[lit-ideas] Re: Do You Have a Moral Urgency?
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:45:58 -0400
The Great Washed in this country (the U.S.) are so impressive that Morris
Berman wrote a book called Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire.
Our Great Washed are such deep thinkers that Berman expects to sell about
35,000 books. Our leaders consult with God before they invade a country.
Think the great unwashed would do that? This country, the U.S., rejects
science in favor of creationism. In something like a decade our
universities will be irrelevant, will be completely overtaken by Asia. We
have no manufacturing base. One of my neighbors thinks Abraham Lincoln
chopped down the cherry tree. People in this country can't tell you what
hemisphere the U.S. is in. This country is home schooling like crazy
because they don't want their children contaminated by science and
ungodliness. They want their children to know the earth is flat, the way
God created it in seven days. Most people in this country, so-called
educated or not, know *nothing* about what's going on in the world. Where
do you get your superiority? BTW, what do you think of the way the Great
Washed are leading us in their quest toward a new and improved Iraq? The
great unwashed have never read Peter Galbraith. Have you? If you have,
how can you call people who oppose this war as identifying with the enemy?
> [Original Message]
> From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 8/17/2006 2:04:06 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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