Whore Nation by Mumia Abu-Jamal

[col. writ. 3/14/08]
(c) '08 Mumia Abu-Jamal

With the national media fascination over the Spitzer-Kristen scandal has come also revelation: We, all of us, are living in a nation of whores.

Doubt it?

Now, I'm not here referring to a young call girl; nor am I really talking about former N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Although, in truth, there is much more than sex that unites them; more, in fact, than that which divides them.

For, despite first reports, Kristen hails from a well-to-do New Jersey family, who- having left home -- has experienced hard times. In that sense, both she and Spitzer hail from the same (or a somewhat similar) class.

Her sense of ambition for financial security drove her to the high-end business of prostitution. Similarly, Spitzer's ambition drove him to the law, and while not for financial enhancements, his pay was the most potent drug available: power.

And both whored themselves, just for different pay.

But this is bigger than the both of them (even as she entertains million-dollar offers for shots in the buff for porn magazines -- or, just another kind of whoring -- selling her image instead of her sweat).

In America, where culture, entertainment, politics, and all fields of endeavor are under the sway of capital, the question ain't whether we're for sale, but for how much?

And what is whoring, but exploitation?

In a nation fast facing de industrialization, where manufacturing is becoming a memory, and the economy tumbles into the bin of the service industries, what is the quintessential 'service', but the world's oldest profession -- prostitution?

Sometimes movies appear that reflect great, deep social or cultural shifts. Remember the movie "Pretty Woman", the vehicle featuring actress Julia Roberts? The theme was the whore with the heart of gold, who caught the eye of a wealthy man.

What do you think that film whispered to millions of little girls (or, for that matter, little boys) sitting in the dark, lost in flickering light, dreaming about tomorrow?

And what is our daily diet on TV, under the guise of so-called "reality shows", but selling oneself -- whoring oneself -- for dollars? The more humiliating, the more dough, it seems.

But, culture -- even corporate culture -- sometimes reflects and even presages what is happening in real life. What we laugh at during the nights' entertainment, becomes dreaded drudgery in morning light. For, it seems, what we find ridiculous on the tube, we lie on the job, for both reflect the daily humiliations of survival.

In politics, in entertainment, in business, in our social lives, we sell ourselves to the highest bidder -- whores in every sense but name.

At bottom, it's about power and exploitation; the sale of the body, which in capitalism's logic, is just another commodity.

Welcome to Whore Nation.

--(c) '08 maj