[lbo-talk] Relativity of class consciousness

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Tue Mar 28 06:43:05 PST 2006


On 3/28/06, Charles Brown <cbrown at michiganlegal.org> wrote:
> Class consciousness is a relative, not absolute, quality. It is "ratios" of
> class awareness that matter. With working class consciousness so low in
> North America, the ruling class can almost fly us on automatic pilot. It's
> like shootin' fish in a barrel for the bourgeoisie today. "Literally" an
> Alfred P. Newman-type can do it.

yes, they [the power elite, not the ruling class] can get away with flying on automatic pilor in the short run. In the short run, they can try to return the US welfare state to the situation of good old William McKinley, they can invade Iraq with no justification, they can install a system of patronage for loyal churches, etc. But it's easy for this ease to turn into triumphalism, so that the whole enterprise crashes and burns. -- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles



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