>>> cgrimes at tsoft.com 12/19/00 04:50PM >>>
The controversy is over whether intellectual labor is a lesser form of work, somehow less authentic, less useful, less moral. Manual work, especially the kind done by men, gets set up as "real" work, and everything else is done by spoiled pussies......
Doug
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CB: I'm assuming Chuck quotes Doug accurately. The controversy on this thread may be as framed above, but this framing reverses the way the prejudice goes in most of our society. It is education that is associated with being better and holding a higher rank, being of more worth. And the higher the education, the higher the rank and status. And it is both less educated women and men, the lesser intellectual laborers , who are the main victims of prejudice, belittlement, smaller incomes, lower status.
The counterprejudice of predominantly physical workers against intellectuals is in reaction to the dominant prejudice that is the reverse, but even this is done in (understandable) envy, because predominantly physical workers share society's norms and want their children to get educations.
So, the above formulation blames the victims.
I am not in favor of discounting the value of intellectual work, but I think it is sort of sectarian and unrealistic and self-serving for intellectuals to whine about our status compared with predominantly physical workers.