And that means seeing the American working class as the VICTIMS not the perpetrators of this tradition. If you see them as the perpetrators, all you can do is stand on the sidelines indulging in self-satisfying moral diatribes. Hence, the following -- > > We have systematically oppressed . . .etc
is profoundly wrong. WE have not done that... Carrol
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But, that is part of the problem. There is a we, and I am a part of the system. I am no self-satisfied, I share a complicity. And in other parts of that post, I noted that the US working class were the first on the now long list of oppressed.
It seems to me that not acknowledging that many aspects of our way of life, certainly most of our work, contributes, maintains, and makes us accomplices, and that is also part of the problem--and a key part of oppression. By maintaining that only the formally identifiable capitalist class exercises oppression means we can safely ignore our roles. For example, every time I work on a wheelchair, I am involved in a calculus of oppression, by limiting my labor to that which will be financially recovered by the company I work for. I don't haul a new chair out of the box, and stick the person in it---I repair the old one, way beyond its utility. In other words, I replicate the system of class and its exclusions in almost every motion I make all day long. So do most working people. If we didn't there wouldn't be the system we live under. By ignoring our roles, we blind ourselves to how this oppression is created and maintained. I am not particularly hung-up about this component, but it has be said, and needs to be part of the general view.
Chuck Grimes