On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 9:12 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Jun 20, 2009, at 8:16 PM, Michael Smith wrote:
>
> But suppose you've come from a family where nobody has ever swum, or
>> named a kid anything unusual. Suppose the music you like is the music
>> you've been hearing since you were born. And paying bribes is seen
>> in the same light as we see paying taxes -- a nuisance, but part of
>> life.
>>
>> This describes most of humanity, doesn't it? We're the exceptions.
>>
>
> And there's nothing to be valued in our state of exception?
>
> Let's see. Most of us who are socialists or radicals think that being poor
> sucks - that it makes for material misery and constricted personal
> development. Yet, on the other hand, we feel guilty about our privilege, and
> often envy the "authenticity" of the poor. So why do we care about
> transforming anything?
As are "how do we make poor people not-poor?" and "how do we make not-poor people even more happy?," for that matter. And doesn't everybody recognize that authenticity sucks? Maybe I'm speaking from the standpoint of my generation, which, admirably, has no interest in the thing.