tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8052308.post3966733249902180214..comments2024-01-24T06:50:01.683-06:00Comments on Samizdat Blog: “If This Happened in Germany, Cars Would Be Burning”: American Passivity in the Class WarArchambeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17273511539172747550noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8052308.post-80886889231634539122011-03-25T10:17:38.318-05:002011-03-25T10:17:38.318-05:00It's depressing how little schools teach about...It's depressing how little schools teach about labor history. And now the governor of Maine wants to tear down a labor history mural, because it fails to sufficiently genuflect to the nobility of capitalists. Argh.<br /><br />As for individualism -- I've been thinking about it lately. Maybe if the stars align I'll be able to collect my thoughts for a post on it...<br /><br />B.Archambeauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17273511539172747550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8052308.post-2409126441638997712011-03-24T10:27:50.175-05:002011-03-24T10:27:50.175-05:00I was so happy to see this post. One of my lead ch...I was so happy to see this post. One of my lead characters, Tom, goes through a painful process during the last Great Depression of learning that what happened to him is not his fault. The flip side of "free market" and "competition" is self-blame: they want us to think that if we're not Donald Trump, we have no one but ourselves to blame.<br /><br />Another problem is that students are given no labor history in school. We need a good labor union movie. It's time.Shelleyhttp://dustbowpoetry.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8052308.post-35169886809114466942011-03-14T19:20:30.009-05:002011-03-14T19:20:30.009-05:00Yes, Tropic Thunder is the interpretive paradigm f...Yes, <i>Tropic Thunder</i> is the interpretive paradigm for our times.Archambeauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17273511539172747550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8052308.post-27289680849020308302011-03-14T14:42:58.335-05:002011-03-14T14:42:58.335-05:00It seems that the Tea Party (which has become an a...It seems that the Tea Party (which has become an analogy for libertarianism,) began with expressing popular frustration about the state of things, yet has devolved into a cheap neo-con circus.<br /><br />The historical pivot that the Tea Party jumped off from even lends itself to co-opting by the monied, such as the Koch brothers. The protest that was the "real" tea party was an offense against the unrepresented taxation of imports. Such taxation in an era devoid of loopholes would undoubtedly hit the wealthy right where it hurts. In current affairs, the ire of the Tea Party is aimed at "big government" that, since the Depression, has been geared toward assisting the poor and middle class. <br /><br />The erosion of the middle class, and thus the erosion of rational discourse about class, is almost exemplified by the raucous fervor of the Tea Party and its failure to find a real target. It appears that the Tea Party is today as it was then, a protest over taxation led by "dudes playing the dudes, disguised as other dudes." That is, conservative money playing the middle class, disguised at the proletariat.Mr. Doghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08334089616479660740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8052308.post-59416953825074789182011-03-13T14:12:34.830-05:002011-03-13T14:12:34.830-05:00I think a lot of Americans want to believe we'...I think a lot of Americans want to believe we're a democracy without class, so that whenever something this obviously a class war becomes obvious to all, they say nothing out of embarrassment or paralysis. No one wants to believe that America has classes. Obviously we do, though, and never more so than now.<br /><br />Speaking as a Wisconsin resident, I find the grass-roots protesting very heartening, as it crosses all lines of belief and grouping, and gathers together a huge number of people who want genuine change. <br /><br />I said it when the Tea party types got elected: well, they talk a good ideology, but can they govern? Do they really have anything beyond their cant to offer? The answer is, apparently, No. And hence the angry protests now, which are symbolic of a lot of anger that's been building for awhile, but hasn't yet had a voice, or a target to focus on.Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8052308.post-67531869811947734162011-03-12T16:16:08.741-06:002011-03-12T16:16:08.741-06:00"Why were the protests in Wisconsin an anomal..."Why were the protests in Wisconsin an anomaly, rather than part of a nation-wide outcry against the persistent assaults on the vast majority of the population by the plutocratic few?<br /><br />It’s not for lack of anger."<br /><br />Hi, Bob:<br /><br />Maybe it's for a lack of vocabulary. Maybe class consciousness (or education, the skeptic's instrument) is a matter of knowing the etymology of words like robber baron, radical, and reactionary. <br /><br />I don’t know but this leads me to ask, why isn't wikipedia then lighting fires in the minds of texters? Maybe American class consciousness is an idea whose time has yet to come? Here the question becomes: is American passivity a symptom of the American giest of our time or is it determined? Whether American pause is caused by material conditions (I have no time to understand why I have no time) or preordained by some metaphysical coordinator, a pause is a pause is a pause. Thanks for your thoughts, GeneBarney Fifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11670895729418280207noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8052308.post-14314406168428817142011-03-12T16:13:53.685-06:002011-03-12T16:13:53.685-06:00Wow! Thank you for this. The topic keeps coming up...Wow! Thank you for this. The topic keeps coming up more and more frequently in conversations, with expressions of frustration because no one knows what to do that would mobilize large numbers rather than being just another of those idiosyncratic yelps of rage you mention. Wisconsin came, got voted out of existence, and then everybody went home. Now what?<br />Nan BushNancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08938430766576044649noreply@blogger.com