memes

Historical materialism.

Edit: I recall a cartoon where a woman was using a crystal ball to predict the future, and in the second panel it reveals she gains this power from reading Lenin. My file directories are too disorganized to find it though.

"In America they do better. There are already a number of cities in which hot water is conveyed to the houses as cold water is in Europe. Under these conditions the problem was a simple one, and a woman – Mrs. Cochrane – solved it. Her machine washes twelve dozen plates or dishes, wipes them and dries them, in less than three minutes. A factory in Illinois manufactures these machines and sells them at a price within reach of the average middle-class purse. And why should not small households send their crockery to an establishment as well as their boots? It is even probable that the two functions, brushing and washing up, will be undertaken by the same association."

• Kropotkin, 1892

No see he was referring to the people whose job it was to wash dishes. Dishwashers. Being "ran" is old-timey dishwasherperson slang for pulling a shift.

He's describing the fact that, due to the ravages of capitalism, dishwashers had to pull double or even triple shifts some days while sometimes they got no work at all, highlighting the irregular and unreliable pay that is part of the oppression of capitalism.