[lit-ideas] Re: Do You Have a Moral Urgency?
- From: "Judith Evans" <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 19:06:05 +0100
Oh crap Eric.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Yost" <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2006 7:02 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Do You Have a Moral Urgency?
> Simon: to use a phrase like 'unwashed Arab masses' nailed it
> for me..
>
>
> Okay, look at the word "unwashed." It means the regular
> folk, the unsophisticated, the mob, the plebian, the
> rough-cut, salt-of-the earth, Joe Sixpack, average people.
> Every nation has its unwashed.
>
> Go to an Alabama trailer park, the Bronx, Sao Paulo, go to
> Islington and you will encounter "the unwashed."
>
> Examine the specifics. According to a UN study sponsored by
> the Arab League, Middle Eastern nations ranked extremely low
> in education, access to information, rights for women, and
> other indicators of development. In some cases, the stats
> were on par with sub-Saharan Africa. (I can track this study
> down when I have more time or you could do it yourself.)
>
> In other words, the Middle Eastern nations (for a variety of
> reasons that are for the moment irrelevant) have a higher
> than average proportion of "unwashed." Phil is referencing
> this group, which is not a racist fantasy but a demographic
> fact, and you somehow conclude that this nails your
> assertion that he is a racist.
>
> I suspect you are confused on this point. As a caution,
> directed not necessarily to you Simon, here's David Foster
> Wallace again:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/6y4ta
>
> "Like many forms of Vogue Usage, PCE functions primarily to
> signal and congratulate certain virtues in the speaker —
> scrupulous egalitarianism, concern for the dignity of all
> people, sophistication about the political implications of
> language — and so serves the selfish interests of the PC far
> more than it serves any of the persons or groups renamed."
>
>
>
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