Food On The Table

New Deal Art captures a time when America was in the throes of the Great Depression. The Family depicted in this mural is disconnected, weary, and full of despair. Even the baby’s eyes are hugely sad. The father might not know where to get his next job, and the mother is overwhelmed by trying to make ends meet. There isn’t much food on the table to feed a family.

The “Family Mural” is one of many New Deal works of art. Most of these murals show people working, carrying sacks, plowing fields, building roads, bridges, tunnels. The working-class is a source of resilience and renewal, the heart of America.   

The current economic forces (technology, industry, AI) are placing extraordinary stress on today’s working-class, even among the college-educated working-class, who are stuck selling coffee, smartphones, groceries-in-bulk. No one knows which end is up. If you feel that the game is rigged against you, it is.

The poor are just screwed.

The war for oil is driving up all prices, and especially the price for food.

The current economic forces (technology, industry, AI) do not consider that revolutions, uprisings, upheavals are triggered by food insecurity. There is grave danger afoot when leadership does not have a context on history. Women with empty stomachs, unable to feed their children, sparked the Russian Revolution.

What is more important than putting food on the table?

Food On The Table is an Essay in my collection NOTES FROM THE WORKING-CLASS.

NOTE: New Deal Murals by Ben Shahn, Philip Guston, and Seymour Fogel are located in the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, D.C. The art cannot be viewed by the public. The Cohen Building is closed. The Cohen Building and other older federal buildings are slated for sale and eventual demolition. They might destroy the murals, but they cannot erase our collective consciousness, what we remember and pass down to our children. #wilburjcohenbuilding #philipguston #benshahn

CREDIT: The Mural of “The Family” is actually called “Reconstruction and the Wellbeing of the Family.” The 12x16 foot mural, created by Phillip Gaston in 1942, is located in the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, in Washington, DC. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith is in the public domain.