[lbo-talk] 35-cent ice cream and anarchist theory

James Heartfield Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk
Fri May 1 01:07:55 PDT 2009


I have to say that I read Said Sayrafiezadeh's memoir (referred to by Sheldon, clipped below) when it was in Granta, too (my dad gave it to me), and laughed like a drain. He is a very funny writer, and it is an excellent story. When he says

"I don't need society to be dismantled. I don't want to feel guilty about the things I have. I have a 32-inch high-def flat-screen TV. I fucking love that thing, man"

That strikes me as not a wholly wicked sentiment. Since when did Socialism come to mean wearing a hair-shirt? Samuel Gompers said that the whole of trade unionism could be boiled down to the single demand: more! 'We do want more, and when it becomes more, we shall still want more. And we shall never cease to demand more until we have received the results of our labor.' (Gompers, 1890)

Sheldon wrote: 'Louis Proyect recently had a post about a kid who was raised by SWP parents, and all he ever wanted was a skateboard and he never got it. Now he's a real prick who's in love with his hi-def flat screen TV. Maybe things would have been different if he had gotten that skateboard?' Sheldon, quoting LP, quoting Said Sayrafiezadeh "A: People have been fucking saying that my whole life. I like my life, and I don't really want to change. I don't need society to be dismantled. I don't want to feel guilty about the things I have. I have a 32-inch high-def flat-screen TV. I fucking love that thing, man."



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