>The issue in dispute between Kelley ( her whole post) and Doug here
>seems to me to be so central to the left. There is no left movement
>without the vast majority of people making it. The American organic
>intellectuals can see a way out for the people, the working class,
>and we should be confident that this left view is substantially
>accurate. Yet, as Kelley says, this valid vision will not be taken
>up by people who are victims being blamed. What a dilemma . How do
>we make our message persuasive and inspiring , especially when the
>ruling class has a very strict monopoly control on the means of mass
>communication ? How can we be critical of the ways that people
>participate in their own oppression without blaming the victims ?
Ok, I'm feeling less cranky today, and more constructive. Of course there's nothing intrinsically defective about the American masses; they're not hard-wired to be atomized apolitical xenophobes, or any of the bad things that are attributed to them. They've been shaped by bad education, bad media, bad religion (background music: "I want to conquer the world/give all the idiots a bad new religion!"), a preposterous system of government, and a lifetime of subservience to the power of money. But I think we have to concede Alex LoCascio's point, even if he did express it in a cranky, less-than-constructive fashion. Most Ameicans have neither interest nor faith in unions or parties or any of the other traditional institutions of left politics. They think salvation comes from their own individual efforts and the grace of God. Kind of makes you want to give up on politics, really. But I'll stop, before I make myself cranky again.
Doug