Now, help your satisfied fellow worker, help _him_ understand _why he is satisfied_. Without malice, without anti-culture prejudice, without anti-religious hatred, without anti-church spite, but _with knowledge of the naturalness of human behavior domineered by economic necessity_, with knowledge of the great _historical process_, with your vision clear, your heart kind, your courage high, and your purpose fraternal—explain, explain this matter of meekness to your humble, contented wage-slave neighbor. Explain: That long ago the working man was forced and taught to be docile and meek. Under slavery, later under serfdom and still later under capitalism—for thousands of years—he industrially, socially, and politically _surrendered_. He was compelled to do so. He was taught to do so. He got the habit. He had the manhood and the courage beaten out of him, kicked out of him—and coaxed out of him. He lost heart. He humbly took his place—as a chattel-slave class, as a serf-slave class, as a wage-slave class. He has produced wealth. He has reproduced slaves. _The wings of his aspiration have been clipped._ He can hope no higher than a job—for himself. He hopes no higher than a job—for his children. The top of the plans of his life is—toil. And therefore even now as a wage-slave he teaches his own children to “respect their betters”—their employer masters. He forgets. He is so cringingly grateful for a job that he forgets he should have not only the right to breathe the air, the right to look at the sun, the right to read in the library, the right to walk on the highway, and the right to sit in the park,—but also the _right to work_, _the right to work unrobbed_, _the right to work under dignifying conditions_, and thus maintain himself on this earth at the _upmost levels of life_, enjoying the full result of his applied labor power,—and _without whining for permission to do so_. He forgets. He is still so very humble. He is, under the wage-system, forced to obey orders all his life in the factory, the shop and the mine. He is thus habitually so obedient that he will obey any order. He prides himself on his obedience. Under orders he will even plunge a bayonet into the breast of his fellow workers—in the interest of the capitalist class. He forgets the thousand wrongs thrust into his weary life and into the life of his class. He does indeed forget. He is still in a dull, dumb slumber. But he is _beginning to rouse_ from the slumber of meekness—from the social damnation of brainless obedience. _He is beginning to study the history of his own working class; and therefore he is rousing, waking, rising._ Following are some additional short paragraphs on the history of the working class from books by distinguished writers and teachers. It is hoped that these quoted paragraphs will induce further working class study of working class history. These passages confirm the main points of this lesson. (See Chapter Twelve, Suggestion 4.)