On Jun 16, 2007, at 1:17 PM, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> I hope people have read Doug's
> brilliant preliminary essay on the ruling class in the
> new LBO,
Thank you!
> but it makes utter nonsense of the behavior
> of the working class. The fact is that whatever the
> defects of the finer points of Thomas Franks' What's
> The Matter With Kansas?, he's got a crucial point that
> American workers do not conceive themselves as narrow
> economic maximizers and don't act in what Marxists (or
> for that matter neoclasscists) would predict would be
> in their "best economic interests."
No, they don't, but Tom F subscribes to the race/sex/sexuality as distraction line - they're diversions from the real issues. He's somewhere between indifferent and hostile to anyone who brings up "identity" concerns. It's not clear what he thinks can be done about this - maybe the sequel will do the job - except maybe hope the Dems start talking about class "again," which strikes me as a delusional hope.
Doug