> Doug
> the Left had better learn to speak to people
> in terms that they are likely to use themselves or we'll just
> be talking to ourselves (very correctly, of course).
>
> How about language like:
>
> "A working class hero is something to be.
> Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV...but you're
> still fucking peasants as far as I can see." ( I still
> think this sort of thing got him killed.)
Yes, but don't under-estimate the power & significance of his utopian idealism either.
My last 2 weeks around Silicon Valley in 1982, I worked in the Atari shipping department.
One day, at the end of the 15-minute afternoon break, "Imagine" came on, and a fair number of the guys (mostly) sang along with it. The bell to go back to work came on, and they ignored it and continued singing--no one else returned to work either. The bosses ignored the fact that the workers had ignored the bell. (Best not to mess with the moment, let it pass, let it diffuse.)
Finally, the song ended, and people began to shuffle back to work. But one guy, the tllest guy on the crew I was working with, piped up and began singing solo as we started shuffling back to work, "Imagine all Atari, giving us a raise..." There were considerable smirks and guffaws accompanying him.
A few months after that, Atari shut down its US manufacturing, and moved overseas.
At the time, there had been a term "Atari Democrats" for the pre-DLC types. Once Atari moved overseas, the term disappeared faster than those workers jobs did.
But I still remember their spirit -- and the part John Lennon's utopianism had in feeding it.
-- Paul Rosenberg Reason and Democracy rad at gte.net
"Let's put the information BACK into the information age!"