Divide and conquer, the typical scenario.

Througout the nation's history, there has always been the old standard of divide and conquer, and sadly, it keeps working. 90 percent of the world's wealth is controlled by 10 percent of its citizens, while the remainder of the population scrambles for the 10 percent of resources. In the United States of America, the Proletariat has always been the indigent and the enslaved people. When you look at it , this nation didn't really have equailty. It started with slavery. In the beginning, the first slaves used were the indentured white servants from Europe. Later on, blacks were used. When you have a group of people who are unhappy, what do you have the threat of? A rebellion. There is always the threat of a rebellion. What did the elites do? The raised the status of some of the proletariat, usually indentured white servants. The reason was to give the proletariat someone else to fight with, rather than the elite population. They used other people to protect them. The persons who moved up might gain more wealth, but they will never achieve the status the elites will have. The concept of race was used to keep the black slaves down. The slave owners were afraid that if the white indentured servants started to realize they had more in common with the black population then they did with the elite population, there would be a rebellionand the elite would lose their control and status. The elites used the indentured servants as pawns by using race as a tool. Their motive was "you're white, we're white. We have something in common. If you keep the slaves in line and do some things for us, you'll move on up and you have a bit more, not much more, but you'll have more than they do and more than what you have now." That is a classic example of divide and conquer. A possible peasant rebellion was put to a stop by divide and conquer. Race was used to divide people. That is what happened. This use was put into practice during the Civil War. The slave owners didn't want to let go of their slaves. They even said they were prepared to fight to keep their slaves and secede. They used farmers and poor white people to fight the war for them, people who didn't even own slaves. Slavery was an issue used. Nowadays we say states rights. Of course it was states right. The people living in the Southern states didn't want people in the North telling them they couldn't own slaves. The irony was that slavery was abolished anyway. Divide and conquer. I am not here to sat that capitalism is a bad thing. I am here to say that whenever there is cruelty and corruption and the persons who control the resources don't want to relinquish that privilege, they will use the old standby of divide and conquer to keep the people living on the bottom rungs of society from standing up against the oppresion of not having equal access to resources.