Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Feb 23, 2008, at 6:11 AM, Cseniornyc at aol.com wrote:
>
> >
> > It is interesting to notice that the Brecht Forum, a self-
> > proclaimed Marxist
> > center is seldom patronized by the working classes
>
> The working class was at home watching TV and maybe taking care of
> the kids. But a lot of the audience was, actually, working class,
> even if it didn't match your apparent prejudice about the proper
> appearance of the horny-handed sons of toil.
Let me repeat a point I made o the Marxism list a week or two ago.
-----------------
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Is Britney Spears being denied her civil rights? The answerseems to be YES.
Fred Feldman wrote:
>
> I was appreciative when Mike Nichols urged removal of a humorous slap at
> Britney Spears' antics from Spamalot, which was done. He argued that she
> had been a figure of fun but was now a victim being destroyed by the system,
> or something of that sort. Nichols is a mixed bag in my opinion (his finest
> movie is still his first, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, with unforgettable
> performances by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and extraordinary campus
> cinematography by Haskell Wexler.
>
> But here he hit the nail on the head. Her lawyer's arguments are all sound
> in my opinion. It is criminal that she is denied the right to counsel. It
> is outrageous that the parents are granted total control of an adult child's
> life and affairs. The whole thing has turned from a Hollywood sex comedy,
> into a nightmare vision of the treatment of the emotionally troubled.
I think it's worthwhile contrasting Paris Hilton (and other wandering members of the ruling class) with Britney Spears and a long list of people from the working class who became quite wealthy while continuing to depend on contnuous income -- i.e. the phrase "rich worker" is not wholly an oxymoron. Those like Gene Autry who moved solidly into the capitalist class are the exception rather than the rule. - Carrol -----------------
In other words, probably the audience at the Brecht Forum was overhelmingly working class, though they may mostly have been from the better paid strata of the class. But politically that may even be an advantage. On the one hand, as has been occasionally pointed out on this list, political activists, including those who might some day form the mass forces of a revolution, require some margin in their lives. Serious economic deprivation or serious overwork is politically crippling. On the other hand, the injuries of class are NOT CONFINED to those injuries which are wholly financial in nature. $100K+ computer consultants find their lives ruled by capital to an utterly unacceptable extent.
Carrol