mtl008 Chapter 4582 The Day of Brightest Day (41)
Chapter 4582 The Day of Brightest Day (41)
Chapter 4582 The Day of Brightest Light (Forty-One)
To reiterate, among large countries and regional organizations of similar size, the American middle class is the worst off, bar none. Therefore, their middle-class anxiety is the most severe.
Regarding upward mobility, as long as there is a relatively clear upward path, anxiety can be largely alleviated. Middle-class anxiety is less severe in some developing countries precisely because their upward mobility still exists—because they are in a period of social development. If one catches a favorable trend, a generation's hard work can completely transform the entire family's life.
In contrast, in some established developed countries, upward mobility is completely blocked. Society is horizontally segmented too finely; people do what is appropriate for their social class. Even if new opportunities arise, they are never available to those at the bottom, which does nothing to alleviate anxiety.
As for the downward mobility, established developed countries have done a better job because of their solidified social classes. Each class only associates with its own people, and assets fluctuate within a limited range. It's difficult to become extremely wealthy, but it's also difficult to fall so many levels in one go. At most, you'll become one of the worst in your own specific level, and you can still make a living.
In some developing countries, the situation is even more terrifying, because if one falls too far and ends up in a place with poor security, they could potentially lose their life. This can cause severe anxiety.
This explains why middle-class anxiety is so severe in the United States: they simultaneously face the disadvantages of "it's very difficult to climb up the social ladder" and "it's too fast and too severe to fall down." The entire social narrative in the United States revolves around these two points. This is still relative to typical middle-class families without any special circumstances.
Deathstroke wasn't a typical middle-class family. His frequent absences meant the household was missing someone. It might sound obvious, but it's crucial. American middle-class families perfectly retain some characteristics of small-farm households; the absence of a primary breadwinner is a serious problem.
While Deathstroke did send money home, and quite a substantial amount at that, his absence from family activities placed immense pressure on other family members, particularly on social fronts. Mrs. Wilson had to explain to others where her husband was, and his children had to explain to others at school, and these explanations were often ineffective.
There are also various family gatherings, which can be quite troublesome without the male head of the household. This is because in more conservative areas, specifically the American South, where the Bell family lived, the male head of the household usually entertains male guests, while the female head of the household entertains female guests.
The men were barbecuing in the yard, discussing guns, car maintenance, and the world situation; the women were playing with their children in the yard, and their conversations were mostly about children, relatives, fitness, and beauty.
If her husband isn't home, she can't host these family parties; if she doesn't host them, she can't attend, otherwise she'll be seen as a freeloader. Even after her husband returns, she can still host them, but because she rarely goes out to parties, she can't invite many people, creating a vicious cycle.
Furthermore, what's truly outrageous is that the American middle class idolizes not working. More accurately, they crave a "sense of old money." And what does "sense of old money" mean? It means waking up every morning to check asset returns for half an hour, then going to the gym, enjoying a pleasant lunch with family, spending the afternoon playing golf or fishing with friends, having dinner with professional investors at a high-end restaurant in the evening, and enjoying quality time with family before bed. Simply put, they do absolutely nothing productive and are incredibly idle.
What they want is to be "rich without working." Their ideal is to get everything they want effortlessly. "Effortless" is crucial; they have to pretend, even if it's just an act. So, while they might be secretly struggling financially, they must appear completely at ease.
At this point, the Wilson family's situation would certainly be the subject of ridicule. Mrs. Wilson could only explain to others that the tolling bell had "gone to work." And in the eyes of the middle class, a job requiring years away from home must be incredibly arduous, certainly not effortless—after all, given a choice, who would willingly choose to wander far from home year-round?
In their eyes, this kind of work was nothing short of shabby and a sign of extreme hardship in just trying to make a living. Even if Deathstroke gave his family a lot of money, they still wouldn't respect him.
Moreover, as Schiller pointed out, Deathstroke joined the army at sixteen and had no contact with ordinary society since. He was neither interested in nor interested in understanding ordinary society, so he was bound to appear out of touch and out of touch, and was far from being popular. This only made matters worse.
Children growing up in this environment will only experience more severe anxiety because they will witness firsthand how their families are ostracized. His neighbors may not be too aggressive—after all, Deathstroke's family is relatively wealthy and has no shortage of food, clothing, and other necessities—but they will express it in small ways.
For example, when decorating the house for Christmas, they deliberately don't tell you the theme for the year; only after you've finished decorating do you realize it doesn't fit in with the neighborhood. Then, children of the same age will deliberately laugh at you at neighborhood gatherings. Or they might deliberately block the tutor's car outside the neighborhood, insisting that an adult pick them up, causing many tutors to quit their jobs, and then spreading rumors that "the children's personalities are too bad, and no tutor can stand them."
In short, in a country where middle-class anxiety is so severe, adding so many more factors to one's own anxieties will cause a child's childhood to be spent in an atmosphere of insecurity. This is not good for a child's development.
To deal with such malice, they must learn to protect themselves using methods within the rules. Mrs. Wilson certainly did a lot of this, such as expressing her views at community development meetings, researching community regulations to deal with deliberate obstruction, trying to associate with some decent families, and understanding school rules and regulations to stand up for her child.
It wasn't that they chose to do it, but that they had no other choice. After all, they couldn't let Deathstroke kill all these people. Although the two of them had been fugitives in their youth, now that Mrs. Wilson had chosen to return to her family, she couldn't use such methods to disrupt her relatively stable life—otherwise, being on the run with the children would only make things worse.
Children will then follow suit. Whether in elementary or middle school, they will be better able to use the rules to protect themselves and deal with malicious jokes and targeting based on the idea that "you don't have a father".
Then one day, they realize that their father is the fiercest beast in the jungle outside of society, and the spears they wield, given to them by the rules, are usually used to hunt down such people. What will they think?
The truth is, the chances of them siding with Deathstroke are slim. They know they can't go back to the jungle with him; they still have to live here, where their loved ones and those they care about are. So their only option is to drive Deathstroke away.
This is indeed somewhat unfair to Deathstroke. However, just as the rise of humanity led to an unprecedented mass extinction, which was unfair to those extinct species, the evolution of individuals within society is remarkably similar to the evolution of human civilization on Earth, making it difficult to judge right or wrong. All the tragedies and regrets can only be attributed to God not being a perfectionist.
In the Egyptian night, Schiller spoke eloquently. He spoke of many things, including American society, orderly societies versus jungle mentality, community atmosphere, and the balance between individual and social development. Ultimately, he returned to the profession of assassin.
"You can't make a living by breaking the law and simultaneously enjoy the benefits of social rules and the love of those who live within those rules. It just doesn't work."
The death knell is silent. He chose to start a family and leave his children in ordinary society, hoping that society would protect them. But in reality, his actions were destroying that society.
Deathstroke doesn't just kill the rich. While there are competitors among the upper class, they are often intricately connected. They have business collaborations and can profit from each other, so they rarely go too far; they prefer to simultaneously turn their blades on those below them. Many of Deathstroke's jobs involve dealing with people who have been exploited and have nowhere else to go.
He usually enjoys these kinds of jobs because the clients are basically powerless to fight back. The more troublesome ones are the ones that require "going up the ladder," where the pay isn't as high and the difficulty is much greater. Aside from taking these kinds of jobs early on to build his reputation, Deathstroke hasn't taken one like this in a long time.
Even within the bounds of social rules, the upper classes already employ enough methods of oppression; to use methods outside the rules is tantamount to denying survival to those below. This is extremely harmful to society. Deathstroke knew this clearly, because he had also killed many "rebels"—this plunges that country or region into an even deeper abyss, without exception, it always has.
“I know I’m evil,” Deathstroke began, “but I’ve discovered I’m perhaps even more evil than I thought.”
“People only repent when they are victims themselves,” Schiller said. “You have this feeling because you realize that your family members are also victims, and you can’t protect them.”
“I can,” Deathstroke said coldly. “I won’t have any more children. Joseph is grown up now, and he can protect his mother. They can live well there.”
“That should have been the case.” Schiller lowered his eyes and smiled. “If you hadn’t run into me and had followed my plan to call him over.”
Deathstroke turned to look at him and slammed on the brakes. Schiller thought he was going to say something, but Deathstroke got out of the car and said, "We're here."
Cairo was under martial law at the time, and cars couldn't get in. They stopped at the first checkpoint outside, and then bribed the locals on the other side to sneak in via another road.
The atmosphere in the city was unusual; a faint smell of burning could be detected. It wasn't until they reached the vicinity of the airport that they learned the desperate militants had burned down an airport building. Fortunately, there were no casualties; only two of them were hospitalized due to the fumes and are currently being interrogated. However, it remains unknown how long the state of emergency will last.
"Where are you going to look?" Deathstroke asked.
“I can’t do psychoanalysis on the murals. So we still need to find Haivin—or more accurately, find someone who is very important to Haivin, to exchange for the murals.”
"So, did you find it?" Deathstroke asked.
“You won’t find it this way.” Schiller pulled out the old pistol he’d gotten from the enemy and aimed it directly at his own palm. *Bang!*
Deathstroke gasped.
"That's about right."