rural idiocy

[William S. Lear]

On Wed, May 6, 1998 at 11:50:20 (-0400) Doug Henwood writes:
>                                                              .... I'm
>talking about the (mostly white) upper middle class that wants to seal
>itself off from people not like them, fearful of the dark-skinned, the
>noisy, and random social encounters that might force them to confront
>people not like themselves. The SUV is the vehicular counterpart of the
>geographical insulation that suburbia offers.

Doug, aren't you attributing a bit more (I guess) "agency" to these
apparently "smug fathead suburbanites"?  In addition, aren't you
therefore implicitly crediting the capitalist system with giving them
the very options that they must have in order for you to claim that
they are (freely) choosing these things?

It's not that the fatheads don't annoy me too.  It's just that I have
friends who are fatheads; I myself am probably a good candidate for
fatheadhood, and I find myself wishing dearly that I might encounter
"the dark-skinned" in something other than a social role of menial
service.

Bill