There would be a lot to be said for bourgeois wealth and liberties if one were a member of the bourgeoisie. But I am not, so all I have is proletarian wages and liberties. If anyone wants me to say a few words for bourgeois wealth and liberties, he ought to first make my net worth several billion euros at the very least (cf. <http://www.forbes.com/2007/03/07/billionaires-worlds-richest_07billionaires_cz_lk_af_0308billie_land.html>), and then I shall invest them wisely, become a member of the bourgeoisie in good standing, enjoy bourgeois wealth for the first time, take my bourgeois liberties in style, and tell the lower orders that this is the best of all possible worlds . . . for me.
On 10/21/07, ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> wrote:
> On 21 Oct, 2007, at 10:23 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> >
> > So, in other words, the materialism of the West - which Satrapi
> > denounces from Paris, the echt cosmopolitan city, and you denounce
> > from Columbus, the echt middle-American city - has charms that trump
> > the revolutionary appeal of building the new Islamic society. It's
> > not like they're eating tree bark and beetles in Tehran, either. That
> > sounds to me like desk-chair radicalism that barely pauses, if at
> > all, to take note of its own contradictions.
> >
> > You relocated yourself from Japan - certainly not a poor country -
> > more than ten years ago. Why? Is there some appeal to the American
> > way of life that's caused you to stay here for a decade?
>
> It's been more than five years since you asked me why I was in the
> USA... it seems I have failed to answer the question satisfactorily,
> or perhaps there is no valid answer.
The answer, of course, is that we are here to spread the blessings of civilization to people sitting in darkness in a country whose ruling class have outsourced its civilization and which therefore suffers from multiple deficits, especially political and cultural. To be sure, we have found our natives often devilish and childish at the same time, and yet we have it on good authority that "childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/>