That Obscure Object of Discipline (was lingua franca on "stars" in academia)

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Jan 25 20:19:48 PST 1999


William S. Lear wrote:


>Hmm, or a frightened people putting on a happy face? Times are "good"
>and the memory of bad times looms large. I'd say this is like saying
>you are "satisfied" on a a tightrope 400 feet above the cement ---
>satisfied you aren't plummeting earthward.

I dunno. Maybe a sociologist - Kelley? - can clarify these figures. I ran a smiliar set past the American Association of Public Opinion Research list once, and was told that straightforward global satisfaction numbers are unreliable, and dissolve on more specific probing. The numbers from 1991 were lower, but still hardly a picture of mass discontent.

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list