Brad says:
The working class as I define it
> is not merely the 'working class' of popular discourse but the sum of all
> who don't own the means of production, or better yet, everyone who has
> surplus extracted from them because of specific property relationships.
If one is talking about bringing about a decent world as opposed to metaphysical Marxist speculation, "class" is simply a convention to help deal with the gross stratification of power and wealth (especially power) that is observed. And in this connection, the definition is more or less ad hoc, its meaning implied by the way it's used. For example, I think the use of the term "professional managerial class" to refer to doctors, engineers, professors, IT professionals, art directors, managers and so on has pretty explicit meaning without being subject to semantic analysis (what a class mate of mine used to refer to, after Woody Allen, as "intellectual masturbation").
I am
> usually the guy at the party arguing that we need to figure out how to
> organize the investment bank traders and middle management types, not the
> person claiming that auto workers are the key to any prols movement. Maybe
> that is why I simply did not get this label of 'manly-man politics'.
The question arises, "Does this strategy make a lick of sense?!" To be fair, it depends on what one's priorities are. If they are contingent on preserving some form of class-based discrimination then of course worshiping power makes sense (e.g., kissing the ass of managers), assuming one has power some oneself (otherwise it's foolish). On the other hand, if empowering the general population is one's priority, then these middle of the road merit folks are going to do everything they can to undermine the effort--their (relatively) privileged existence is predicated on maintaining the status quo.
NB: If people assert "saving the proles" as their priority, but in practice spend their time fellating professional managerial types (see definition above), it's a safe bet ulterior motives are at work.
Peter Ward pontificatingwithoutalicense.wordpress.com
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