[lbo-talk] Reflections on a YouTube Video [theactivist.org]

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Tue Nov 24 13:21:29 PST 2009


Dennis Perrin wrote:
>
> I know it's shooting carp in a bathtub, and that many liberals have the same
> starry notions about Obama, but sweet Buddha, are there some truly stupid
> fucking people in this country. That video isn't funny -- it's extremely
> unsettling.

Flies that land on flypaper are not, really, stupid. (Assuming, for the sake of my metaphor, t hat the stupid/smart opposition makes sense in the world of flies.) Flies that don't land on the flypaper are, really, just lucky, not smart. This was sort of Newton's point when, observing a cart go by carrying a man to his hanging, he observed, "There but for the grace of god go I." These people are stuck in the ideology that their whole life history has made obvious to them. Those not stuck that fast to the most distorted forms of capitalist ideology (only having to deal with the awareness Angela insisted on) should think of themselves as not so much superior intellects as damned lucky. And recall Marx's sneer at those who divide humanity into two groups, one of which is surior to the other.

Carrol



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