[lbo-talk] U.S. working class: functionally literate

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Fri Mar 4 08:43:19 PST 2005



>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>
>... My point was that despite all the brouhaha about innovation,
>individualism,
>creativity etc. , modern US society creates an incentive system that, for
>the most part, rewards dull conformity and outright stupidity, and punishes
>creativity and independent thinking. However, contrary to some on this
>list, I do think that "the system" or "employers" is a key factor in that
>process....

I will state what I've said before: The US economic system doesn't merely tolerate mediocrity, it insists on it. Genuinely skilled workers with independent minds pose a risk to the system that must be contained by deskilling jobs and making workers as fungible as possible.

Oddly enough, the "workers" who *are* the most interchangeable are corporate CEOs, relentless narcissists who I know from experience are almost completely lacking in their capacity for original thought and who possess so little introspection that they don't even recognize this incapacity -- universally thinking of themselves as bold visionaries when they are actually acting as a herd.

Carl



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