On Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:55:04 -0600 "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu> writes:
>
> Marv Gandall
>
>
> Of course, I understand that. But in your haste to agree with
> Carrol, you
> ignore his view that social struggles, even as they triumph, "never
> involve
> a majority", which is profoundly ahistorical.
>
> -----
>
> Do you really think that during the American Revolution a majority
> supported
> the struggle. A small number carried it out; another small number
> opposed
> it, and the bulk of the population just tried to stay alive and live
> from
> day to day. The unions in the u.s. had quite an impact from 1940 to
> 1970.
> And they were always a minority of the work force, and large numbers
> of
> their membership were passive. And if a plebiscite had been held in
> the
> 1960s, the gains of Blacks, women, and gays would have been wiped
> out. The
> abolitionists were a _really_ tiny force -- but they scared shit out
> of the
> slavedrivers and forced them to commit suicide. When profound
> changes are
> won, then a majority develops, but not before. When this doesn't
> happen, the
> results can be reversed.
This also works in the other direction too. When the conservative counter-revolution began in earnest in the mid-1970s, only a small minority of Americans supported things like extensive deregulation. Even among self-identified conservatives, there was probably only minority support, but that didn't stop the minions of capital from plugging away to get what they wanted, since they understood that public opinion was something that can be shaped and reshaped as a result of political victories, rather than political victories occuring as a result of changes in public opinion. The ruling class's perspective on this was outlined almost ninety years ago by Walter Lippman in his book, "Public Opinion" in which the phrase "manufacture of consent" was originated.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math
>
> I don't know whether the u.s. schools and the teaching force can be
> preserved from the current attack, but if teachers and their
> supporters keep
> on paying attention to polls and to "what people think," they are
> doomed. It
> a determined minority fights and in that fight reaches out -- they
> just
> might tap a potential reserve of support and make the attack too
> costly. The
> money can only come from higher taxes; the elite powers will have to
> be made
> to choose between raising taxes and seeing public disruption that
> threatens
> to spread.
>
> Marv continues:
>
> Carrol may or may not be familiar with Blanqui, but that is his
> ideological
> pedigree, and it is well outside and opposed to the classical
> Marxist and
> social democratic traditions. "Blanquism", Lenin wrote scornfully,
> "expects
> that mankind will be emancipated from wage slavery...through a
> conspiracy
> hatched by a small minority of intellectuals."
>
> =======
>
> And Lenin got called a Blankquist! He wasn't, neither am I, but I
> don't
> think labels are worth debating.
>
> Carrol
>
>
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>
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