I would have said that a better insight into the poll result is that the ruling ideas are ever those of the ruling class.
I took issue with Leo and Nathan because to me it seemed that they were repeating the popular sentiment uncritically.
But it is just as much a mistake to imagine that the greater mass of people will not initially be swept up in the reaction. You shouldn't blame them en masse for that.
That would just be a way of copping out of the difficult work of persuasion, and the embarrassing realisation that for most of the time, our arguments are just not sharp enough.
In message <003901c13e51$a0d262a0$f3d5bfa8 at lkrubner>, Lawrence
<lawrence at krubner.com> writes
>> To me this 4% showing against the war mongers is more disheartening
>> than the entire past week of events. Since I'm certain that Gallup
>> did not only poll the ruling class, a majority of the 92% in favor of
>> retaliation are likely working class Americans. So while some
>> subscribers on this list may think that the working class is going to
>> create some vital change in the world, that seems a more distant hope
>> than ever in the USA. All it takes is good old fashioned nationalism
>> to convert them all to ruling class ideologies.
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>The working class in America is wealthier than 94% of the human race. I've
>always found it suspect to think of them as an unconflicted force for social
>change. From an international perspective, they have much to lose. The
>status quo, for them, is not good, but could be much worse.
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>I wish I still had a copy of Franz Fanon's book The Wretched of the Earth.
>Sartre wrote an introduction for that book in which he spoke to this issue,
>but I can't remember the words, it's been at least 10 years since I read it.
>I remember the idea was something like "What was the debate between
>capitalism and socialism in the West but an argument among theives over how
>to divide the spoils" but I don't remember the exact words.
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-- James Heartfield