The Conditions of England (p.477)

In the lecture, Past and Present (p.477-486), Thomas Carlyle offers his commentary on the conditions in England.  Those conditions were particularly dire and Carlyle’s criticism stemmed from his observations that “England is full of wealth, of multifarious produce, supply for human want in every kind; yet England is dying of inanition.” (p. 477)  In reading his comments and the passionate call for change I was transported, in a sense, to a time when England was experiencing the full societal effects of the Industrial Revolution but simultaneously believed the commentary was aimed at society in America today.

Our society today, more than any other culture in the world, and more than any other period in history, has a material wealth that contrasts starkly with our moral bankruptcy.  This moral bankruptcy has become an invisible force through a combination of factors that include Madison Avenue marketing techniques, an increase in disposable income and a lack of accountability where people can have what they want, have what they think they deserve and not have to give an accounting for the impact it creates.  Carlyle’s comments seem to be right on point if he were standing at a podium addressing a graduating class in one of today’s modern universities.

The factors that existed in Carlyle’s time, and which exist today in an accelerated and degenerated state, involved the abundance of supply with the lack of means to possess.  When Carlyle said, “the workhouse Bastille being filled to bursting, and the strong Poor-law broken asunder” (p.477)he could easily have been speaking on today’s wave of foreclosures, bankruptcies and the imminent insolvency of the Social Security and Medicare programs.  The “enchantment” Carlyle frequently referenced is evident today in the delusion that just because you want something it means you deserve something and finally that you can afford something.  Carlyle called it enchantment but I think I would prefer to call it something else.  The words “irresponsibility”, “selfishness”, “laziness”, and “ignorance” could easily describe the pattern of the poor who are content to reside in subsidized housing demanding a subsidy to fill their accounts and allow them the financial means to afford a better cable TV package, cell phone with data plan, or a nicer automobile.  Carlyle might describe that segment of the population the same way he described what he saw, “They sit there, pent up, as in a kind of horrid enchantment; glad to be imprisoned and enchanted, that they may not perish starved.”(p.478)

Carlyle placed great emphasis on work ethic and he was raised to value work as more than a means to put food on the table.  Carlyle viewed work as a calling, a vocation, a means of identification.  I think that work ethic is present in today’s society but it is being drowned by a growing mass of people who claim an entitlement.  The group that feels they deserve a champion’s trophy because they simply participated are replacing the group that feels participation is a given and a trophy is a potential reward.  I agree with Carlyle when he said that the enchantment present in his day took place gradually, “Not in sharp fever-fits, but in chronic gangrene of this kind”. (p.478) We have forgotten through the same deadly rotting process that work and accountability are the rule and temporary subsidies are temporary fixes. 

Where are the workers now?  Carlyle warned that the “working body of this rich English Nation has sunk or is fast sinking into a state, to which, all sides of it considered, there was literally never any parallel.” (p.478-479) Carlyle would be mortified if he saw the meltdown on Wall Street or the battle that rages over socialized medicine.  Obama-care would be enough to send Carlyle spinning into a fit.  Foreclosure rates and unemployment rates in the face of the greatest per capita wealth in the world seem to be contradicting statements.  I agree with Carlyle’s position when he fretted over the growing class of poor in the face of industrial growth and increasing wealth.  I would say that Carlyle was right on the money (pun intended) when he said the problems identified during his time were “like the highest mountain apex emerged into view; under which lies a whole mountain region and land, not yet emerged.”(p.479)

Our pursuit of wealth, while our families and society crumble is a strange dynamic for sure.  We see it happening and we complain, but we fail to act.  Some even adopt criticisms like Carlyle’s, “what increase of blessedness is there?  Are they better, beautifuler, stronger, braver?  Are they even what they call “happier”?” (p.479) The answer during Carlyle’s time was the same as it is today…no.  As Carlyle complained, “We have more riches than any Nation ever had before; we have less good of them than any Nation ever had before.”(p.480)  We have the means to use wealth to benefit us as a people but the exclusive pursuit of “more” blinds us to those benefits.  Carlyle used the story of King Midas as an example of that pursuit and the drastic impact it had.  The question Carlyle asks and the same question that should be asked today is the same.  “In the midst of plethoric plenty, the people perish; with gold walls, and full barns, no man feels himself safe or satisfied.” (p.480) I don’t advocate a redistribution of wealth any more than Carlyle would but, like Carlyle, I would advocate fiscal responsibility and hard work.