I was speaking mainly of my own experience. I've no need nor desire to "one-up" anybody, despite the temptation to do so with some of the sots on this list. The "macho" line is wasted on me.
>it is reflective of a pervasive anti-intellectualism, as well. a feminist
>prof used to claim that the 60s left was full of men who liked to pride
>themselves on their manly macho, bodily labor roots. it was a badge of
>honor that made them somehow more authentic than the children of the
>upper-middle class professional strata, it was a bodily labor, tho, that
>was a particular kind of bodily labor where ditch digging is noble, while
>wiping bottoms and scrubbing counters and washing dishes is...well...let's
>not talk about *that*... such that ditch digging is familial and communal
>work while the other...well....let's not talk about *that*. what, pray
>tell, is wiping bottoms and scrubbing counters and washing dishes?
Well, kel, I've done that work as well. I'm a father of two, and I believe that helping my wife to raise our kids is a noble form of labor. No "macho" (ugh! again with that line!) or "fem" distinctions are necessary.
>you assume that the college educated and advanced degreed have never done
>manual labor and did not do it while in college and somehow don't
>appreciate or do labor done to enrich one's community, family, self. well,
>if you're a woman with a family, it is highly unlikely that you escaped the
>noble labor of enriching family or community.
I assume nothing of the kind. I was originally speaking to Doug, playing off a riff of Chuck O's.
>i find the anti-intellectualism--the spewing against theory--amusing most
>of the time. in the end, though, it's a crutch that enables one to limp
>along, traversing from one point to the next, without ever realizing that
>all these denunciations of the intellectual life are precisely the kinds of
>rhetoric that meant that people like my ex and his friends bought into
>their "choices" and refused to pursue the life of the mind because it was
>all just bullshit navel gazing.
>
>to speak this way about learning, knowledge, and the joys that are
>associated with intellectual labor simply reinforces the idea that an
>education is a waste of time. it operates in the same way as the "poor
>little rich kid" motif does in film: the rich are really unhappy and the
>poor are really happy, so striving for a better life is pointless since
>you'll just end up alone and unloved.
Gawd. Did I say any of this? or are you simply projecting? I didn't go to college, am autodidactic, and do not in any way look down on education or intellectual labor (I married a Cornell gal who force feeds me classical music when I'm in the mood for NIN). I am against the intellectual class, especially when it takes imperial form. But as with your tired "macho" rant, the "anti-intellectual" bit falls flat at my feet.
DP