It’s being called “The Working Class Anthem.” The song by Oliver Anthony, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” resonates with millions. Anthony describes the working person’s struggles in the song’s first lines before pivoting to the social-political changes that dominate so much public conversation today.
The song has become a YouTube sensation with tens of millions and #1 on iTunes. Anthony, who describes himself politically as a “centrist,” is a recovering alcoholic, former factory worker, and amateur musician. The “rich men” in his lyrics presumably refer to the politicians living in Washington, D.C., 100 miles north of Richmond.
The song is a blue-collar lament of what so many American workers feel: “I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin all day/Overtime hours for bullsh*t pay/So I can sit out here and waste my life away/Drag back home and drown my troubles away/It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to/For people like me and people like you/Wish I could wake up and it not be true/But it is, oh it is.”
When I first heard the song, sitting in the passenger seat of my son’s pick-up truck, I winced, not because I’m not a country music fan, but because Anthony’s voice and lyrics were haunting. America’s working class is suffering, and the effects are evident not only at the grocery store and gas pumps but also at substance abuse treatment centers and in the uptick in chronic health issues among that demographic. Their wages just aren’t keeping up with inflation. And of course, in the words of another lyricist, (Bob Dylan) “the times they are a-changin,” and that multiplies the anxiety in an already anxiety-ridden culture, a world determined to move on without the working man but still in need of his services. Everything seems so heavy everywhere we turn. So, I felt a deep and abiding sadness listening to that song.
Is there hope on this Labor Day, 2023?
The American worker has to look beyond Anthony’s song for anything like hope, although Anthony himself may believe in a Higher Power. Minus the specific references to cultural change and political locale, the song’s message rings true in almost any generation. Politicians, through much of recorded history, have, more often than not, looked out for themselves first, jockeying among themselves for control of the public they were supposed to serve. The “rich men,” whomever they may be in whatever age, wherever their locus of power, have always been prone to corruption. It’s a subtext to humanity’s inhumanity to humanity.
Yes, times have been better. But they’ve been worse, too. In the words of Charles Dickens, we live in the best and worst of times (sometimes on the same day.) We can find both. It may not seem like the best of times, so let’s start with the notion that it’s the BETTER of times, for we can always look back to a more perfect time and place. But in the here and now, we do have the opportunity to initiate change for the better. We are not helpless automatons. We can work for positive change, politically and socially.
Yes, hard work isn’t getting the bills paid for far too many. Stress levels are high. Dark clouds seem to hang overhead.
And it’s a sad day unless God is in the equation, unless we see his purpose for us amid hard times.
In a world that provided little or no opportunity to improve one’s lot in life, a man named Martin Luther tried to give dignity to the downtrodden and oppressed. Luther insisted that the farmer shoveling manure and the maid milking her cow please God as much as the minister preaching or praying (or we could add the politician pontificating) and, in so doing, serve the spiritual welfare of the community.
Through our work, performed humbly to the glory of God, we have the opportunity to please God and love our neighbors. There is dignity and hope in that possibility.
That truth holds not just for the farmer and milkmaid of the 16th century but for the factory worker or farmer in Kentucky, Tennessee, or Virginia.
As well as for those rich folks, north of Richmond, this September 4, 2023.
You can contact David Whitlock at drdavid@davidwhitlock.org