[lit-ideas] Re: What the *&^%$
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 02:00:34 +0000
Sunday, November 7, 2004, 12:27:28 AM, at wrote:
JE>> Do you have some kind of direct line to these
JE>>suburbans?
a> Shit, I'm a suburban myself. Working. In an office. Not in academia. I
a> know, this sounds surprising, but I am not in academia. Paying rent. Paying
a> .... well, never mind.
You had the academic e-address, so I thought you were still at uri. I'm not in
academia either, but I haven't got a job.
a> I love that song. But actually, I'm moving to the North End in Boston soon,
a> which is technically, inner-city. The point is that I am, you know, one bad
a> day away from "the street" and economic issues trump "lifestyle issues" and
a> "subverting the system" at the moment.
same here fairly often
JE>>I do: I talk all the time to non-academic inner-city-suburbanites
JE>>(that's where I live), and to bus drivers and so on. But they're, you'll
say,
JE>>British.
a> Yes, they would be British. I take the bus in Boston. It's hard to maintain
a> your self-esteem taking the bus each day, you know being a good
a> male-role-model and all that, taking the bus.
the bus is lower-middle-class and working class here too (doesn't affect my
self-esteem)
a> So let's take my mother's Mid-West cousins. They have always despised
>>academics -- not that they know anything about academic -- MLA?! don't be
a> silly.
>>
>>(I did look back at the polls and the detailed-question findings. They don't
>>bear out your "MlA...bread on the table" notions, nor can the power of
a> religion
>>in US politics, now, be explained that way. Aren't you giving certain
>>academics a power they don't have?)
a> People know. They may not know how to read critical theory and stuff but
a> they know. They have busllshit detectors. They are getting screwed by the
a> system and the conservative government but they don't want to associate with
a> people who look down on them. And they sense that many elites--academic,
a> financial, media, look down on their working class existence as crap. On
a> normality as crap. And then they go to the church, the NRA, NASCAR, and they
a> find the escape, and the way to fight back against those smart folk, whose
a> concerns they often find frivolous and besides the point. And they're
a> saying--we're OK; you are crap, and you're not gonna tell me how to live in
a> my own backyard.
I don't think that's all that's happening -- or voting patterns here, where
working class people certainly have good shit detectors, would be very
different.
a>And you know what? It is their backyard. Working class
a> people gravitating toward right wing is not a new phenomenon.
Yes I do know that. But their doing so is not inevitable. Even a strong
historical pattern of a large element of the working class doing that (one
third of the working class here, when the working class comprised 80 per cent
of the population) can be broken. That is not to say that a propensity to a
politics "liberal elites" might not like doesn't remain; but the voting link
can be smashed.
(The German working class voters held out against Hitler. The German political
parties let them down.)
Something else is happening in the US. (Religion.)
a> Anyway...no I don't have a direct line to all this, I just live here, that's
a> all.
so you talk to non-elite people as often as I do.
--
Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK
mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
