[lbo-talk] Slavoj Žižek . The Revolt of the Salaried Bourgeoisie: The New Proletariat

[Somebody Somebody]

One of my main memory of the 60s was going to an SDS meeting where a lot of privileged, college bound white kids planned to go into the factories over the summer to organize the workers. I remember thinking that the workers were going to feel pretty offended by a bunch of kids coming in and teaching them what they should think and what they should do next. I was not inspired or encouraged.

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Would the capitalists respond as harshly to working class kids going out to organize and support them? Well, no, because that's essentially been the modus operandi of the bourgeoisie ever since the French Revolution. Corey Robin's entire book is based upon the concept of outsiders in terms of class and ethnicity becoming stalwart defenders of reaction.

To me, the fact that workers and the poor bristle so easily at attempts at organizing them is simply further evidence of the fact that they're poor material for leading a revolution.