Typical leftist arrogance - knowing better what is on someone else's mind. You seem to be pissed that I do not share your view of the dregs of society and use every opportunity to snipe at me for that reason. So for the record - I do not disparage the underclass, I just do not want to be associated or fraternize with them in any way.
As far as the crime is concerned, it is mostly ghetto dwellers killing each other, so why should I be afraid of it? I can read stats and understand the probabilities of being affected by crime in this country.
and later, to Doug...
I thought that the delusion of being persecuted, discriminated or wronged in one way or another was a prerequisite of being a radical, no?
...............................
I'd like to move beyond the back and forth these Wojtek proclamations usually inspire (and aren't we ready, at long last, to say goodbye to all that? As predictable as Swiss watch movements, these rows) and explore the wider phenomena of left leaning supremacism.
Not racial supremacism necessarily - and perhaps by typing "supremacism" I've selected the wrong word, suggestions for replacements are welcome - but a more personal sort of super self righteousness, not unlike the theoretical superiority which pushed Dostoevsky's dream addled student towards his murderous deeds.
Of course, I know that this sort of thing isn't limited to 'the left' - what is G.W. Bush if not a gelatinous mass of self righteousness in human form? - but on the left it assumes an interesting texture since it seems mixed with a weakness for analysis and intellectualism.
I'm thinking here not only of Wojtek - our own Rodion Romanovich - who routinely rails against those who cannot see things as clearly as he ('the Left', of course, but also the SUV driving middle and upper classes, the crime committing 'underclass', the idle wealthy and perhaps cats and dogs and visitors from distant stars as well) but also of men such as Robert Jensen, Hitchens and many others.
I'm curious what others think about this incomplete thought. Mind you, I'm not at all interested in Wojtek bashing: time's too short for it and he has proved himself to be impervious to ridicule, reason and sweet information.
So none of that.
But there's something here I think and I'd love to hear what others make of it.
I suppose what I'm wondering is whether or not left politics, as practiced in the West generally and the US particularly, acts as a sort of incubator for our little Raskolnikovs.
.d.