High Stakes

[J James]

At 02:50 PM 7/7/02 -0700, joanna bujes wrote:
>At 11:05 PM 07/05/2002 -0400, Carrol wrote:
>>I never said that, nor do I believe it. The illusion of a middle class
>>is held not only by professional sociologist like you but also by the
>>people so classified. "Professionals" (downsized or otherwise) are
>>unconscious enough to really believe (a) that a middle class exists and
>>(b) that they belong to it.
>
>This was perfectly captured when Sun bought Forte (the company I worked 
>for) a few years ago. Great fanfare, champagne brunches, and all the mucky 
>mucks from Sun drove over to Oakland to address their new hires.  In 
>response to the question as to whether the Forte people were going to be 
>laid off, Ed Zander (then CEO of SUN) beamed back at us and exclaimed: "Of 
>course not! We bought YOU!!! We bought the intellectual capital." A 
>somewhat awkward silence followed during which all the "middle class" 
>people inwardly asked themselves whether they were relieved or concerned 
>that they had just been "sold" and "bought."  Classic epiphany time, what 
>can I say?
>
>Cheers,
>
>Joanna

and, in the past, i've interviewed those folks to find out why the epiphany 
didn't translate into action. why, for instance, didn't the downsized mgrs 
start to realize they were workers and organize and so forth. my point was 
that when Gar suggested I might have something to add to the convo, he was 
asking about examples from that research--at least I interrupted him to say 
as much. and Carrol's response is to dismiss this research as anecdotage 
(although apparently, it isn't anecdotage when it's published by someone he 
approves of) OR assume that, because it's written by me/a sociologist, then 
it can be nothing but research in the interest of reproducing the myth of 
the middle class.

whatta guy.

kelley