[lbo-talk] Ehrenreich responds to BDL

Brian Siano siano at mail.med.upenn.edu
Wed Aug 20 13:29:07 PDT 2003


Gail Brock wrote:


>"What I did not like was her taking cheap shots at the
>yuppie life styles - but that is hardly unique to
>Ehrenreich - it is the general tenor of the Left,
>which I hear time again in debates on urban renewal,
>service economy or labor issues. Denouncing yuppie
>life styles by many leftists seems disingenuous.
>Denouncing an entire socio-economic group (defined by
>their education and income level) belongs to the same
>genre as the old fashioned prejudice against Blacks,
>Irish, Italians, Jews or Poles, yet the later is
>strictly verboten.
>
>"Bashing a broadly defined group of people is
>unacceptable under any circumstances, but in this
>particular circumstances it is also very myopic.
>Yuppie incomes can, after all, contribute to the
>shrinking urban tax base or create decent service
>jobs, which the culturalist/moralist take misses
>altogether."
>_____________________________________________
>There’s a big slide here, from denouncing a life style
>to denouncing races. A life style is a set of
>behaviors, and is eminently subject to denunciation,
>whether it’s living in gated communities, sipping
>white wine and nibbling Brie, listening to NPR, and
>shopping Eddie Bauer, or living in trailer parks,
>guzzling Pabst and gnoshing on Nachos, listening to
>Lee Greenwood on Clear Channel, and going on Walmart
>sprees. More refined sensibilities? Trickle down
>effect, anyone?
>
I've read Ehrenreich's book, and I tended to gloss past the snipes-at-yuppies comments and paid attention to other sections of her book. Frankly, I thought it was just a stylistic lapse-- bashing yuppies was going on when I was in college, twenty years ago,and Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin brought their tag-team yippie/yuppie show to Temple U.

But the above comments, from Gail and Wojtek, touch on something that's bugged me about people in general-- it's the tribalism, where one's political stance seems more informed by how one feels about differences in style. Hearing people who count themselves as "leftists" bitching about "yuppies" isn't very different from hearing blue-collar workers complain about the anarchist kids. Listen long enough, and you'll notice that it rarely has anything to do with politics or ethics. It's usually about what they wear, or what products they buy, or what music they listen to, and everything else that made our high school cliques such powerful moral authorities.

If I have to hear some self-described "leftist" denounce the lifestyles of 'yuppies,' then I reserve the right to vent about "lifestyles" like imitating gansta-rap attitudes, or the self-policing uniformity of urban anarchist dress codes (khaki or basic black, take yer pick). Sure, there are bits of lifestyles I don't like... but those are just my personal beefs, and I try to avoid mixing them with my politics. As far as I'm concerned, people can imitate playas, dress like Third World insurgency militias, or sip white wine while shopping Eddie Bauer as much as they like. Just as long as we all have decent salaries, a say in policy, and decent health care.



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