Human Sperit

California has always been a land of endless opportunities. It was and still is, one of the most popular and economically successful states in the United States and the world. But have you ever thought what is hidden behind the curtain.
Who were the Okies? It was a very familiar word to every farmer and landowner in California. To them it meant cheap labor. It meant scum, bums. It meant the weak spot of society. But in reality the Okies were migrants from Midwest, South-central and, in some cases even Southwest United states. They were mostly farmers, and many times share croppers, who were forced off their land and replaced by cheaper, more efficient machines. Sometimes the reason wasn’t replacement, but exhaustion of the land, caused the foreclosures as dust clouds killed the crops and put the farmers out of work. At the same time, the Great Depression was storming throughout the United States. The only possible way out of degradation was California. The sunny state was always a popular place to go, not only for tourism, but for business and educational purposes. The dream state where work always existed, the place where “…it’d be nice under the trees…” as “Ma” Joad says in “The Grapes of Wrath”. These kinds of people came to be known as Okies.
California has a colorful history that marks its future ahead. It is believed to have been named after the word “paradise”, from the language of an old tribe an old tribe that used to live in the area. At one time in California there were more than 70 different Native American tribes populating this “paradise”. It was and still is one of the most diverse states, culturally and ethnically. This is where the social conflict(between farmers and Okies) came in place.
The depression was very profitable for California’s rich land owners. They would send out flyers for work at their farms, and when they got the enormous amount of work force, they would pay less and get the work done faster. This soulless capitalism worked in California better than anywhere else. Poor workers and starving families were overlooked in the sake of the Profit. As Herald Greib once said “If we do not tame capitalism, it will destroy the societies generations before us have built during decades of social conflicts.”. However, it is ironic that the Okies were created by capitalism. For its profit, capitalism squeezed its “servants” like fruit, until no more juice came out, and than threw them out when they revolted.
The conflict that existed then was serious, and relates to modern days. What about today? Where do we stand?
A corporation hires illegal immigrants, for very low paying jobs and exploits their work for Profit. Does that sound familiar? This Golden State fence company hiring immigrants represents the rich white farmers during the great depression that found ways in order to keep the corporation going. Society is so dependent on the corporations, that the people are just slaves in the hands of their own creation. It is surrounding us without us even knowing it. And that is how the social conflict stays so persistent, throughout the years. Its demand for control over the people makes it so monstrous, creating fear and dependability in the regular worker.
“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels” - Mario Savio. This machine is the corporation, and the bodies were the Okies. They were the sacrifices for the redemption of a whole nation of mindless peasants. The Okies’ role in history was as significant as Martin Luther King Jr.’s role in the African American Movement, and Mario Savio in The Free speech movement. The Okies prevailed because ” there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression” - John Locke. And success was inevitable.