#social control

I am opening you because I already know what I want to use you for.

You are a tool that I am going to use. Nothing more. I don't need a thing to try and make me believe it's a friend.

Edith, in Downton Abbey, is one of the most entrancing characters, due to her evolution: from "ugly" sister to independent and modern woman. Edith is the scapegoat of the Crawley family, but unlike the other scapegoats (Thomas and Ethel), she has alternatives and privileges. When she became pregnant, being single, she went to Switzerland; that is, he was able to escape family and social control. In moments of crisis, his London apartment was a haven. She counted on the support of her extended family (aunt, grandmother and brother-in-law) and then found a friend in her editor. In addition, in the penultimate chapter of the series, he was able to react to his sister’s attack.

In return, the other scapegoats are poor workers. They could not respond to offences; it touched them to cry in solitude, throw a sarcasm or make a puchero. The story of Ethel’s involution is painful and realistic: she begins as a girl who wants something more than a maid; Aspirations that Anna, Patmore and O'Brien disagreed with, even O'Brien sabotaged the girl and Anna seemed funny. Then, Mr. Mosley rejects Ethel and dismisses her for committing the same "mistake" as Edith and Mary: exercising her sexuality. Ethel was abandoned by a wealthy military man who died in the war, lost job opportunities and ended up on the street pregnant; to feed and roof her son, she prostituted herself. At the end of her story, she is forced to hand over the baby to the paternal grandparents, as she was not considered fit to raise him. Ethel received something of empathy, sorority and social support when she was already in ruins.

On the other hand, Thomas can also be compared to Edith. He, like Ethel, represents the otherness within the oppressed. Edith can escape control; instead, the attic is a prison for Thomas, he has nowhere to go, as he has no moments of privacy or intimacy either. Carson, Patmore, Bates and Anna are always watching. There are those who don't understand why in season five Thomas wants to keep an eye on Bates and Anna and tries to use Baxter to achieve it; the explanation is simple: if you are watched and controlled, you enter a state of alert, for example, when Anna warns Edna that Thomas cannot be trusted. That same season, Thomas «decides» to undergo conversion therapy in hopes of gaining control of his body, mind and desires.

The fanfics about Thomas with explicit descriptions remind me of a phrase from a troubadour from my country: «There is no worse word than this same society». It’s offensive the control other characters exert over Thomas’ body, and even more offensive is that the narrative attempts to convince the audience that that’s normal for the times and that it’s okay. I’m not asking for a Bridgerton-type narrative where everything is faked, not even a character with a progressive mindset for the early 20th century, but I’m sure it could be pointed out that the situation was cruel.

By contrast, Baxter issues a verdict that many share, but I do not: Thomas is his worst enemy; it seems to me that Thomas's worst enemy is the system in which he survives. Like Anna, Miss Baxter believes that Thomas is to blame for her situation and malaise; then Daisy reinforces this perspective by stating that she was not given the chance to be happy.

The narrative in Downton Abbey is designed to blame Thomas and justify Ethel’s separation from her son. A distinct narrative structure is found in the novel and the series “The Maid’s Tale,” where June Osborne uses her voice to denounce oppression in Gilead. The spectator sees that system as the horrible nightmare it is and, therefore, empathizes with the victims and rejects the oppressors. On Downton, by contrast, Crawley and Carson are the ones carrying the singing voice; therefore, Thomas and Ethel cannot narrate how oppressors control alien bodies, impose forced chastity, steal babies, and exercise other forms of humiliation. Their tragedies are presented almost as «conduct problems» that disturb the order and peace of Downton. In the end, there is no revolution against the oppressive system, only sacrifice and submission.

Equality.

A highspeed rail system that ran along the Interstate would allow millions of people economic freedom and opportunities that comes with choosing your employer and housing from essentially anywhere in the country.

Poor relief that gives money out to the poorest people is probably the most benefit per amount of money, but it’s *massively*, *massively* resented by wealthier people. Not only because it’s redistribution of wealth, given it was usually raised by local taxation, but because it takes both control and opportunities to benefit from them.

The big thing money gives is options, choice, and freedom. Wealthier people value having that and massively resent poorer people having it. They much prefer giving charity to paying their taxes because a) giving charity lets them keep control of the money, even at a remove, and b) they usually find a way to benefit more directly from it.

This is basically why we have the current social security systems we have, where so much more is spent on control and policing of the behaviour of poor and disabled people than actually helping. Universal benefits were popular when the systems were set up for a variety of reasons, including reducing resentment by wealthier people, but largely because means-testing is *more expensive* and *less efficient*than universal benefits.

Wealthier people screaming for more means-testing are doing so because they prefer to have more money spent on tormenting people who are struggling with the conditions that those wealthier people create and maintain because it benefits them than that money actually reaching them.

Dr. Michael Parenti discusses "Imperialism, Drugs and Social Control: The link between US intervention and the CIA's use of drugs abroad and at home." Date and location unknown.