[lit-ideas] Re: How to Draw a Crowd

  • From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:46:26 +0000 (GMT)

This may be a mad post (or quite sensible): but I guess one underlying issue 
(lets say in Britain and the USA) is - _at least in part_ 
"political correctness" and its afterhoughts.

I have met "PC people" who show, like (self-styled Marxists or 
fundamenatist Chistians {both of whom reveal a real lack of understanding of 
the lack of fundamentalism at the root of what is important of both Marx and 
Christ): no sense of humour :but just a mindless finger-wagging against the 
populace at large.

This self-righteous stuff is quite wrong, if we want to improve things we have 
to work with what we've got to work with, and not pretend that what we've got 
is more than available than reality allows.

--- On Thu, 22/1/09, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: How to Draw a Crowd
> To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Thursday, 22 January, 2009, 3:48 AM
> Simon: If you see these leaders as being in a position to
> ensure that such measurement remains, then I'm not sure
> you recognise the problem. When you can accuse such leaders
> of measuring what isn't there ...
> 
> 
> I know this is taking Donal's joking quote,
> transforming it into a diatribe, and then arguing the merits
> of the diatribe ... but why not?
> 
> In my opinion, the activists and self-appointed
> spokespeople for subgroups have gone the way of the
> revolution in _Animal Farm_. What began as a noble demand
> for equality changed into an institutionalization of
> lobbyists seeking self-enrichment under the banner of social
> progress. There are plenty of laws on the books, plenty of
> lawyers ready to argue cases, and a general sensibility that
> racial discrimination is both wrong and, in many cases,
> illegal. Done deal.
> 
> Economic inequality is the most pervasive inequality right
> now and that's not something that can be legislated
> away. So racism is promoted instead.
> 
> As our recent election shows, Americans are quite ready to
> think in terms of "best candidate" rather than
> "candidate of my subgroup," but there's no way
> to milk that cow.
> 
> So what do activists (i.e., lawyers and lobbyists) do?
> 
> *Maintain the integrity of the subgroup. If your subgroup
> of, say, Filipino-Americans is resisting their
> Filipino-American identity and they increasingly prefer to
> think of themselves as just plain Americans, it's
> important to identify (or manufacture) instances around
> which the Filipino-American "community" can unite.
> 
> *Resist the melting pot at all costs. The Mexican activist
> group called La Rasa ("The Race" ... hmm ... fancy
> that) has a name that says it all.
> 
> An alternative to _Animal Farm_ is for people to expect
> equal treatment as individuals right now.
> 
> 
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