a classically trained artist 855 00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:51,240 who'd studied extensively in Europe, 856 00:48:51,240 --> 00:48:54,680 and could faithfully imitate the masters like Van Gogh or Monet. 857 00:48:56,640 --> 00:48:59,720 By 1930, the year that he painted American Gothic, 858 00:48:59,720 --> 00:49:02,920 Grant Wood had clearly come into his own distinctive style, 859 00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:04,320 and it divided people. 860 00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:06,720 Serious art critics, they didn't like it, 861 00:49:06,720 --> 00:49:09,480 they thought it was too naive and non-dimensional. 862 00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:12,880 You know, all those boob-shaped trees and hills, 863 00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:15,560 kind of stuff you would find in a gift shop. 864 00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:17,040 Way too feminine. 865 00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:22,360 Conversely, the human figures in his paintings are all masculine. 866 00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:23,960 Even the woman look like men. 867 00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:28,320 If his hard-working beefcake manly men figures 868 00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:31,160 remind you of anything, it might be this. 869 00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:35,280 Romantic nationalism. 870 00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:38,760 The idea that the superiority of a nation is tied to its terrain. 871 00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:43,000 The connection between Wood's work 872 00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:48,120 and a kind of fascist aesthetic is not a new idea. 873 00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:51,280 Wood's nemesis at the University of Iowa, 874 00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:54,800 Horst Janssen, tried to discredit Wood 875 00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:58,360 in the years after Wood's death in 1942. 876 00:49:58,360 --> 00:50:00,320 Janssen was a die-hard modernist, 877 00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:04,720 he loathed Wood's work, and he wrote a very influential article 878 00:50:04,720 --> 00:50:07,160 in the mid-1940s comparing Wood's work 879 00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:09,400 to the aesthetic of the Third Reich. 880 00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:13,520 He was absolutely damning, it was terrible for his reputation. 881 00:50:13,520 --> 00:50:18,760 Wholly off the mark, but was very much a part of mid-1940s criticism 882 00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:20,720 after Wood's death, conveniently, 883 00:50:20,720 --> 00:50:23,720 when he could no longer defend himself. 884 00:50:23,720 --> 00:50:27,880 # New Country Corn Flakes 885 00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:29,480 # From fields of corn 886 00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:31,520 # So majestically waving. # 887 00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:35,040 No American painting has been more parodied than American Gothic. 888 00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:39,240 Anytime you want reduce someone to simple one-dimensional yokels, 889 00:50:39,240 --> 00:50:42,320 pose them with a pair of overalls and a pitchfork. 890 00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:46,400 # New Country Corn Flakes, They're made from corn. # 891 00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:49,200 All right, we get it, it's visual shorthand 892 00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:51,440 for people too uptight to relax. 893 00:50:51,440 --> 00:50:54,040 But relaxation was always going to be the antidote, 894 00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:56,880 to the chronic overwork that drives America. 895 00:50:56,880 --> 00:50:59,760 Give people something to do, placate them. 896 00:51:03,240 --> 00:51:07,120 The greatest work incentive America ever came up with was escaping the 897 00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:11,040 crap you put up with each day, and going into a darkroom, 898 00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:14,600 staring at a blank canvas that projected dreams onto it. 899 00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:19,400 In the year 1925, 50 million people a week went to the movies. 900 00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:22,000 The equivalent of half the nation's population. 901 00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:24,040 In Chicago, in 1929, 902 00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:27,280 theatres had enough seats for half the city's population 903 00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:28,800 to attend a movie each day. 904 00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:37,760 American cinema-goers were now being fed the American dream by Hollywood. 905 00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:39,800 Not only were they looking at themselves, 906 00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:42,480 they were looking at people who had reinvented themselves. 907 00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:45,920 And, for a few hours, everyone could escape reality. 908 00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:48,720 Before remembering that the next day they'd have to go back to the 909 00:51:48,720 --> 00:51:51,120 production line loading that pig iron. 910 00:51:56,240 --> 00:51:58,960 The emergence of modernism in America finally 911 00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:01,400 allowed film-makers and writers and artists 912 00:52:01,400 --> 00:52:03,280 to question the American dream. 913 00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:07,440 In fact, anytime a literary or artistic endeavour is designated the 914 00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:09,640 great American so-and-so, 915 00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:13,120 it's actually about how great America isn't. 916 00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:17,080 Take the great American novel, The Great Gatsby, what's it about? 917 00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:21,440 Self-made millionaire trying to use his ill-gotten gains to buy his way 918 00:52:21,440 --> 00:52:25,600 into Long Island society, but he can't have the one thing he wants, 919 00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:26,880 Daisy Buchanan... 920 00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:31,560 ..played by Mia Farrow in the 1974 film version of the book. 921 00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:34,480 Who convincingly portrayed the character's shallow quality. 922 00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:35,680 Why didn't you wait for me? 923 00:52:36,920 --> 00:52:37,960 Because... 924 00:52:39,520 --> 00:52:43,240 Rich girls don't marry poor boys, Jay Gatsby. 925 00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:48,880 The great American play, Death of a Salesman. 926 00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:51,760 The American dream has left Willy Lohman behind, 927 00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:53,240 but he can't let it go, 928 00:52:53,240 --> 00:52:56,760 and he tries heartbreakingly to instil it into his kid, Biff. 929 00:52:58,440 --> 00:53:00,400 Why is he crying? 930 00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:05,040 Dad, will you let me go, for God's sake? 931 00:53:06,640 --> 00:53:08,880 Will you take that phony dream, 932 00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:11,560 and burn it before something happens? 933 00:53:12,600 --> 00:53:15,880 The Great American movie, The Godfather. 934 00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:18,200 The violent criminal actually believes 935 00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:20,840 his family and his business can be accepted 936 00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:23,040 into mainstream American society, 937 00:53:23,040 --> 00:53:26,520 on his own insanely misguided terms. 938 00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:29,280 I worked my whole life, and I don't apologise, 939 00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,160 to take care of my family, 940 00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:33,960 and I refuse to be a fool, 941 00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:39,080 dancing on a string held by all those big shots. 942 00:53:40,720 --> 00:53:42,760 The message is always the same, 943 00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:45,120 OK, hard work may make you money, 944 00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:49,040 but it can't buy you love, or status, or redemption. 945 00:53:49,040 --> 00:53:51,160 When Americans get above their status, 946 00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:53,680 they become victims of tragedy. 947 00:53:53,680 --> 00:53:56,880 In a way, we are all not-so-great Gatsbys. 948 00:54:02,200 --> 00:54:04,240 By the time the '50s rolled around, 949 00:54:04,240 --> 00:54:06,120 the nightmare of the previous decades 950 00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:08,040 had comfortably reverted to a dream. 951 00:54:08,040 --> 00:54:10,920 Americans could pursue it with unbridled optimism, 952 00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:12,360 and, boy, did they ever. 953 00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:15,200 They bought everything they could get their hands on. 954 00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:16,400 It was all new and shiny 955 00:54:16,400 --> 00:54:18,720 and a reminder that they'd defeated fascism. 956 00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:26,400 The idea that the '50s was the golden age of happiness in America 957 00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:28,680 is one of the great lies of our history. 958 00:54:28,680 --> 00:54:31,280 Yeah, it was a great decade, if you were white and middle-class. 959 00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:36,520 There was peace and prosperity, 960 00:54:36,520 --> 00:54:38,440 Elvis, big fin Oldsmobiles. 961 00:54:39,640 --> 00:54:44,360 But the '50s was really a decade of physical and spiritual restlessness. 962 00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:47,880 Big-city northerners pulled up stakes and headed south and West. 963 00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:52,360 California's population grew by 49%, 964 00:54:52,360 --> 00:54:55,120 Florida's by 79%. 965 00:54:55,120 --> 00:54:59,320 By 1960, a third of America had traded in the urban grind 966 00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:02,000 for a driveway and a sad tree. 967 00:55:08,560 --> 00:55:09,920 Uncle Ike Eisenhower, 968 00:55:09,920 --> 00:55:11,920 America's non-politician President, 969 00:55:11,920 --> 00:55:16,120 worried that Americans were becoming deadened in mind and soul 970 00:55:16,120 --> 00:55:18,760 by a materialistic philosophy of life. 971 00:55:18,760 --> 00:55:23,000 So in 1957, he passed a bill to put "In God We Trust" 972 00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:24,920 on American money. 973 00:55:24,920 --> 00:55:27,720 Just to remind Americans that every impulsive purchase 974 00:55:27,720 --> 00:55:29,720 was a slap in God's face. 975 00:55:30,880 --> 00:55:33,520 There's something wrong with human nature! 976 00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:38,000 What is it in the nature of men that causes men to lie? 977 00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:39,680 And hate? And cheat? 978 00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:41,080 And steal? 979 00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:46,320 God started showing up on TV as well. 980 00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:49,120 His Earthly vessel was a lantern-jawed Calvinist preacher 981 00:55:49,120 --> 00:55:51,040 from North Carolina named Billy Graham. 982 00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:54,080 Graham's televised crusades... 983 00:55:54,080 --> 00:55:55,520 Yep, that's what he called them. 984 00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:57,520 ..were the equivalent of a rock concert, 985 00:55:57,520 --> 00:56:00,800 culminating in a discharge of salvation-seekers 986 00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:03,440 streaming toward his pulpit for repentance. 987 00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:07,880 Graham became America's first religious superstar. 988 00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:11,200 His message wasn't much different from those Massachusetts Puritans. 989 00:56:11,200 --> 00:56:13,120 Only God can judge. 990 00:56:13,120 --> 00:56:16,000 But a more self-centred piety was also forming, 991 00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:18,480 one that better served the working stiff of the '50s. 992 00:56:19,680 --> 00:56:22,680 This preacher promoted the gospel of self-esteem, 993 00:56:22,680 --> 00:56:24,360 and his God was less an avenging angel 994 00:56:24,360 --> 00:56:27,000 and more like a motivational speaker. 995 00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:32,200 In 1952, Doctor Norman Vincent Peale published a self-help book 996 00:56:32,200 --> 00:56:34,760 called The Power of Positive Thinking. 997 00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:38,000 It was, in essence, a dream manual supplanting the 998 00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:41,080 physical work ethic with self-realisation. 999 00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:43,880 Peale preached that what the mind can conceive and believe, 1000 00:56:43,880 --> 00:56:45,000 the mind can achieve - 1001 00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:47,440 through a combination of fate and self-confidence, 1002 00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:50,800 any obstacle could be surmounted. 1003 00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:54,160 So the only logical conclusion for his followers was that if they did 1004 00:56:54,160 --> 00:56:58,080 exactly what this man said, they could end up just like him. 1005 00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:01,880 A man whose picture was on the cover of his own book. 1006 00:57:01,880 --> 00:57:05,320 And as they filed out of the auditorium after his sermons, 1007 00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:07,600 they got a double dose of inspiration, 1008 00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:10,520 by seeing that this man wasn't so high and mighty 1009 00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:14,000 that he wouldn't be seen standing in the lobby amidst 1010 00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:19,840 stacks of the very same book he'd just been talking about. 1011 00:57:23,040 --> 00:57:26,320 For three consecutive years between 1953 and 1956, 1012 00:57:26,320 --> 00:57:30,520 only the Bible outsold The Power Of Positive Thinking. 1013 00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:34,000 Church attendance rose by 20% in the '50s. 1014 00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:35,600 The rich didn't get much richer, 1015 00:57:35,600 --> 00:57:39,880 the poor didn't get much poorer but the middle class boomed! 1016 00:57:39,880 --> 00:57:41,520 Mushroomed! 1017 00:57:41,520 --> 00:57:46,040 In 50 short years, America had gone from a subsistence economy 1018 00:57:46,040 --> 00:57:50,080 to a consumer economy, to an acquisition economy. 1019 00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:54,560 In 1950, there were 10 million television sets, 1020 00:57:54,560 --> 00:57:56,640 by 1960, 47 million. 1021 00:57:56,640 --> 00:58:00,240 Many of them tuned in to see Ozzie and Harriet, 1022 00:58:00,240 --> 00:58:04,240 a sitcom about a conformist white suburban family, 1023 00:58:04,240 --> 00:58:09,320 mirroring the white suburban conformist families watching them. 1024 00:58:09,320 --> 00:58:11,200 Look, if you two are gonna loaf, 1025 00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:13,560 you go in the other room and do it. I've got work do here. 1026 00:58:13,560 --> 00:58:17,080 You know, Sonny, I have a hunch we're not wanted around here. 1027 00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:18,520 You know, I think you're right. 1028 00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:21,240 You don't have to knock me over the knuckles with a wooden spoon. 1029 00:58:23,200 --> 00:58:25,160 Ha-ha! A wooden spoon. 1030 00:58:25,160 --> 00:58:26,680 Where's my knee? 1031 00:58:26,680 --> 00:58:29,640 The major networks created shows like Ozzie and Harriet, 1032 00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:33,560 Leave It To Beaver, and The Donna Reed Show to mollify viewers. 1033 00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:37,760 These characters didn't talk about the Marshall Plan or Palestine, 1034 00:58:37,760 --> 00:58:40,280 blacks and Mexicans didn't inhabit this world. 1035 00:58:40,280 --> 00:58:43,520 It was an antiseptic vision of middle-class America 1036 00:58:43,520 --> 00:58:46,960 where everything smelled minty fresh. 1037 00:58:46,960 --> 00:58:51,440 When any president from Reagan to Bush to Trump trots out that 1038 00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:53,880 Make America Great Again bromide, 1039 00:58:53,880 --> 00:58:56,080 this is the era they are invoking. 1040 00:58:56,080 --> 00:58:58,560 If the American Dream is a promise of upward mobility, 1041 00:58:58,560 --> 00:59:01,200 for one brief period in our history, it worked. 1042 00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:04,440 Assuming your idea of the American Dream is cultural malnutrition, 1043 00:59:04,440 --> 00:59:06,960 patio furniture and a sad tree. 1044 00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:09,920 What was so great about the '50s? 1045 00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:13,240 Well, the middle class mushroomed, the economy was robust, 1046 00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:16,440 the opening salvos to the civil rights movement were fired. 1047 00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:19,280 The interstate was built, people were going places. 1048 00:59:19,280 --> 00:59:21,720 So, naturally, something had to be invented 1049 00:59:21,720 --> 00:59:25,080 to tap into America's insecurity about its abundance. 1050 00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:26,960 The Red Scare. 1051 00:59:26,960 --> 00:59:28,480 I don't think you have 1052 00:59:28,480 --> 00:59:34,000 any conception of the dangers of the Communist Party. 1053 00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:36,080 The Communist witch-hunt of the '50s 1054 00:59:36,080 --> 00:59:39,560 orchestrated by the firebrand nutcase Joseph McCarthy 1055 00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:42,920 tapped into the heart of America's insecurity about its 1056 00:59:42,920 --> 00:59:44,360 new-found wealth. 1057 00:59:46,320 --> 00:59:48,920 A conformist, brainwashed nation was under threat 1058 00:59:48,920 --> 00:59:52,840 of being turned into a conformist brainwashed nation. 1059 00:59:52,840 --> 00:59:56,400 If fighting communists and getting a bit rough with them 1060 00:59:56,400 --> 01:00:00,480 is un-American, then I must plead guilty to being un-American. 1061 01:00:04,360 --> 01:00:07,160 The target of McCarthy and his right-wing zealots 1062 01:00:07,160 --> 01:00:08,800 was the working left. 1063 01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:11,680 The people who made their living as academics, politicians, 1064 01:00:11,680 --> 01:00:13,120 screenwriters, artists. 1065 01:00:13,120 --> 01:00:15,480 And the best thing you can do to an artist is to 1066 01:00:15,480 --> 01:00:17,920 tell him he can't be an artist. 1067 01:00:17,920 --> 01:00:19,520 The mass conformity of the '50s, 1068 01:00:19,520 --> 01:00:21,640 and the hysterical attempts to protect it 1069 01:00:21,640 --> 01:00:26,920 led to rock'n'roll, abstract Expressionism, beatniks, 1070 01:00:26,920 --> 01:00:32,600 the books of Hugh Selby, Henry Miller and that begat hippies, 1071 01:00:32,600 --> 01:00:37,160 counter-culturalism, the SDS, the Black Panthers, 1072 01:00:37,160 --> 01:00:40,640 LSD, Charles Manson, 1073 01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:44,360 alternative medicine, continental philosophy, 1074 01:00:44,360 --> 01:00:46,000 social media addiction, 1075 01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:49,840 and ultimately the dystopia that we live in today. 1076 01:00:51,800 --> 01:00:53,880 Although McCarthy was doing his best 1077 01:00:53,880 --> 01:00:56,920 to whip up his anti-Communist hysteria, 1078 01:00:56,920 --> 01:00:59,760 most Americans were just happy to live the dream. 1079 01:00:59,760 --> 01:01:04,320 Ensconced in a customised bungalow somewhere in rolling Meadows Estates 1080 01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:07,080 with a big old fancy set of wheels parked outside. 1081 01:01:16,880 --> 01:01:18,960 In a prefab world, craftsmanship 1082 01:01:18,960 --> 01:01:21,360 will always find a way to seep through. 1083 01:01:21,360 --> 01:01:24,480 You know, in the 1930s, it was a fancy, shmancy window 1084 01:01:24,480 --> 01:01:25,800 in a claptrap house. 1085 01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:28,680 In 1956, it was a Lincoln Premiere. 1086 01:01:28,680 --> 01:01:31,280 Look at this - chrome, tail fins, 1087 01:01:31,280 --> 01:01:35,400 white walls, tucked and rolled interior, plenty of headroom. 1088 01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:38,240 Seats 12 for dinner, six miles to a gallon, 1089 01:01:38,240 --> 01:01:42,320 Detroit was the manufacturing envy of the world. 1090 01:01:42,320 --> 01:01:45,920 You are about to witness the very exciting story 1091 01:01:45,920 --> 01:01:47,640 of a city and its people. 1092 01:01:48,680 --> 01:01:51,800 It will be an adventure that will open new sites 1093 01:01:51,800 --> 01:01:53,800 and familiar surroundings. 1094 01:01:56,800 --> 01:02:00,320 It was a time when America was bold and optimistic about its future and 1095 01:02:00,320 --> 01:02:03,360 Detroit responded with big cylinder monsters, 1096 01:02:03,360 --> 01:02:05,440 dripping with chrome and luxury. 1097 01:02:08,600 --> 01:02:11,280 This was, of course, the direct result of Henry Ford, who, 1098 01:02:11,280 --> 01:02:13,560 when he wasn't gunning down his employees, 1099 01:02:13,560 --> 01:02:15,280 had figured out how to get them to build a new 1100 01:02:15,280 --> 01:02:17,800 car every two and a half hours. 1101 01:02:17,800 --> 01:02:20,640 America was on the move, and Ford, Chrysler, 1102 01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:22,480 and General Motors sold millions. 1103 01:02:23,480 --> 01:02:28,400 Suffice it to say, Detroit was the industrial showpiece of the world. 1104 01:02:28,400 --> 01:02:31,400 A place where people could come to find opportunity, 1105 01:02:31,400 --> 01:02:33,520 the epitome of the American Dream. 1106 01:02:35,160 --> 01:02:36,920 Then it all went down the dumper. 1107 01:02:42,600 --> 01:02:44,840 How could the legacy of Henry Ford, 1108 01:02:44,840 --> 01:02:47,400 an industrialist so worldly admired 1109 01:02:47,400 --> 01:02:50,440 that Hitler himself had given him a shout out in Mein Kampf, 1110 01:02:50,440 --> 01:02:52,320 turn into this? 1111 01:02:56,960 --> 01:02:58,840 Nobody's buying tyres no more, for the 1112 01:02:58,840 --> 01:03:02,920 simple fact that, you know, the economy, the gas situation, it's 1113 01:03:02,920 --> 01:03:05,960 a major crisis. 1114 01:03:05,960 --> 01:03:09,040 There's a lot of people already laid off, and if any more 1115 01:03:09,040 --> 01:03:12,720 get laid off it's going to be a crisis out there, boy. 1116 01:03:12,720 --> 01:03:15,480 If they think the economy is bad now, 1117 01:03:15,480 --> 01:03:18,360 what is it going to be like when all them people are all laid off? 1118 01:03:18,360 --> 01:03:19,760 What are they going to do? 1119 01:03:19,760 --> 01:03:23,560 It seems like a crime and that would obviously go up, you know, 1120 01:03:23,560 --> 01:03:26,040 it would darn near make a Christian turn bad. 1121 01:03:29,600 --> 01:03:32,680 Detroit went bust because it made a product that many, 1122 01:03:32,680 --> 01:03:34,840 many Americans did not want, 1123 01:03:34,840 --> 01:03:37,920 and then once they lost that brand loyalty, 1124 01:03:37,920 --> 01:03:42,600 they could not figure out for many years how to recover it. 1125 01:03:42,600 --> 01:03:47,760 And what was one of the great, unionised, 1126 01:03:47,760 --> 01:03:51,680 well-paid, secure, industrial workforces 1127 01:03:51,680 --> 01:03:55,520 in the entire world suddenly found itself with 1128 01:03:55,520 --> 01:03:58,560 shrinking prospects and ultimately most of them out of a job. 1129 01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:02,240 Not just on the auto assembly lines, 1130 01:04:02,240 --> 01:04:05,680 but companies that made parts to sell to GM, to sell to Ford, 1131 01:04:05,680 --> 01:04:07,080 to sell to Chrysler. 1132 01:04:07,080 --> 01:04:09,240 All those people out of business, 1133 01:04:09,240 --> 01:04:11,440 all those workers displaced, 1134 01:04:11,440 --> 01:04:15,360 and Detroit as a city collapsed in on itself, 1135 01:04:15,360 --> 01:04:19,160 and depopulated, and portions of it are coming back now, 1136 01:04:19,160 --> 01:04:22,600 but it's never going to be a great American city again. 1137 01:04:22,600 --> 01:04:24,040 It's a great tragedy, 1138 01:04:24,040 --> 01:04:26,200 it's a great tragedy brought about 1139 01:04:26,200 --> 01:04:28,440 not by the failure of the workers but 1140 01:04:28,440 --> 01:04:30,240 by the failures of the managerial class. 1141 01:04:31,280 --> 01:04:32,920 Let me tell you a little story. 1142 01:04:32,920 --> 01:04:34,720 When I was growing up in the south, 1143 01:04:34,720 --> 01:04:37,520 there was a fellow in our town used to just stand in the middle of the 1144 01:04:37,520 --> 01:04:39,320 road and just yell. 1145 01:04:39,320 --> 01:04:42,600 "Mustang shitbox!" That's all he would say, "Mustang shitbox!" 1146 01:04:42,600 --> 01:04:43,680 "Mustang shitbox!" 1147 01:04:44,840 --> 01:04:48,760 A bit of a fixture. So, naturally, we called him Mustang Shitbox, 1148 01:04:48,760 --> 01:04:52,560 and the story was that he'd gone to Detroit to work on Mustangs 1149 01:04:52,560 --> 01:04:54,240 because he loved Mustangs, 1150 01:04:54,240 --> 01:04:56,920 just lived and breathed Mustangs. 1151 01:04:56,920 --> 01:04:59,240 By the time he got the job, the production values 1152 01:04:59,240 --> 01:05:01,200 on the Mustang were so poor that 1153 01:05:01,200 --> 01:05:03,560 basically it was just a joke on wheels. 1154 01:05:03,560 --> 01:05:07,280 The soul of the machine was destroyed and it destroyed his soul. 1155 01:05:07,280 --> 01:05:09,600 And he came home just a broken man. 1156 01:05:09,600 --> 01:05:11,520 So what had happened? 1157 01:05:11,520 --> 01:05:14,000 Well, Ford had fallen on bad times, right? 1158 01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:16,960 Horrible design, bad management, 1159 01:05:16,960 --> 01:05:18,320 Japanese competition, 1160 01:05:18,320 --> 01:05:20,840 and. worst of all, the city of Detroit had turned its 1161 01:05:20,840 --> 01:05:23,240 back on Ford. Wouldn't help him out. 1162 01:05:23,240 --> 01:05:29,040 Ford built Detroit. When it needed Detroit's help, Detroit shafted it. 1163 01:05:29,040 --> 01:05:30,440 So what are you saying, Rich? 1164 01:05:30,440 --> 01:05:31,960 Detroit ruined a human being? 1165 01:05:31,960 --> 01:05:33,360 No, I'm not saying that at all. 1166 01:05:33,360 --> 01:05:35,840 I mean truth is, Mustang Shitbox, that guy, 1167 01:05:35,840 --> 01:05:40,120 that dude was messed up long before he went to Detroit, whoa. 1168 01:05:42,040 --> 01:05:45,840 Our town should've never let him go in the first place, that's my point. 1169 01:05:45,840 --> 01:05:48,520 Communities are supposed to take care of their people. 1170 01:06:03,040 --> 01:06:05,320 For the people of small-town America, 1171 01:06:05,320 --> 01:06:09,520 security comes from being part of a company and part of the community. 1172 01:06:09,520 --> 01:06:11,680 So what do you do when the wheels fall off? 1173 01:06:25,320 --> 01:06:27,560 This is Lancaster, Ohio. 1174 01:06:27,560 --> 01:06:32,200 In 1947, this town was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine as the 1175 01:06:32,200 --> 01:06:34,760 quintessential American town. 1176 01:06:34,760 --> 01:06:37,040 Home of the Anchor Hocking glass Company, 1177 01:06:37,040 --> 01:06:40,040 the largest manufacturer of table glassware in the world. 1178 01:06:40,040 --> 01:06:42,000 Everybody loved Anchor Hocking, 1179 01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:45,320 if you gave your mum Anchor Hocking glasses at Christmas, 1180 01:06:45,320 --> 01:06:47,160 you were good for the year. 1181 01:06:47,160 --> 01:06:49,400 Then something horrible happened. 1182 01:06:49,400 --> 01:06:51,400 The company got sold to a bigger company, 1183 01:06:51,400 --> 01:06:54,720 they sold it to another company, 1184 01:06:54,720 --> 01:06:58,560 and every one of them just squeezed the profits right off the top. 1185 01:06:58,560 --> 01:07:02,280 They pilfered, they purloined, they plundered it, 1186 01:07:02,280 --> 01:07:05,320 people would come to work and not even know who owned the company that 1187 01:07:05,320 --> 01:07:06,880 day, this is the kind of town that 1188 01:07:06,880 --> 01:07:09,760 even Springsteen wouldn't write a song about. It's that grim. 1189 01:07:11,200 --> 01:07:13,440 We have a higher poverty rate than we once had. 1190 01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:15,600 My wife is a teacher in the school system, 1191 01:07:15,600 --> 01:07:17,480 and we have a 50% or so poverty rate, 1192 01:07:17,480 --> 01:07:19,120 people that receive free lunches, 1193 01:07:19,120 --> 01:07:21,760 that type of thing, which just did not used to be the case, 1194 01:07:21,760 --> 01:07:23,720 this used to be a very upper-middle-class town. 1195 01:07:23,720 --> 01:07:26,720 There's not as many jobs. There's more families struggling, 1196 01:07:26,720 --> 01:07:31,080 There's not any help for anybody. 1197 01:07:31,080 --> 01:07:36,080 And if you need help for things, you don't meet those requirements. 1198 01:07:37,120 --> 01:07:39,520 It's like they make it impossible around here to live. 1199 01:07:50,480 --> 01:07:54,080 In these economically depressed regions of the American Midwest 1200 01:07:54,080 --> 01:07:57,920 and Great Lakes region, Lancaster, Youngstown, Detroit, 1201 01:07:57,920 --> 01:07:59,640 these famous examples, 1202 01:07:59,640 --> 01:08:02,320 there seems to be a real crisis of confidence. 1203 01:08:02,320 --> 01:08:04,640 People feel trapped in these communities. 1204 01:08:04,640 --> 01:08:08,720 They don't have the resources to leave, but at the same time staying 1205 01:08:08,720 --> 01:08:14,200 provides no standard of living, and it is emblematic of this 1206 01:08:14,200 --> 01:08:16,720 potential transformation, 1207 01:08:16,720 --> 01:08:20,720 this post-industrial transformation in the work ethic, 1208 01:08:20,720 --> 01:08:24,440 where a hard days' work doesn't provide a decent wage, 1209 01:08:24,440 --> 01:08:26,640 doesn't provide a living wage. 1210 01:08:26,640 --> 01:08:29,720 78% of the people in this town voted for Trump, 1211 01:08:29,720 --> 01:08:32,600 not because they wanted to, because they're desperate. 1212 01:08:35,360 --> 01:08:38,920 And so they pinned their hopes on a New York City millionaire with a bad 1213 01:08:38,920 --> 01:08:41,120 combover, who's never set foot in Ohio. 1214 01:08:41,120 --> 01:08:44,560 Unless, of course, that foot was covered in a golf shoe. 1215 01:08:44,560 --> 01:08:47,640 I want to make our military so strong, so powerful, 1216 01:08:47,640 --> 01:08:50,840 so great that nobody's going to mess with us. 1217 01:08:50,840 --> 01:08:53,200 When Trump got elected, a lot of people worried 1218 01:08:53,200 --> 01:08:54,760 he was going to start a war. 1219 01:08:54,760 --> 01:08:58,320 I don't think they foresaw he was going to restart the Civil War. 1220 01:08:58,320 --> 01:09:00,560 The only problem with the new old Civil War 1221 01:09:00,560 --> 01:09:03,280 is it's based on our revised ideas of morality. 1222 01:09:03,280 --> 01:09:04,520 What does that mean? 1223 01:09:04,520 --> 01:09:06,480 OK, let me ask you this. 1224 01:09:06,480 --> 01:09:08,160 Why has it taken 160 years 1225 01:09:08,160 --> 01:09:11,680 for all those Confederate statues to be demolished? 1226 01:09:11,680 --> 01:09:13,920 Because up until a few years ago, 1227 01:09:13,920 --> 01:09:18,280 most white people didn't actually think they were that racist. 1228 01:09:18,280 --> 01:09:22,240 This nation today, regardless of social class, 1229 01:09:22,240 --> 01:09:25,040 is more deeply divided than it has been 1230 01:09:25,040 --> 01:09:27,440 at any time since the Civil War. 1231 01:09:27,440 --> 01:09:29,520 You have to take into account that 1232 01:09:29,520 --> 01:09:31,960 the Republican Party has essentially 1233 01:09:31,960 --> 01:09:34,800 become the National White People's Party. 1234 01:09:34,800 --> 01:09:39,200 And large numbers of middle-class Americans are not white. 1235 01:09:39,200 --> 01:09:42,920 Interestingly, it's the regions where we have the highest levels of 1236 01:09:42,920 --> 01:09:47,520 immigrant populations are booming economically, are the most diverse, 1237 01:09:47,520 --> 01:09:48,960 and are the most prosperous. 1238 01:09:48,960 --> 01:09:51,400 Diversity and prosperity seem to go hand-in-hand. 1239 01:09:52,560 --> 01:09:55,600 So if I'm watching Fox News and I hear how immigrants are ruining the 1240 01:09:55,600 --> 01:09:59,320 country, I'm going to probably be much more likely to believe that - 1241 01:09:59,320 --> 01:10:01,960 if there are not immigrants who I've actually met, 1242 01:10:01,960 --> 01:10:04,480 and live in the community and I see that they're contributing. 1243 01:10:04,480 --> 01:10:07,160 It easier to stereotype and dehumanise 1244 01:10:07,160 --> 01:10:09,560 that which you've never met before. 1245 01:10:26,400 --> 01:10:28,720 Americans like to brag that they don't have a 1246 01:10:28,720 --> 01:10:30,280 class system like Britain - 1247 01:10:30,280 --> 01:10:32,720 you know all that Downton Abbey stuff. 1248 01:10:32,720 --> 01:10:35,480 They like to think that travel and distance 1249 01:10:35,480 --> 01:10:38,720 and migration turns them into a homogenised society 1250 01:10:38,720 --> 01:10:40,680 with a shared work ethic. 1251 01:10:40,680 --> 01:10:42,480 That's total bullshit. 1252 01:10:42,480 --> 01:10:44,960 America has a class system, it's very simple. 1253 01:10:44,960 --> 01:10:47,880 When you go to work, if your name is on the outside of the building you 1254 01:10:47,880 --> 01:10:49,160 work in, you're rich. 1255 01:10:49,160 --> 01:10:51,720 If your name is on your desk, you're middle class. 1256 01:10:51,720 --> 01:10:54,640 If you're name is on your shirt, you're fucking poor! 1257 01:10:54,640 --> 01:10:56,440 It's like I said earlier, 1258 01:10:56,440 --> 01:10:59,440 when Americans raise above their status, 1259 01:10:59,440 --> 01:11:01,040 they are victims of tragedy. 1260 01:11:01,040 --> 01:11:04,520 When they can't raise above their status, they're victims of comedy. 1261 01:11:04,520 --> 01:11:08,360 A lot of the sitcoms in the early days of television 1262 01:11:08,360 --> 01:11:13,000 cast poor workers and white trash as objects of disparagement. 1263 01:11:13,000 --> 01:11:16,280 Struggling to maintain some semblance of pride. 1264 01:11:20,960 --> 01:11:22,320 The Honeymooners! 1265 01:11:22,320 --> 01:11:25,440 When you saw the opening titles to The Honeymooners, 1266 01:11:25,440 --> 01:11:27,800 you knew it was a show where Jackie Gleason, 1267 01:11:27,800 --> 01:11:29,520 playing a Brooklyn bus driver, 1268 01:11:29,520 --> 01:11:33,360 and Art Carney, a sewer worker, were trying to reach for the moon. 1269 01:11:34,360 --> 01:11:35,800 They would constantly invent 1270 01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:38,320 get-rich-quick schemes that ultimately backfired. 1271 01:11:38,320 --> 01:11:41,800 And it was hilarious watching two men repeatedly fail at 1272 01:11:41,800 --> 01:11:44,400 the American Dream while wrecking their own homes. 1273 01:11:51,440 --> 01:11:53,680 Jed Clampett and his hillbilly family 1274 01:11:53,680 --> 01:11:56,400 trying to reconcile their Depression-era roots 1275 01:11:56,400 --> 01:11:59,560 with the millionaire denizens of Southern California. 1276 01:11:59,560 --> 01:12:04,040 Loping around, spouting corn-fed homilies out of lopsided mouths, 1277 01:12:04,040 --> 01:12:06,080 Americans lapped it up, 1278 01:12:06,080 --> 01:12:08,840 subconsciously understanding that poor people in America 1279 01:12:08,840 --> 01:12:10,720 may never escape their plight, 1280 01:12:10,720 --> 01:12:13,600 but can at least win an occasional moral victory. 1281 01:12:13,600 --> 01:12:15,440 Especially when it meant that the rich folks 1282 01:12:15,440 --> 01:12:17,520 ended up looking more like the hillbillies. 1283 01:12:17,520 --> 01:12:19,400 Her and me is going out hunting. 1284 01:12:20,560 --> 01:12:23,160 Ain't that right, Miss Hathaway? 1285 01:12:23,160 --> 01:12:26,760 Yes... Yep! 1286 01:12:26,760 --> 01:12:31,920 Jethro, you can take that pink chicken back out to the cement pond. 1287 01:12:31,920 --> 01:12:35,840 We're going out to shoot us a nice, big, fluffy, souffle. 1288 01:12:39,360 --> 01:12:41,320 Gomer Pyle? Yes. 1289 01:12:41,320 --> 01:12:43,280 All in the Family? All in the Family. 1290 01:12:43,280 --> 01:12:45,200 The Jeffersons! Oh, I love the Jeffersons. 1291 01:12:45,200 --> 01:12:48,240 Oh, the Jeffersons! Good Times! Good Times. Yes. Yes. Jimmy Walker. 1292 01:12:48,240 --> 01:12:51,360 JJ Walker. That JJ was dynamite! 1293 01:12:51,360 --> 01:12:55,960 Oh, man! Television never seemed to reward the American worker with any 1294 01:12:55,960 --> 01:12:58,680 upward mobility, despite all their best efforts, you know. 1295 01:12:58,680 --> 01:13:01,960 These people could not escape the situation, know what I mean, Erika? 1296 01:13:01,960 --> 01:13:04,040 Yes. Cos if they could escape their situation, 1297 01:13:04,040 --> 01:13:06,200 it wouldn't be a situation comedy, right? 1298 01:13:06,200 --> 01:13:10,400 No. That class system Americans refuse to recognise, yeah, 1299 01:13:10,400 --> 01:13:12,320 well, it was all over the television. 1300 01:13:13,720 --> 01:13:17,720 Eventually, the TV working class families started moving upwards. 1301 01:13:17,720 --> 01:13:21,560 Middle-class, urban characters living in brick-walled lofts. 1302 01:13:21,560 --> 01:13:24,600 Nowadays, the middle class may be slathered all over television but 1303 01:13:24,600 --> 01:13:26,960 obviously that's not a real reflection, 1304 01:13:26,960 --> 01:13:29,600 because America's middle class is shrinking. 1305 01:13:33,160 --> 01:13:34,400 It's patently obvious 1306 01:13:34,400 --> 01:13:37,880 that America's middle class is slipping down the economic ladder. 1307 01:13:40,720 --> 01:13:42,760 How do you know the middle-class is shrinking? 1308 01:13:42,760 --> 01:13:46,600 Well, when politicians start using it as a political football. 1309 01:13:46,600 --> 01:13:51,960 I know why we are strong, I know why we have held together, 1310 01:13:51,960 --> 01:13:54,840 I know why we are united. 1311 01:13:54,840 --> 01:13:57,880 It's because there's always been a growing middle class, 1312 01:13:57,880 --> 01:14:02,960 this guy doesn't have a clue about the middle class, not a clue. 1313 01:14:05,560 --> 01:14:07,880 Does anyone have a clue about the middle class? 1314 01:14:07,880 --> 01:14:10,720 Course not. What does the term even mean? 1315 01:14:10,720 --> 01:14:12,360 Well, interestingly enough, 1316 01:14:12,360 --> 01:14:15,080 the middle class was invented by Benjamin Franklin. 1317 01:14:18,440 --> 01:14:22,160 He believed that Western migration would create class stability, 1318 01:14:22,160 --> 01:14:25,640 that the sheer size of America would reduce class conflict, 1319 01:14:25,640 --> 01:14:29,840 and that every American was entitled to a happy mediocrity. 1320 01:14:29,840 --> 01:14:34,760 And that's what the middle class is, the happy mediocrity. 1321 01:14:34,760 --> 01:14:37,560 The white-collar workers, the middle managers, 1322 01:14:37,560 --> 01:14:41,640 the guy or gal walking into some fluorescent hellhole every day, 1323 01:14:41,640 --> 01:14:43,560 sitting down at a gun-metal grey desk, 1324 01:14:43,560 --> 01:14:46,760 piled up with paperwork, and on the wall is a poster 1325 01:14:46,760 --> 01:14:51,920 of some skydivers holding hands and underneath it says, "Teamwork". 1326 01:14:51,920 --> 01:14:54,680 90% of Americans claim they're middle class. 1327 01:14:54,680 --> 01:14:56,520 In other words, marginally comfortable. 1328 01:14:56,520 --> 01:14:58,280 And it's those people who are seeing 1329 01:14:58,280 --> 01:15:01,000 those margins tighten everyday. 1330 01:15:13,960 --> 01:15:15,360 In the '70s and '80s, 1331 01:15:15,360 --> 01:15:20,800 the middle-class life in America became quite bumpy. 1332 01:15:20,800 --> 01:15:23,280 Under Nixon, you had price controls, 1333 01:15:23,280 --> 01:15:25,440 you had serious intervention. 1334 01:15:25,440 --> 01:15:27,800 In the economy post-Nixon, 1335 01:15:27,800 --> 01:15:33,400 you have the Carter Administration, where something that was 1336 01:15:33,400 --> 01:15:37,320 terrifying the middle class occurred, which was stagflation. 1337 01:15:37,320 --> 01:15:40,840 Productivity stopped growing, output stopped growing, 1338 01:15:40,840 --> 01:15:43,160 so people's incomes weren't increasing anymore, 1339 01:15:43,160 --> 01:15:46,040 but their expenses were through the roof. 1340 01:15:52,800 --> 01:15:57,160 America was heading into its worst economic crisis since the '30s. 1341 01:15:57,160 --> 01:15:59,920 And things weren't about to get any breezier. 1342 01:15:59,920 --> 01:16:02,520 Fortunately, a hero was waiting in the wings. 1343 01:16:05,080 --> 01:16:06,800 And once he got his pants on, 1344 01:16:06,800 --> 01:16:09,840 he'd come riding into Dodge City to clean the town up. 1345 01:16:13,680 --> 01:16:16,720 I'm speaking to you tonight to give you a report on the state of our 1346 01:16:16,720 --> 01:16:18,520 nation's economy. 1347 01:16:18,520 --> 01:16:21,680 I regret to say that we're in the worst economic mess 1348 01:16:21,680 --> 01:16:23,520 since the Great Depression. 1349 01:16:30,720 --> 01:16:32,560 He promised salvation, 1350 01:16:32,560 --> 01:16:36,360 he was going to reduce government spending, taxes, regulations. 1351 01:16:36,360 --> 01:16:37,440 Sound familiar? 1352 01:16:38,880 --> 01:16:41,280 Up until the 1980s, 1353 01:16:41,280 --> 01:16:48,280 most working people here in America who were middle class received a 1354 01:16:48,280 --> 01:16:49,600 defined-benefit pension. 1355 01:16:50,960 --> 01:16:54,920 Major companies were allowed to walk away from that commitment to the 1356 01:16:54,920 --> 01:16:58,160 social fabric, so that, one after another, 1357 01:16:58,160 --> 01:17:01,560 defined-benefit pension plans vanished. 1358 01:17:01,560 --> 01:17:03,160 That's a very significant event 1359 01:17:03,160 --> 01:17:05,160 because now people are insecure in their jobs, 1360 01:17:05,160 --> 01:17:10,120 and they're insecure in their prospects, 1361 01:17:10,120 --> 01:17:13,800 for a reasonably comfortable old age. 1362 01:17:22,080 --> 01:17:24,720 The middle class are the people who did everything right, 1363 01:17:24,720 --> 01:17:28,240 they got a college degree, they developed a marketable skill, 1364 01:17:28,240 --> 01:17:30,560 they built up a resume, they got married, 1365 01:17:30,560 --> 01:17:33,160 they cranked out a couple of kids, they bought a Chevy. 1366 01:17:33,160 --> 01:17:35,360 Modest, responsible people just trying 1367 01:17:35,360 --> 01:17:38,000 to get their slice of the American pie. 1368 01:17:38,000 --> 01:17:41,640 And now they're scrambling around job fairs or combing the 1369 01:17:41,640 --> 01:17:44,840 classifieds, going on to job websites, 1370 01:17:44,840 --> 01:17:48,440 listening to some self-styled vacuous guru 1371 01:17:48,440 --> 01:17:50,680 tell them how to get back the job they already had. 1372 01:17:54,640 --> 01:17:57,400 Now, I have a theory - and it's just a theory. 1373 01:17:57,400 --> 01:17:59,720 Craftsmen have to work with their hands, 1374 01:17:59,720 --> 01:18:01,720 artists work with their hearts, 1375 01:18:01,720 --> 01:18:03,640 rich people work with their brains, 1376 01:18:03,640 --> 01:18:05,680 poor people work with their backs, 1377 01:18:05,680 --> 01:18:09,040 but the middle class has to work with their personalities. 1378 01:18:09,040 --> 01:18:11,280 And if you've ever met Americans, 1379 01:18:11,280 --> 01:18:13,560 a good number of them can barely negotiate 1380 01:18:13,560 --> 01:18:16,360 the rope barriers in an airport check-in. 1381 01:18:21,000 --> 01:18:23,200 Yet they're expected to figure out 1382 01:18:23,200 --> 01:18:25,480 their place in the corporate beehive. 1383 01:18:25,480 --> 01:18:29,640 Who to boss around, who to be subservient to, whose ass to kiss, 1384 01:18:29,640 --> 01:18:34,000 whose ass to kick, how to handle the psychological demands, 1385 01:18:34,000 --> 01:18:37,440 the mind games, and the poorly defined expectations 1386 01:18:37,440 --> 01:18:39,880 dumped on them by corporate management. 1387 01:18:39,880 --> 01:18:43,080 And all the while trying to appear like they know what they're doing. 1388 01:18:43,080 --> 01:18:45,200 Corporate employers never say they're looking for a 1389 01:18:45,200 --> 01:18:47,640 hard worker, you know, someone who will give you 1390 01:18:47,640 --> 01:18:50,040 a straightforward exchange of wages for effort. 1391 01:18:50,040 --> 01:18:52,320 Nope, they need you to be outgoing, friendly, 1392 01:18:52,320 --> 01:18:55,800 resourceful, qualified, dedicated, and passionate. 1393 01:19:02,440 --> 01:19:05,080 Let's face it, if you can fake all those emotions, 1394 01:19:05,080 --> 01:19:07,400 what the hell are you doing working at Yo-Yo Tech? 1395 01:19:07,400 --> 01:19:11,280 You should be in Hollywood accepting an Oscar for Best Actor. 1396 01:19:11,280 --> 01:19:12,960 Yeah, the middle class is struggling, 1397 01:19:12,960 --> 01:19:17,480 you can blame it on the crash of 2008 or stagnant wage growth, 1398 01:19:17,480 --> 01:19:19,680 or downsizing or outsourcing, 1399 01:19:19,680 --> 01:19:23,960 but that doesn't answer the simple basic question - 1400 01:19:23,960 --> 01:19:26,240 why did you get shitcanned and not the other guy? 1401 01:19:26,240 --> 01:19:29,400 Because the other guy had better people skills than you. 1402 01:19:29,400 --> 01:19:31,360 You weren't dynamic enough, 1403 01:19:31,360 --> 01:19:34,360 you didn't read enough motivational material. 1404 01:19:34,360 --> 01:19:37,440 How can you take the abuse you get on a sit? 1405 01:19:37,440 --> 01:19:40,280 What you need is a rousing motivational tirade - 1406 01:19:40,280 --> 01:19:41,800 kind of like Alec Baldwin 1407 01:19:41,800 --> 01:19:43,120 in Glengarry Glen Ross. 1408 01:19:44,080 --> 01:19:46,240 I can go out there tonight, 1409 01:19:46,240 --> 01:19:48,080 the materials you got, 1410 01:19:48,080 --> 01:19:49,880 make myself 15,000 dollars. 1411 01:19:49,880 --> 01:19:51,880 Tonight, in two hours - can you? 1412 01:19:54,640 --> 01:19:55,720 Can you? 1413 01:19:58,800 --> 01:20:00,800 Go and do likewise. 1414 01:20:00,800 --> 01:20:04,760 AIDA, get mad you son of a bitches, get mad. 1415 01:20:04,760 --> 01:20:06,560 You know what it takes to sell real estate? 1416 01:20:09,920 --> 01:20:12,760 It takes brass balls to sell real estate. 1417 01:20:17,880 --> 01:20:21,920 America doesn't have brass balls anymore, we left them on the moon, 1418 01:20:21,920 --> 01:20:23,840 that was our last team success. 1419 01:20:23,840 --> 01:20:27,200 Nowadays, success is measured through personal growth. 1420 01:20:27,200 --> 01:20:30,800 Yeah, you can walk through any book store and pass that one section, 1421 01:20:30,800 --> 01:20:35,160 try not to be reminded why you, personally, are a big loser. 1422 01:20:35,160 --> 01:20:37,920 Generally these will follow two different approaches, 1423 01:20:37,920 --> 01:20:40,320 there is the numerical approach to success, 1424 01:20:40,320 --> 01:20:43,120 you know, the seven habits of highly effective people, 1425 01:20:43,120 --> 01:20:49,120 the five-second rule, the 40 pillars of pyramidal success. 1426 01:20:49,120 --> 01:20:53,800 Or it's some sort of anthropomorphic vaguely childlike approach. 1427 01:20:53,800 --> 01:20:56,520 Barking Up The Wrong Tree. 1428 01:20:56,520 --> 01:20:58,680 Who moved my cheese? 1429 01:20:58,680 --> 01:21:00,600 Eat that frog. 1430 01:21:00,600 --> 01:21:03,120 The Uterus Is A Feature, Not A Bug. 1431 01:21:03,120 --> 01:21:07,320 I don't even know where to begin not knowing what that means. 1432 01:21:13,160 --> 01:21:15,960 The straightforward approach to self-improvement 1433 01:21:15,960 --> 01:21:17,960 by men like Norman Vincent Peale 1434 01:21:17,960 --> 01:21:21,960 has given way to a litany of bona fide gibberish by clowns 1435 01:21:21,960 --> 01:21:24,440 such as Seth Godin, 1436 01:21:24,440 --> 01:21:28,160 author and corporate guru who somehow manages to string words, 1437 01:21:28,160 --> 01:21:31,560 images and balloons into some sort of narrative event. 1438 01:21:31,560 --> 01:21:35,960 Getting started with this is really hard, but if you do the physics, 1439 01:21:35,960 --> 01:21:38,760 after the first two breaths, 1440 01:21:38,760 --> 01:21:42,360 the percentage change in latex that you're making gets smaller and 1441 01:21:42,360 --> 01:21:44,560 smaller and smaller with each breath. 1442 01:21:46,000 --> 01:21:50,040 And then the model is if you can get the first two breaths over with, 1443 01:21:50,040 --> 01:21:53,160 you're gonna get the balloon filled up, cos it's downhill from there. 1444 01:21:53,160 --> 01:21:56,680 At the beginning, there's lots and lots and lots of argument, 1445 01:21:56,680 --> 01:21:58,800 and discussion with the lizard brain. 1446 01:21:58,800 --> 01:22:01,760 As if the only thing holding you back is that crazy 1447 01:22:01,760 --> 01:22:03,680 lizard running around inside your brain. 1448 01:22:03,680 --> 01:22:05,840 You know, that's good advice for Jim Morrison, 1449 01:22:05,840 --> 01:22:07,520 that is useless for the corporate world. 1450 01:22:07,520 --> 01:22:11,480 The corporate world doesn't want you to be successful or dynamic. 1451 01:22:11,480 --> 01:22:14,080 The corporate world doesn't even know your name. 1452 01:22:14,080 --> 01:22:16,280 That's why they gave you a laminate. 1453 01:22:25,520 --> 01:22:27,400 America has become a country where 1454 01:22:27,400 --> 01:22:31,080 you can create your own fantasy of what it means to be an American. 1455 01:22:31,080 --> 01:22:33,960 You don't even have to bother working anymore. 1456 01:22:33,960 --> 01:22:36,760 The self-made man has become the self-made-up man online 1457 01:22:36,760 --> 01:22:39,760 where you really can invent yourself. Quite literally, 1458 01:22:39,760 --> 01:22:43,360 you can be just exactly whoever you want to be online. 1459 01:22:43,360 --> 01:22:45,760 You can be any age, race, gender, 1460 01:22:45,760 --> 01:22:47,920 class, educational level, 1461 01:22:47,920 --> 01:22:50,840 you can completely fabricate yourself. 1462 01:22:50,840 --> 01:22:52,840 Now that may not be in the spirit of 1463 01:22:52,840 --> 01:22:55,120 the hard work to earn the American Dream, 1464 01:22:55,120 --> 01:22:59,840 but it's still very much in line with this re-creation of identity. 1465 01:22:59,840 --> 01:23:03,840 Nobody can prove the truth because nobody knows what the truth is. 1466 01:23:03,840 --> 01:23:05,680 And if you can't prove the truth, 1467 01:23:05,680 --> 01:23:07,760 just prove the other person is lying. 1468 01:23:07,760 --> 01:23:09,920 That's the world we live in. 1469 01:23:09,920 --> 01:23:15,640 An entire generation of selfie stick-wielding narcissistic fuckwits 1470 01:23:15,640 --> 01:23:19,480 who believe that every opinion is valid, every belief is relative, 1471 01:23:19,480 --> 01:23:23,080 and you can define yourself by something other than what you do. 1472 01:23:24,200 --> 01:23:27,960 I believe we can keep the promise of our founder, 1473 01:23:27,960 --> 01:23:30,680 the idea that if you're willing to work hard, 1474 01:23:30,680 --> 01:23:34,000 it doesn't matter who you are, or where you come from, 1475 01:23:34,000 --> 01:23:37,080 or what you look like, or where you love, 1476 01:23:37,080 --> 01:23:40,960 it doesn't matter whether you're black or white or Hispanic or Asian, 1477 01:23:40,960 --> 01:23:44,480 or Native American, or young or old, 1478 01:23:44,480 --> 01:23:48,400 or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight. 1479 01:23:48,400 --> 01:23:52,280 You can make it here in America if you're willing to try! 1480 01:24:00,320 --> 01:24:03,520 The US of A sells itself as the land where 1481 01:24:03,520 --> 01:24:06,200 you can rise from rags to riches. 1482 01:24:06,200 --> 01:24:09,480 Opportunity is the main component of that ethos. 1483 01:24:09,480 --> 01:24:13,680 In 1931, the author and social critic James Truslow Adams 1484 01:24:13,680 --> 01:24:17,880 coined a phrase for it - "the American Dream". 1485 01:24:17,880 --> 01:24:20,840 Back then, it had more to do with idealism than materialism. 1486 01:24:25,080 --> 01:24:28,080 Too many of us now tend to worship 1487 01:24:28,080 --> 01:24:31,440 self-indulgence and consumption. 1488 01:24:33,120 --> 01:24:38,920 Human identity is no longer defined by what one does... 1489 01:24:40,880 --> 01:24:43,200 ..but by what one owns. 1490 01:24:44,320 --> 01:24:47,440 The greatest misconception of the American Dream, and this has been 1491 01:24:47,440 --> 01:24:49,280 documented in years of polling, 1492 01:24:49,280 --> 01:24:51,480 that it really doesn't mean wealth. 1493 01:24:51,480 --> 01:24:55,040 In fact, wealth usually comes in toward the bottom of what people 1494 01:24:55,040 --> 01:24:56,920 associate with the American Dream. 1495 01:24:56,920 --> 01:25:00,680 Towards the very top, the things people most associate the dream with 1496 01:25:00,680 --> 01:25:03,440 are family, community, freedom. 1497 01:25:03,440 --> 01:25:07,440 Wealth plays a role but not a predominant role, 1498 01:25:07,440 --> 01:25:09,440 and it's not central. 1499 01:25:09,440 --> 01:25:12,160 When Americans are free to pursue their dreams, 1500 01:25:12,160 --> 01:25:14,760 there is no limit to what we can achieve. 1501 01:25:14,760 --> 01:25:17,600 This is truly an exciting time in our country. 1502 01:25:17,600 --> 01:25:21,440 Every day, we are accomplishing great things for our people. 1503 01:25:21,440 --> 01:25:25,280 We are really moving along, we are bringing back our jobs, 1504 01:25:25,280 --> 01:25:29,040 we are making America great again. Thank you. 1505 01:25:29,040 --> 01:25:33,080 One of the interesting similarities between Trump and Obama is 1506 01:25:33,080 --> 01:25:34,520 their adherence to the dream. 1507 01:25:34,520 --> 01:25:36,680 Barack Obama, the subtitle of his book, 1508 01:25:36,680 --> 01:25:39,480 the Audacity of Hope, is reclaiming the American dream, 1509 01:25:39,480 --> 01:25:42,760 that there was something good that we've lost or neglected. 1510 01:25:42,760 --> 01:25:46,760 Donald Trump, what prefaced "Let's make America great again" 1511 01:25:46,760 --> 01:25:48,560 was a phrase along the lines of, 1512 01:25:48,560 --> 01:25:50,600 "Sadly, the American Dream is dead, 1513 01:25:50,600 --> 01:25:52,680 "but if I get elected, I'm going to bring it back 1514 01:25:52,680 --> 01:25:54,440 "bigger and better than before." 1515 01:25:54,440 --> 01:25:59,520 We will make America wealthy again! 1516 01:25:59,520 --> 01:26:03,600 Having said that, it seems for the first time in generations as if Americans view 1517 01:26:03,600 --> 01:26:07,000 the notion that they'll be more 1518 01:26:07,000 --> 01:26:12,400 successful than their parents as not guaranteed. 1519 01:26:12,400 --> 01:26:15,320 70% of Americans hate their jobs. 1520 01:26:15,320 --> 01:26:18,600 Many of them to the Nicholson-esque extreme in The Shining. 1521 01:26:18,600 --> 01:26:20,400 So why do we do it? 1522 01:26:20,400 --> 01:26:24,400 Cos it feels good when we stop, that's why. 1523 01:26:24,400 --> 01:26:27,280 Despite all the rhetoric, America's actually only 1524 01:26:27,280 --> 01:26:30,040 the 17th hardest working country on the planet. 1525 01:26:30,040 --> 01:26:32,720 They're 11th in gender pay disparity, 1526 01:26:32,720 --> 01:26:35,240 they're number two in workplace injuries, 1527 01:26:35,240 --> 01:26:39,000 and number one in unpaid workers' holidays. 1528 01:26:39,000 --> 01:26:42,840 But that doesn't bother Americans because we inherently believe we 1529 01:26:42,840 --> 01:26:45,160 shouldn't be paid to sit on a beach, 1530 01:26:45,160 --> 01:26:48,640 rubbing suntan lotion into our fat necks. 1531 01:26:48,640 --> 01:26:50,600 A holiday is an experience, 1532 01:26:50,600 --> 01:26:54,760 and Americans prefer things to experiences. 1533 01:26:54,760 --> 01:27:00,840 Things like a big plasma screen TV and patio furniture, 1534 01:27:00,840 --> 01:27:02,800 God bless 'em. 1535 01:27:02,800 --> 01:27:06,120 The Protestant work ethic is never going to go away, 1536 01:27:06,120 --> 01:27:08,800 it's part of our metaphoric identity. 1537 01:27:08,800 --> 01:27:12,680 But, despite what old Donnie T says, 1538 01:27:12,680 --> 01:27:14,920 what made America great was the 1539 01:27:14,920 --> 01:27:17,800 Protestants, the Germans, the Irish, 1540 01:27:17,800 --> 01:27:22,560 the Muslims, the African-Americans, the Asians, 1541 01:27:22,560 --> 01:27:26,840 and the Mexicans who came here, just like those Puritans, 1542 01:27:26,840 --> 01:27:29,680 in the haphazard chance they might find 1543 01:27:29,680 --> 01:27:32,480 redemption in dignity in their work. 1544 01:27:32,480 --> 01:27:35,080 And barring that, a big old plasma screen TV, 1545 01:27:35,080 --> 01:27:37,800 and patio furniture will do very nicely. 1546 01:27:38,880 --> 01:27:42,800 Maybe this can all best be summed up in the philosophical ramblings of 1547 01:27:42,800 --> 01:27:45,320 that astute Canadian band, Loverboy. 1548 01:27:45,320 --> 01:27:47,680 So I'll let them speak for themselves. 1549 01:27:50,440 --> 01:27:54,680 # Everybody's working for the weekend 1550 01:27:56,960 --> 01:28:00,520 # Everybody wants a little romance 1551 01:28:00,520 --> 01:28:03,600 # Hey, yeah 1552 01:28:03,600 --> 01:28:07,440 # Everybody's goin' off the deep end 1553 01:28:09,840 --> 01:28:15,200 # Everybody needs a second chance, oh 1554 01:28:15,200 --> 01:28:18,040 # You want a piece of my heart 1555 01:28:18,040 --> 01:28:21,480 # You better start from the start 1556 01:28:21,480 --> 01:28:24,120 # You wanna be in the show 1557 01:28:24,120 --> 01:28:27,040 # Come on, baby, let's go. #