Still the same saying, among countries of similar size and large regional organizations, the middle class in America fare the worst, bar none. Thus, their middle class anxiety is the most severe.
Regarding upward mobility, as long as there is a relatively clear path for advancement, it can greatly alleviate anxiety. The middle class anxiety in some developing countries is not as severe because their upward mobility pathways still exist — they are in the ascendant phase of social development. If they catch the tide of the era, it truly takes a generation of hard work for the whole family to completely change their fate.
In contrast, some established developed countries have completely blocked their paths for upward mobility. Society is divided too finely horizontally, and each class does the tasks of its own class. Even if there are some new opportunities, absolutely none will fall to those below, which does not help alleviate anxiety at all.
As for the downward slide, established developed countries handle this relatively well because of class solidification, where each class only interacts with its own kind, and assets tend to fluctuate within limited ranges. It's difficult to become extremely wealthy, but equally difficult to fall many layers at once; at worst, one would become the bottom tier within their subdivided class, but life can still go on.
In some developing countries, however, this is quite frightening because once you fall too much, and end up in places with poor security, you could lose your life. This causes severe anxiety.
Thus, it's evident why the middle class anxiety in America is so severe; because they simultaneously face the disadvantages of "difficulty in climbing upward" and "too fast and severe a fall downward." The entire narrative of American society revolves around these two points, particularly for typical middle-class families without special circumstances.
Deathstroke is not the typical middle-class family. His perennial absence from home means that the family lacks a person. This sounds like a redundancy, but it's actually quite important. American middle-class families perfectly retain some characteristics of small farming families, and missing a main labor force is quite frightening.
Deathstroke certainly sends money home, and quite a lot; but his absence from family activities means that other family members experience multiplied stress, especially social stress. Mrs. Wilson needs to explain to others what her husband is doing, and his children also need to explain to others at school, and this explanation usually doesn't work well.
Additionally, various family gatherings are quite troublesome without a male head of the house. Because generally more conservative areas (specifically the southern United States, where Deathstroke's family resides) have the men entertaining male guests and the women entertaining female guests.
Men barbecue in the yard, discussing firearms, vehicle maintenance, and world affairs; while the women play with the children in the yard, focusing on topics such as children, relatives, fitness, and beauty.
If the husband is not at home, then they cannot host such family parties; if they don't host, they can't attend either, or else people will see them as freeloaders. Even when Deathstroke returns, he seldom attends gatherings, so they can't invite many people, leading to a vicious cycle.
Furthermore, quite absurdly, the American middle class adheres to not working. To be precise, they are in pursuit of the "Old Money feel." And what does "Old Money feel" mean? It means waking up every morning to observe asset returns for half an hour, then going to work out, spending a beautiful lunch with family, afternoon golfing or fishing with three or five friends, dining in a high-end restaurant with professional investors at night, and enjoying some family time before sleep. Simply put, not seriously working, yet still lounging around every day.
What they want is "not working, but being extremely wealthy." The ideal state is gaining everything they want with no effort. "No effort" is crucial, even if it's merely an act. So although they might secretly be terribly worried about their financial situation, they must show an air of ease.
And at this point, the Wilson family is bound to become the subject of ridicule. Because Mrs. Wilson can only explain to others that Deathstroke is "away working." And to peers in the same middle-class level, a job requiring prolonged absences at home must be difficult, far from effortless—after all, given a choice, who would be willing to roam afar for years?
Such work, in their view, reeks of poverty and is evidence of hard labor required just to sustain life. Even if Deathstroke provides a lot of money to his family, they still look down on him.
Moreover, as Shiller mentioned, Deathstroke joined the military at sixteen, and since then, he hasn't interacted with ordinary society. He's neither interested in nor does he often try to learn about ordinary society, so he will naturally appear disconnected and outdated, making him far from being popular. This exacerbates the situation.
Children growing up in such environments naturally suffer from more severe anxiety because they witness firsthand how their family is marginalized. Their neighbors may not be overtly aggressive — after all, Deathstroke's family is still wealthy, not struggling for food, clothing, or daily necessities — but they express themselves through small details.
For instance, during Christmas decoration, they might deliberately not inform you of the year's theme; and once you've finished decorating, realize you clash with the community aesthetics. Then, children of the same age will intentionally mock you during community gatherings. Or they might block the family tutor's car outside the community, forcing adults to pick them up, causing many family tutors to quit soon, with rumors spreading that "the child's temperament is too unruly, no teacher can stand it."
In short, in a country where middle-class anxiety is so severe, children going through such anxiety-inducing factors will spend their childhoods in an atmosphere full of insecurity. This does not benefit children's development.
To counteract this malice, they must learn to use tools within the rules to protect themselves. Mrs. Wilson must frequently do this, such as addressing her opinions at community development meetings, querying community regulations to deal with deliberate annoyances, making connections with a few decent neighboring families, understanding school rules to support her children.
It's not their choice to do so; it's their only option. After all, they can't have Deathstroke go around killing people. Although during their younger years, they were somewhat of fugitives, since Mrs. Wilson decided to return to family life, she cannot use such means to disrupt what is otherwise a stable life—otherwise, running away with children could only worsen things.
The children emulate this behavior. Whether in elementary or secondary school, they utilize rules and regulations to protect themselves better than others, defending against malicious jokes and targeting stemming from the notion "you don't have a dad."
Then one day, they realize that their father is the fiercest beast in the jungle outside society, and the spear given to them by the rules they hold is usually used to hunt such people. What would they think?
The fact is, the possibility that they would choose to side with Deathstroke is very small. Because they know very well that they are incapable of returning to the jungle with Deathstroke; they still have to live here, where there are those they love and care about. So they can only choose to exile Deathstroke.
This is indeed a bit unfair to Deathstroke. But just like after the rise of the human race, Earth entered an unprecedented era of mass extinction, unfair to those extinct creatures, the evolution of individuals in society is very similar to the evolution of human civilization on Earth, making it difficult to discuss right or wrong. All tragedies and regrets can only be blamed on God not being a perfectionist.
In the night of Egypt, Shiller spoke eloquently. He talked a lot, including the American society, the order of society and jungleism, community climate, the balance between personal development and social development. Finally, it came down to the profession of being a killer.
"You can't have a profession that profits from crime and also want to enjoy the benefits of social rules and the love of those living within the rules. That's not feasible."
Deathstroke was speechless. He chose to form a family and leave his children in ordinary society, hoping that this society could shelter his children. But in reality, his actions were destroying this society.
Deathstroke doesn't just kill the rich. Although there are competitive relationships among the upper class people, often they also have intricate connections. They have business cooperation and can profit from each other, so they often won't go too far; they prefer to simultaneously turn the knife towards the lower class. Many of Deathstroke's jobs are about dealing with people who have been used up and have nowhere to go.
He usually liked such jobs because the other party basically had no power to resist. The troublesome ones were those who wanted to "kill upward", which paid less and were more difficult. Except for accepting such jobs early on to make a name, Deathstroke hadn't taken on such a job for a long time.
Even within the rules of society, there are already enough means for the upper class to oppress the lower class, and they still have to use methods outside the rules, which undoubtedly leaves no way for the lower class people to survive. This is very harmful to society. Deathstroke clearly knows this because he has also killed many "rebels"—this plunges those countries and regions into a deeper abyss, always without exception.
"I know I'm very evil," Deathstroke began, "but I find that I might be more evil than I thought."
"People only repent when they become victims themselves," Shiller said. "You feel this way because you realize your family is also a victim, and you can't protect them."
"I can," Deathstroke said coldly, "I won't have more children. And Joseph is already grown, he can protect his mother. They can continue to live well there."
"Originally, that should be the case." Shiller lowered his eyes and laughed, "If you hadn't run into me and followed my plan to bring him over."
Deathstroke turned to look at him, suddenly hitting the brakes. Shiller thought he was going to say something, but Deathstroke pushed open the car door and got out, then said: "We're here."
Cairo was under martial law at that time, and cars couldn't drive in. They stopped at the first checkpoint outside, then bribed the local people on the other side to slip inside via another route.
The atmosphere in the city was unusual, with a faint smell of burning. It wasn't until they got near the airport that they found out those desperate armed men had burned an airport building. Fortunately, there were no casualties, only two of their own people were choked into the hospital and are now being tried. But how long this state of emergency would last is still unknown.
"Where are you going to search?" Deathstroke asked.
"I can't do Spiritual Analysis on murals, so we still have to look for Hayven—or more precisely, someone important to Hayven to exchange for the mural."
"Have you found them?" Deathstroke asked.
"Not like this," Shiller said, taking out the old handgun obtained from the enemy and aiming it directly at his own palm. "Bang!"
Deathstroke gasped.
"That's about right now."