"A few more notes about this idiocy: --in the mid-1930's the bank robber John Dillinger was the most popular person in America "
But didn't that have something to do with the fact that a) he robbed from the robbers (kinda like today somebody robbing Goldman Sachs) and b) he burned mortgages so that banks were not able to repossess delinquent owners.
"--the word "thug" is a racist term adopted to denigrate Indian peasants forced into banditry by British colonial exactions --the number one hero-figure in today's British and American discourse is the mass murderer Winston Churchill, the most "thuggish" of imperialist politicians ever"
True enough. But still, the French have me flummoxed. For example, in a recent poll they came out way ahead of everyone in their unhappiness with capitalism, and a french friend who recently returned from a month stay in France returned to report that the french were grumpy. Why, I asked. "I don't know," he said. "They get 80% of their salaries in unemployment, they get free health care, long vacations, and free education, but they are grumpy."
Not that I disapprove or anything, but it's puzzling.
Joanna.