[WS:] Very true. I had a number of conversations with otherwise knowledgeable people - professionals and academics - whose understanding of social or economic relations was fundamentally reduced to primitive pop-psychology of individuals. What is more, when I tried to explain the systemic aspect, they often became agitated and hostile.
This is highly reminiscent of Garfinkel's "breaching experiments" aimed to question people's everyday routines. A belief in the "personal merit" in social and economic behavior is not just a result of indoctrination - it is the central myth of the middle and upper classes - it validates their privileged position in the society. Questioning the role of personal merits, even in an abstract discussion, is an attack on the middle class concept of the self, hence the hostile reaction.
By contrast, people of lower socio-economic status tend to be more amenable to systemic explanations, even if these explanations have fatalistic or conspiratorial flavor, because that is reflective of their class position
and their place in society. They experience "systemic forces" that intervene in their lives almost every day. Interestingly, they become equally agitated if one tries to explain social or economic behavior in terms of personal merits.
I sum, the personal or systemic explanations of social and economic phenomena are cognitive master frames rooted in class-based consciousness.
They are pre-rational, that is, not subjected to rational evaluation and discussion, but they organize and direct one's rational discourse.
Wojtek
Wojtek
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 1:20 AM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> My ex had a book called something like "The History of Human Stupidity." I
> guess this could be a chapter.
>
> On the other hand, it's what is showered upon everyone in the news. People
> do not most understand
> macro concepts or much about history or anything bigger than the
> individual.
>
> Tough break for all of us.
>
> Joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Pollak" <mpollak at panix.com>
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 9:58:35 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
> Subject: [lbo-talk] FT/Harris: Economic stupidity epidemic throughout
> populace
>
>
> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8f9e61c0-8ce2-11df-bad7-00144feab49a.html
>
> <begin excerpt>
>
> Asked if public spending cuts were necessary to help long-term economic
> recovery, 84 per cent of French people, 71 per cent of Spaniards, 69 per
> cent of Britons, 67 per cent of Germans and 61 per cent of Italians
> answered Yes. In the US, 73 per cent of Americans agreed.
>
> Only 38 per cent of Italians, 33 per cent of Germans, 31 per cent of
> Britons, 29 per cent of Spaniards and 16 per cent of French people thought
> that public spending cuts would harm the economic recovery. Some 27 per
> cent of Americans agreed.
>
> <end excerpt>
>
> Michael
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