Looking Back from 2101

By Steve Halpern

During the 1990s the politicians and media pundits argued that we experienced the most dramatic financial upturn in the history of the United States. Yet, today in the year 2001 forty-five million people lack health insurance; thirty-five million experience hunger, millions are functionally illiterate, and anyone living in Philadelphia who earns the minimum wage, needs to work eighty-four hours per week to avoid homelessness. When we look at the facts, the so-called financial upturn of the 1990s was a myth for eighty percent of the population. Today, when we adjust for inflation, the least affluent eighty percent of the population earns no more than they did in the early 1970s, yet they routinely work more hours. As harsh as all these conditions are, an all out collapse of the economy is possible in our lifetimes.

While these conditions exist an enormous amount of waste is generated in the world. Whether we purchase a tooth pick or a town house, we pay for services which add nothing to those commodities. When we need medical care we would never go to an insurance agent, yet insurance companies profit off of our need for health care. When we purchase a house we dont rely on bankers to build the house, yet banks collect enormous sums in interest payments for the purchase of homes. When we turn on the television we see advertising which adds nothing to the quality of the programming, yet we pay more for commodities because of advertising. These few examples show how there are enormous resources which could be used to make dramatic improvements in the standard of living throughout the world.

Looking Back From 2101 is a novel which imagines what the world might look like if human needs were the top priority, and the primary motivating force of society was human solidarity. This book has a similar theme as Looking Backwards by Edward Bellemy which was written in 1887 and sold millions of copies throughout the world.
Harry Goldberg is a factory worker in the year 2001. One night he goes to sleep and doesnt awaken until the year 2101. In this world of the future Harry discovers that poverty has been eliminated, yet people are only asked to work for twenty hours per week. The government strives to eliminate alienation from the workplace, and to organize industrial production in a way that is harmonious with the environment. Everyone who is born into this world has many rights which they can use throughout their lifetimes. These include the right to food, clothing, housing, health care, education, communication, transportation, and exposure to the arts or recreational activities. Everyone is also encouraged to offer their opinions concerning any and all topics.

From the perspective of this future world Harry proceeds to have a series of conversations with African Americans, women, a Puerto Rican, a Native American, a farmer, a garment worker, a doctor, and a student where they explore how and why the world was transformed. Harry begins to realize that all the advances which he is witnessing in this new world were indeed possible in the twentieth century. These changes didnt occur because of scientific achievements or brilliant political leaders. The transformation of society came about because of the determination of the masses of people to construct a world where human needs are more important than profits, and human solidarity is the best way of motivating working people.

Looking Back From 2101 is an attempt to contrast the world as it exists from the world as it might be. While politicians and media pundits tell us what we cant achieve, this book makes an attempt to look at what is possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 8, 2002
• ISBN: 9781462843022

Steve Halpern

Steve Halpern has been an active communist for close to thirty years. He was born and went to public schools in Newark, New Jersey where he witnessed the systematic discrimination against the majority of the population in that city. He visited Cuba in 1996 where he saw how an underdeveloped nation transformed itself to make the needs of the people the top priority. Since 1980 he has lived in Philadelphia, and was a member of the United Auto Workers Union for fourteen years. Currently he continues to work producing parts in the automotive industry.

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Copyright © 2001 by Steve Halpern.

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

EPILOGUE

ENDNOTES

For Elsie Halpern who gave me life and sparked my interest in history

For Judi Chertov who has collaborated with me for most of my adult life and for all those individuals who have dedicated themselves to the collective struggle to make this a world where human needs are more important than profits.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Carol Sheehan edited this book and helped make it considerably better than it would have been without her assistance. Her main contribution was to get me to think about the book in different ways. As a result, the reader will have about fourteen-thousand extra words to think about. Although we have never met, since she lives in Calgary, Alberta Canada, it was a pleasure collaborating through our E-mails. Thanks Carol.

The political outlook expressed in this book reflects my twenty-eight year collaboration with the Socialist Workers Party. During those years I must have marched in hundreds of demonstrations, sold numerous copies of The Militant newspaper, sold books published by Pathfinder Press, and learned that my political interests are the same as every worker and farmer in the world. This experience has enabled me to think for myself and not to adapt to all those rationalizations for the capitalist system.

Of all the books which I’ve read, the author which has been most influential has been the late George Novack. George was the one who first introduced me to the Socialist Workers Party when I was a student at Livingston College in New Jersey. His books on history, democracy, and philosophy have been my foundation for understanding the world. All of the authors published by Pathfinder Press have been profoundly influential, but George Novack is the one who tied all this information together in his Long View of History.

Everyone in the United States is taught to get a job so we can provide for our families. Because of my experience with communist politics I’ve learned that everything we have is the result of the labor of working people who toil all over the world. So, for all those workers who make a living under extremely difficult conditions, you have also made this book possible.

INTRODUCTION

In the year 1887 Edward Bellamy wrote a novel called Looking Backward. Bellamy imagined a future world where poverty and alienation were no longer a part of the human experience. From the perspective of this future society, Bellamy’s characters looked back at the world of 1887. Looking Backward was one of the most popular books of its day—giving readers a perspective of how our current reality could be transformed into a much better place to live. In order to fully appreciate the importance of this work, it is useful to look at what the world was like one-hundred and fourteen years ago.

Bellamy lived at a time when most working people lived in one or two room cold water flats. Hunger was a fact of life routinely experienced by numerous workers. Medical care was primarily reserved for the affluent. When rail workers went on strike in 1877 protesting these and other conditions, the federal government sent in troops to protect the property of the owners of the rail lines. In 1886 four workers who were a part of a movement demanding an eight hour working day were executed for a crime they did not commit. They became known as the Haymarket Martyrs. In later years a governor of the state of Illinois wrote a decision where he argued that there was never a legitimate reason for the Haymarket Martyrs to be arrested, let alone executed.

It would take another thirty-three years before the suffragette movement forced the government to grant women the right to vote. In 1887 women were excluded from most professions. They worked long hours at demeaning industrial jobs. Sexual harassment was not viewed as an issue in those days, and woman were routinely confronted with abusive bosses. Because wage scales were so low, children also went to work and many lost limbs due to the extremely dangerous conditions they faced.

During these same years the United States government continued the wars to rob Native Americans of their homelands. In all, approximately 371 treaties were signed with various Native American nations. Since the United States failed to live up to the terms of these agreements, war became inevitable. Many defeated Native Americans were placed in concentration camps—where they died of preventable diseases. Their children were placed in schools——where they were prohibited from learning anything of their tribal history.

After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments became a part of the Constitution of the United States. These amendments were supposed to give African Americans full rights as citizens in this country. Reconstruction governments took control of the former Confederate states and attempted to establish genuinely democratic rights for all.

The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations went to war against the reconstruction governments. In 1877 President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered federal troops to leave the South and the rights of African Americans vanished. Thousands of lynchings took place, and the federal government never made serious attempts to apprehend most of the perpetrators. In the decision Plessey vs. Ferguson the Supreme Court effectively declared that the United States government was under no obligation to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Considering that all these events occurred after the Civil War, it is natural to question President Abraham Lincoln’s words in his address after the battle of Gettysburg when he said, . . .that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

President Lincoln’s words were not totally off the mark. The defeat of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery sparked a cultural awakening in the United States. In 1878 electrical and telephone service became available to the public. During these years Mark Twain and others wrote novels which became popular throughout the world. The suffragette movement was active and would eventually force the government to grant women the right to vote. The labor movement waged some of it’s most courageous battles, and would begin to organize millions of workers into unions during the 1930s. Although Radical Reconstruction had been defeated, African Americans organized to gain the rights they were denied. By the 1960s the Civil Rights movement forced the government to adopt the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.

Out of this world Edward Bellamy wrote his book, Looking Backward. His main character—Julian West—was transported into a future society where everyone’s needs were provided. His futuristic characters never experienced alienation in work or school. Women were viewed as fully liberated equals. The essence of this new world was described in the following passage by Dr. Leete who was a character in Bellamy’s future world:

If I were to give you, in one sentence, a key to what may seem the mysteries of our civilization as compared with that of your age, I should say that it is the fact that the solidarity of the race and the brotherhood of man, which to you were but fine phrases, are, to our thinking and feeling, ties as real and as vital as physical fraternity. (1)

In the past few years the media argued that we experienced the most dynamic financial upturn in history. They also argue that the cause of socialism is effectively dead. One author actually argues that we have experienced the end of history, as if the world has become such wonderful place that there is no room for improvement. I believe the facts show that all these arguments ignore the stark reality working people face all over the world.

Edward Wolff of New York University compiled data on the distribution of wealth in the United States over the past 75 years in his book Top Heavy. According to Wolff’s findings the most affluent one percent of the population owned 48 percent of the nation’s financial wealth in 1989. The most affluent 20 percent of the population owned 94 percent of the financial wealth, while 80 percent of the population owned a mere 6 percent. Wolff found that this was the greatest disparity of wealth since the depression. Forbes magazine underscored Wolff’s findings in their estimate that 400 of the wealthiest people in the US own over one-trillion dollars. The Gross National Product of the United States is about eight-trillion dollars.

This state of affairs explains why the standard of living for most working people is stagnating or deteriorating. Today it is more difficult to get health care. There are more homeless people. Millions of people in this country experience hunger. When we take inflation into account, 80 percent of the population has not had a wage increase since the early 1970’s.(2)

Even some of the highest paid employees are effected by these conditions. In the computer industry, programmers routinely work 60 to 80 hours per week. Even if these programmers earn between $70.000 and $80,000, their hourly rate is no more than many unionized factory workers. Although slavery was officially abolished, more and more workers are perpetually tied to their jobs with cell phones and pagers. If these conditions were not bad enough, a total economic collapse is likely to take place in our lifetimes.

In the world, half of the human race lives on two dollars per day or less.(3) At the same time as these conditions exist, underdeveloped nations pay billions of dollars every year to the International Monetary Fund, which is dominated by financial interests in United States. The US government also has economic sanctions against nations which represent half of the human race. Yet, we hear the argument that these are the best of times.

Today the resources exist to make dramatic improvements in the lives of everyone throughout the world. There is enough food to feed the planet, yet 790 million people suffer from hunger.(4) Citizens of the United States suffer from curable diseases, while the government spends hundreds of billions of dollars every year on the so-called defense department. Millions experience homelessness, while many construction workers have difficulty finding a decent job. So, in spite of what the press might say, there continues to be considerable room for improvement.

Politicians and the news media tell us that these problems are so complex, there are no immediate answers. A question we hear repeatedly is, where will the money come from, to solve these problems? For now, all I will say is that there is an immense amount of waste in the world today. If we geared production to what people want and need, it is conceivable that we could live significantly better lives, working less hours, and utilizing fewer natural resources.

For all these reasons I decided to update Edward Bellemy’s book Looking Backward. Like Bellemy, I created a future world where most of the problems we face have been resolved. From the perspective of this future society, my characters look back at the world we live in today. In order show how this vision of the future is indeed possible, my future world utilizes the technology we have today in the year 2001. I believe that a future based on the values of human solidarity could make scientific advances that are unparalleled in human history. My argument is that scientific advances are, for the most part, unnecessary in order to make dramatic improvements in the world.

This book is an attempt to show what this planet might look like if many of the problems we face were resolved. If our priorities are transformed, the future environment I envision is not just a dream, but a real possibility. So, without further ado, welcome to the world of Harry Goldberg.

Endnotes

1.   Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, P. 72 Bantam Books

2.   Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Published September 4, 1999

3.   Human Development Report 1999 issued for the United Nations

4.   Human Development Report 2000 issued for the United Nations P. 8

1

I was born in the year 1952 in the city of Newark, New Jersey. Nineteen fifty-two? you might ask. Surely you’re thinking: This person must be crazy. Your reaction’s perfectly understandable. However, if you will indulge me, my story will make this statement reasonable. For the moment, then, forget about the fact that we are living in the year 2101.

There are other aspects to my story that might sound unbelievable. I’m forty-eight years old, though chronologically I should be a hundred and forty-nine, which, no doubt, you would regard as impossible. I lived at a time when everyone didn’t have the basic human needs of food, housing, and clothing. People worked at alienating jobs to provide for these things. Our labor insured that a tiny minority of the population would have more resources than they could ever use. Yes, from today’s perspective, the society I used to live in was very strange indeed.

I lived in Newark, New Jersey until reaching the age of 18. I am white, but most people in the school I attended were Black. The high school I went to was dilapidated, and we didn’t have a full sized gym for over seven-hundred students. Not all schools were as ill-equipped as this. Thirty minutes from this school was another public school where most of the students were white. It boasted of tennis courts, a swimming pool, as well as football and baseball fields. I felt that my school had been discriminated against, and I knew there was something wrong with this discrimination, but I didn’t know what to do about it. This might sound especially implausible to you since education is so important in the present world.

After high school I attended college for a year. Professors gave classes designed to train me to do some kind of work that would be easier than the jobs available to those who lacked a degree. None of these professional careers attracted me because they seemed to rationalize, in one way or another, the political system under which we lived. Even then I believed that there is clearly something profoundly wrong with a nation that treats people differently because of the color of their skin. I didn’t want to be in the position of telling people what to do, for the sake of rationalizing the status quo. The thought of dedicating my life to defending a system I didn’t believe in wasn’t very appealing.

Instead of finishing college, I found a job in a factory in Philadelphia. The work was hard, but eventually the company allowed me to do a skilled trades job which was easier. The factory was a union shop, so the rate of pay was better than average. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, in those days working people were paid with something called money. Money consisted of coins or pieces of paper that could be used to purchase most of the things people wanted and needed. Although we never felt we had enough money, most people possessed many things we rarely if ever used.

After working a number of years in the skilled trades, that job became one of the millions which were eliminated, and I went back to work in the production of auto parts. For eight hours, I stood next to a punch press, placing sheets of steel into a die and depressing two buttons that cycled the press. The company expected workers like me to do this mind deadening work all day long with only two breaks. At the end of a shift, it felt like I had been in a prize fight and lost. But as bad as these conditions were, the rate of pay was still better than average. In time, the company decided that job would also be eliminated.

I remember one day, reading an article in the newspaper about a German Baron who owned an art collection valued at over one billion dollars. That represented a considerable sum of money indeed. This Baron allowed the Spanish government to borrow his art collection and in exchange, they agreed to pay a rental fee of fifty million dollars per year. The reason why I remember this story is because that Baron was an owner of the factory I’d been toiling in for fourteen years. In those days a person like the Baron would have never considered using his wealth to save the jobs that were being eliminated in his factories.

At this point, you might ask some legitimate questions. Why did I work so hard, while this Baron sat back and enjoyed the wealth his employees produced? Well, in those days most people were workers, like myself, who held down jobs to provide for the needs of our families. Then, there was the minority that the Baron was a part of, who lived affluent lifestyles thanks to the labor of others. The Baron would receive interest, dividends, or profits from his investments in corporations. They called this state of affairs free enterprise.

How could anyone experience satisfaction in life without working to produce the goods and services we all want and need? Well, you will remember I didn’t have the wealth of the Baron, so I can not answer that question with certainty. However, the idea in those days was that affluent people provided for those who had no independent wealth. It was said that they provided jobs for workers, while at the same time, they gave charity to people who were in need. People such as this Baron might have had the absurd idea that his opulent lifestyle was beneficial to humanity, but to the contrary, the affluence he experienced only benefited himself.

In the past, I didn’t look forward to going to work. As you might imagine, few people did. My life with Sofia, my wife, was the main diversion I had from the drudgery of my job. Together we attempted to push aside the alienation we both felt at work, and form a bond that gave us strength. This was difficult and oftentimes we argued about unimportant issues. We never had enough time to cool out from our jobs, and those jobs exerted a considerable amount of pressure. After all, people like the Baron demanded a maximum profit from their investments.

Sofia worked as a medical secretary. All day long, she typed and answered the telephone, though in her job it was clear that even if she worked every minute of an eight hour day, she would never be able to finish the work that the management expected. Despite this furious pace, a doctor she worked for received a salary amounting to thirty times more than Sofia’s. The reason for this huge disparity in income was that the doctor received specialized training to practice medicine. This may seem odd to the reader living in 2101, because now everyone has the right to continue their education throughout their lifetime.

In those days, I had two interests that also helped me cool out from my job. One was my interest in history; the other was the time I spent bicycling around the area where we lived. Reading history uncovered other worlds completely unlike the one in which we lived. On the one hand, I read about Native Americans, who lived in communal societies and treated members of their own tribe in an egalitarian way. I had the opportunity of visiting New Mexico where I saw the ruins of the Pueblo people. The remains of their society showed no evidence of castles, or mansions, or slums; all the houses were the same size, and there were no prisons. Although these Native American societies didn’t have 20th century technology, they treated each other with more respect than I was treated in a society that called itself civilized.

I also read about the Roman Empire where slaves known as gladiators fought in the Coliseum, and murdered each other by the thousands day after day. This horror of slavery resurfaced in the Western Hemisphere, when people of African descent were treated worse than animals in order to cultivate the crops of cotton, sugar, tobacco, and coffee. When slavery was abolished, many men, women, and children worked in factories under brutal conditions. By comparison the conditions I experienced in the auto parts plant were significantly better than the conditions experienced by working people in the past.

Just riding my bicycle exposed me to some of the other realities. There were some neighborhoods where it might have been too dangerous to ride. In those areas the people didn’t have much money, and many were justifiably resentful of the inequality interwoven into the world at that time. Resentfulness often leads to anger. Anger isn’t always rational, and I knew that it was possible that I might be assaulted or robbed if I rode my bicycle there.

occasionally, I went on extended bike tours coordinated by various organizations. On one of these tours we rode through an extremely affluent neighborhood. In this community, each house was located on grounds which could have accommodated many houses from the community where I lived. Trees were everywhere and the atmosphere was tranquil. This area was completely different from the environment I was exposed to every day. Most people at that time questioned if this severe disparity of wealth was necessary, but the old adage, The rich get richer, while the poor get poorer seemed to be the only explanation.

You might now ask, Why did people put up with these conditions for so long? This is another question I am unable to answer with certainty. My opinion is that most people found a way to make a living, and as long as that was possible, most of these people accepted the status quo. Everyone knew there were real problems in the world, but the idea of dedicating one’s life to changing things was only popular with a small minority.

There were movements from time to time, led by people who dedicated themselves to righting a wrong. There was the movement against the war in Vietnam, and before that, there was the Civil Rights movement. People were attracted to these causes in such numbers that they managed to force the government to make real changes. The problem was that the overall structure of society remained basically the same. This might also explain why many people didn’t dedicate themselves to the larger task of fighting for a better world.

You might say the society I lived in was stuck in a quagmire. There were problems everyone knew about, but the dominant political forces of those days had no real interest in doing anything to rectify them. Resources existed to make things better, but those resources were primarily used to enrich the affluent. It was no wonder that most people experienced alienation in their workplaces and a distrust of politicians. As well, many people developed a growing cynicism about the media, seeing it as a manipulative tool of the ruling class and the government.

One of my close friends was Roy Connolly, who was born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States because life was very difficult for Irish Catholics in their homeland. Roy was a distant relative of the Irish revolutionary James Connolly, and had an intimate knowledge of Irish history. Our common interest in history sparked discussions which lasted hours on end. Once, he told me he attended a funeral in Ireland of someone who had been murdered due to the violence of those times. The British army surrounded the funeral procession, no doubt, to harass anyone who grieved the loss of an Irish patriot.

Roy’s story made me think of the funeral processions in South Africa which were attacked by the armed forces of the former apartheid government. I thought of how, at times, the same repression is used against people who are Black and white.

When Roy wasn’t reading history, he developed an obsession——tinkering with mechanical devises in his basement. He had fantastic ideas about inventing something which would put him on easy street. Finally, his wish came true. He invented a wireless perpetual motion air-conditioner. The science was beyond me, but once this air-conditioner was turned on, it never shut off.

Since Sophia and I both like to sleep when it’s cool, Roy gave us a replica of his invention.

After loosing the job I had for fourteen years, I found work at another location where my shift was from 10:30 PM to 7:00 AM. Working nights was difficult, and I found it hard to sleep because my neighbors carried on with their normal activities during the day, while I struggled to rest. Although I managed to do my job, I always felt tired. Finally, I worked out a plan that eventually helped with my problem.

I finished off our basement and poured concrete into the ceiling. In essence I erected a bunker that might help me sleep during the day. There was even a steel door which made the room fireproof. Tomb-like, this room effectively kept out noise, but I still had a problem sleeping. I went to see a number of specialists in this field and eventually I learned a technique to place myself in a trance, allowing me to sleep peacefully. The only problem was that someone else had to wake me up from the trance.

The combination of my tomb, Roy’s air-conditioner, and the trance-induced sleep alleviated my difficulties with shift work, and life became routine. In the afternoon Sofia would wake me, and I was fully refreshed for another day. Lying in our concrete room was as if we were in another world, because nothing could be heard from the outside.

One evening on a weekend I chose to go to bed early, while Sofia preferred to stay up late. I went downstairs as usual and put myself into a trance. I had no idea that it would be the last time I would see Sofia alive.

2

For a combination of reasons, which I’ll explain presently, no one took me out of that trance. Days, weeks, years, and even decades went by; I continued to slumber. As the years past, a transformation took place in the world. Most people became fed up with the political system I lived under, and eventually a new government emerged which made fundamental human needs the top priority.