> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org
> [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Daniel Davies
> Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 3:58 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: [lbo-talk] poverty draft
>
> Doug wrote:
>
> >>And he agrees
> that the notion of a poverty draft is bullshit. The military
> is made up of the "better" echelons of the working class.<<
>
> Not sure that one follows from the other; the reductio ad
> absurdum of this would be that the Royal Regiment of Gurkhas
> is predominantly made up of the "better" echelons of Nepalese
> hill farmers, but I don't think anyone would claim that
> Gurkha recruitment doesn't have anything to do with poverty.
> Don't have much of an opinion on the US Army but based on the
> lads I knew who joined the Welsh Guards, recruitment is more
> driven by a lack of alternative prospects for doing something
> interesting - it's not so much that people are forced to join
> the army because the alternative is physical starvation, but
> there is a strong class element to it.
Daniel, the problem here is not the facts or their interpretation. Clearly, few people from the top income quintile enroll in the service, albeit not everyone from the bottom quintile enrolls either. We can, of course, analyze reasons why some people join whileother do not - but that would not convince th epoverty draft crown even a bit.
This crowd is a small part of a much bigger problem of the intellectual poverty of the left nowadays that seems incapable of making any political argument without having a victim do defend. If they cannot find any, they will manufacture one. They seem to have given up on the idea of presenting an argumewnt capable of competing with the neo-liberal alternative for the "hearts and minds" of themaionstream population, but instead resigned themselves to appeals to pity - and for that they need victims.
Wojtek