Reply #4: But is this as true as it once was? [View All]

[Dora]

I'm not really disagreeing with you, but I think that Western culture has changed enough now since the last "revolution" that your theory of the proles rising up may not be entirely accurate. I'm no historian, and I'm the first to say that I'm all about speculation and assertion. So take this with the fistful of salt it deserves.

I think that over the past 30-odd years American proles have been anesthetized by consumerism and television, and they have no interest in a united rebellion because they cannot see how oppressed they are. I think that relying on them and the "not so well educated angry people with common sense" is going to bring us nothing but a long wait. The sociological demographics just aren't the same any more. We have poor people who don't know they're poor. We have rich people who are convinced they're on the edge of homelessness. We have idiots with JDs, PhDs, EdDs, and MBAs. We have high school dropouts who know and understand more about human nature and behavior than your average college graduate could ever cram onto a cribsheet.

I have an MFA in Writing. Does that make me an intellectual? To some, yes it does. To those in the academy, it means I'm an idiot. I think I have common sense, but then something comes along that I get wrong, WAY wrong, and I am stunned at my own ignorance.

In deference to your post, I do see that we're having a massive class war in this country. And I don't give a rats ass about intellectuals: Intellectualism is as intellectualism does, I say, and RIP.

Vive la revolucion!

(on rereading, I can see that I'm coming off as a windbag. Sorry for ranting on this thread.)