Search LBO-Talk Archives

811 [lbo-talk] authentically working class -- rank: 1000

'abolition of the antagonism between town and country is one of the first conditions of communal life' Karl Marx, German Ideology I think Joseph has this one right. I was surprised to see how quickly the champions of the urban versus rural took on the mantle of 'tax-payers' - all conflict between social classes in cities overshadowed by the more urgent issue of geographical equity, and the most important issue was the control of the federal budget. Of course one imagines that this kind of thinki ...

Document Size:	5688
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Sep 12 01:01:26 PDT 2008

812 [lbo-talk] authentically working class -- rank: 1000

"I subsidize their fucking schools, water projects, highways, and god knows what else. Least they can do is admit it." I didn't know that you dug roads, taught school and plumbed pipes, Doug. Or is there a new tax-payers revolt in the offing, perhaps?

Document Size:	4768
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Sep 11 12:52:59 PDT 2008

813 [lbo-talk] authentically working class -- rank: 1000

Ha ha, Doug. You sum the whole problem of the culture wars. Why reply to the challenge to your authenticity with a rejection of their's? Yes, it is cobblers (as we say over here) to say that cities are 'cosmopolitan' and therefore unreal. But lots of people live in the sticks, too. You don't have to piss on them to feel good. Dennis talks about 'the extraordinary dysfunction of small town America', which to me, sounds like a bit of a sweeping generalisation - fully backed up with impressionistic ...

Document Size:	5982
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Sep 11 11:28:39 PDT 2008

814 [lbo-talk] authentic working class -- rank: 1000

'Shag' asks "what is the horrible thing that will happen if lefties don't particularly like one segment of the working class -- the rural working class. What *if* like Britney Spears, etc. the media make fun of the problems of 'ordinary people'?" What happens if radicals lefties and the media make fun of ordinary people, or rural working class people? Well, only that they confirm their smug prejudices at the expense of those less well off than themselves, you might think. But then ther ...

Document Size:	5826
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Sep 11 09:23:42 PDT 2008

815 [lbo-talk] authentically working class -- rank: 1000

Doug, corrects me on what America is like: "You really should spend some time here to get a full taste of it." Which is true. On the few visits I do make what surprises me is how small-town a lot of America is, coming from heavily urbanised Europe. So I read, for example, that 'slightly more than one-half of the nation's population lived in jurisdictions --- cities, towns, boroughs, villages and townships --- with fewer than 25,000 people or in rural areas.' http://www.newgeography.com ...

Document Size:	5960
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Sep 11 02:49:28 PDT 2008

816 [lbo-talk] authentically working class -- rank: 1000

Miles sums up the problem of the liberal reaction to Sarah Palin succinctly "Actually, it makes perfect sense to me that they're so concerned about morals and values. They see lots of unmarried pregnancies, drug abuse, and divorce in their own subculture, and they think things are bad all around." Just who is the 'they' here? Who is it that sees a lot of unmarried pregnancies, drug abuse and divorce in their own sub-culture? Well, of course, it is not a sub-culture at all: many childr ...

Document Size:	6097
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 10 13:58:52 PDT 2008

817 [lbo-talk] ABC News/Washington Post Poll: After the Conventions -- rank: 1000

'This could be all froth on a labor day beer.' says Michael, which might be true. Still, I think that Ms Palin provoked a pretty obnoxious reaction from Dems which says more about their weaknesses than hers. She was lambasted for having too many kids, too late, for hunting, for having a daughter who was pregnant out of wedlock, Bill Maher called her 'this stewardess'. People have pointed out the sexism in these comments. What stands out for me is the class hatred. For sure, Palin's commonman bac ...

Document Size:	5718
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 10 01:31:57 PDT 2008

818 [lbo-talk] Stalin -- rank: 1000

Chris, yes, nights out with Pablo feature a lot in my copy of Ehrenburg's 'Post War Years' memoirs, though E. was I think, quite a politician in his friendships. There is though no mention of the episode over the Stalin portrait. There is a story about Picasso cautioning Ehrenburg that you don't have to be a martyr for the truth on every occasion.

Document Size:	4763
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Oct 28 09:53:54 PDT 2008

819 [lbo-talk] Stalin -- rank: 1000

The NYT quotes a Cooper Union spokesperson saying "Picasso's drawing of Stalin was viewed as unflattering and led to his expulsion from the party." but I do not think that is the case. He continued to support the party - sadly - for the rest of his life, and in 1962 was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. Great portrait, though. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2000/oct/21/books.guardianreview2

Document Size:	4821
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Oct 28 03:18:13 PDT 2008

820 [lbo-talk] debating Green Capitalism -- rank: 1000

"In a challenging economic climate, "green" is a luxury that business can ill afford" The IoD, City of London Branch invites you to join in a topical debate. Speaking for the motion: James Heartfield, author of "Green Capitalism - Manufacturing Scarcity in an age of abundance" (2008) Speaking against the motion: Trewin Restorick, Director of Global Action Plan A Panel Discussion will follow the debate, including Professor Michael Mainelli, Director, Z/Yen Group Limi ...

Document Size:	5179
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Oct 27 19:27:27 PDT 2008

821 [lbo-talk] I love America (was Britain's conservative mayor backs Barack) -- rank: 1000

Doug asked why I shared London Mayor Boris Johnson's view that the United States were the last best hope of the world. Well, not wishing to get too tied up in rhetoric, let me qualify that I love Europe and Britain, and China, too. But it is hard to get away from the fact that a lot of the best things in the world have come from the US for at least the last fifty years. Like the civil rights movement, Thelonius Monk, the internet, and windows, David Mamet, Philip Roth, feminism, consumer capital ...

Document Size:	6532
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Oct 22 12:11:34 PDT 2008

822 [lbo-talk] London's Concervative Mayor backs Barack -- rank: 1000

Chris Doss wrote: "People in the UK are STILL idealizing the United States like this? " Hey, that's what I think about the US, too.

Document Size:	4811
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Oct 22 05:40:19 PDT 2008

823 [lbo-talk] London's Conservative Party mayor backs Barack -- rank: 1000

London's Conservative Party mayor backs Barack: "After centuries of friction, prejudice, tension, hatred - you name it, they've had it - America is teetering on the brink of a triumph. If Obama wins, then the United States will have at last come a huge and maybe decisive step closer to achieving the dream of Martin Luther King, of a land where people are judged not on the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. ... If Barack Hussein Obama is successful next month, then w ...

Document Size:	5758
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Oct 22 01:46:20 PDT 2008

824 [lbo-talk] Why the Dems lost the white working class -- rank: 1000

I suggest that some international comparisons would help here. There is a wealth of literature on 1. the decline in mass political party affiliation 2. the decline in participation in the popular vote 3. the decline in working class self-organisation See just as an example Hay Why we hate Politics; The European Values Survey; EJ Dionne, Why Americans Hate Politics; Sennett Decline of Public Man; Putnam Bowling Alone etc etc These are all well supported empirically. Fewer people participate in pu ...

Document Size:	5452
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Oct 22 00:03:26 PDT 2008

825 [lbo-talk] democrats and working class -- rank: 1000

Dmytri: "workers most often always vote against their interests" well, they vote democrat, after all, so I guess they do. Doug, quoting Bartels: "White voters in the bottom third of the income distribution have actually become more reliably Democratic in presidential elections over the past half-century" Does 'the bottom third' correspond to the 'working class'? It rather depends on whether you are using a Galbraithian, two-thirds/one-third model or a Marxist non-owner of th ...

Document Size:	5678
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Oct 21 15:56:00 PDT 2008