Populism

Thomas Waters twaters at panix.com
Sun Nov 14 19:10:54 PST 1999


At 01:58 PM 11/14/99 -0500, Jim F. wrote:


>Nader and the other left populists represent a form of petty bourgeois
>radicalism. They represent or aspire to represent the perspectives
>of the petty bourgeoisie and other strata that are intermediate
>between the big bourgeoisie and the working class.

I don't find this picture of Nader and the petty bourgeoisie very compelling. How does the p.b. get the social weight to develop and express its own ideology so clearly, when the working class for the most part cannot. A "professional" ideology, from the point of view of lawyers and technical experts, would be easier to explain, but even these layers are usually heard promoting a strictly bourgeois view of the world.

I think that Nader and his like are expressing primarily a bourgeois ideology, the ruling ideas of this age, even as they attempt to criticize the bourgeoisie. In this repsect they are unfortunately no different from most public representatives of the working class.

Tom Thomas Waters twaters at panix.com Bronx, New York



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