Imagine Life Without the Marginalized

Social commentators fret about the rights of the marginalized, but they are the powerful: socio-political action happens on the margins. Many fashionable contemporary historians re-write history in ways designed to appeal to an audience of "marginalized" groups. We could playfully call this history-product, the companion of journalism's "fake news", the "Fake Olds".

As for the societal activity occurring on margins, who populates these domains?

-- the nameless public that votes well-known leaders into office

-- the nameless school-teachers who shape students' minds (for better or worse)

-- the nameless care-givers and nurses who tend the sick

-- people who drive transport so the movers and shakers can move around and shake

-- people who build roads, bridges and rail for the transport to run on

-- people who put the power lines back when storms knock them down

-- people who grow food, and those who maintain infrastructure through which food gets to masses

Do we know the names of these people on the margins (whatever their race or gender may be) who get central things done, and without whom "the centre cannot hold"? These are the anonymous leaders, the majority whose opinions the elected "leaders" follow. These are the level-headed non-extremists who get things done because they have skills and training, while loud and trendy "influencers" command centre stage "full of passionate intensity" about whatever's politically correct this time.

Thank heaven for the marginalized. The centre wouldn't hold and things would fall apart without them -- as W. B. Yeats poetically explained.

Saving the Middle Class

So the middle class wants to be saved. Okay, maybe we'll save you, but don't think you can carry on as before. No more of this “middle” stuff. If you want to survive, get out there on the extremes.

You say you're being squeezed by over-taxation, de-platforming and ideological hostility toward moderation, but there's such a thing as too much moderation. You must declare your allegiance: do you support the obscenely wealthy one percent, or the downtrodden impoverished ninety-nine percent? Are you the privileged, or do you have allyship with the de-centred marginalized? With People of Colour, or People of Whiteness? Whiteness is not skin shade, it's attitude. Moderate attitudes are mere fronts for micro-aggression. You professional classes of middle income, with your house-and-garden values, 

private transport, old-fashioned art galleries, interest in wildlife conservation and obsession with grammar are just stealing stuff from Other Races. (What do you mean, “allyship” is not a word? See: that just proves it.)

So, expect macro-aggression in response. The time for the middle class is over. There's no middle way, no “golden mean”. “POC” does not include the colour gold.

We might save you, Middle Class, but not to be as you were: the worst example of colonialist obsessions with taste. You will be saved through re-education camps. Where will these camps be located? Everywhere: in government, civic bureaucracies, schools and universities, unions, professional associations, arts organizations ...

What did you say? These are middle class products of colonial times? Fine, but don't think that you can just turn inward and save them, clinging to old errors based on individual ideas freely expressed in a free press. That's just hiding behind privileged supremacist history. That's just an able-ist way to trigger others. Forget history; it shouldn't happen. Too much historical understanding just gets in the way. Focus on Identity, not history -- but not your identity. Ours. You know the one: the one not in the middle.

What's So Bad About Being Marginalized?

Politicians, publishers, spokespeople and advocates of all kinds try to rescue the "marginalized". Congregating tightly in pursuit of an apparently high-minded goal of inclusivity, they've made a big new centre. Observing this, some people prefer to stay on the edge, outside the fray.

Some margins seem nicer than the middle. A middle is an undifferentiated blob. The mainstream's a deep river you could drown in. Margins are more defined, tentative, subtle and geographically interesting.

A margin is the sandy shore beside the sea where the messenger birds drop hints. It's the grassy verge along a highway, a strip of green standing out against the concrete-grey. It's the white space on the printed page surrounding the text where you pencil in your own ideas. It's the vantage point at the theatre from which you scan the whole room. Take advantage then of a good position. 

"It's often true that those who sit in the wings can see more than the players," said Nellie McClung. 
If you've been "marginalized" then, don't be too quick to give up your space.