Age of disposability

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, shocking images of dead bodies floating in the flood waters of New Orleans appeared on national television against a sound track of desperate cries for help by thousands of poor, black, brown, elderly and sick people. These disturbing pictures revealed a vulnerable and destitute segment of the nation’s citizenry that conservatives not only refused to see as such but had spent the better part of three decades demonising. But the haunting images of the abandoned, desperate and vulnerable would not go away and for a moment imposed themselves on the collective conscience of Americans, demanding answers to questions that were never asked about the existence of those populations excluded from the American dream and abandoned to their own limited resources in the midst of a major natural disaster. But that moment soon passed as the United States faced another disaster: the country plunging into economic turmoil ushered in by finance capital and the apostles of Wall Street in 2008. Consequently, an additional instance of widespread hardship and suffering soon bore down on lower middle- and working-class people who would lose their jobs, homes, health care and dignity.