None Dare Call It Conspiracy, Part 1

The commencement of my commentary on Gary Allen's 1971 book "None Dare Call It Conspiracy."

Category:

Education

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• Gary Allen
• None Dare Call It Conspiracy

[aaldav]

@amamerc Why is the middle class shrinking? One might argue its partly the result of the decline in the union movement. There probably are a number of reasons. Horrible underfunded schools, a decaying culture, the exorbitant costs of higher education, the failing of many wealthy to identify with the situation faced by the poor (to feel their suffering), etc. (I don't claim to be exhaustive.) Also, U.S. is such as individualistic society that many think about life only from their perspec

[aaldav]

@amamerc As for playing classes off one another, Fox News and most of the American media seems to enjoy playing the middle class of the poor and the poor off the middle class. Nobody really wants to talk about the REALLY wealthy, who make most of their wealth their investments, low capital gains tax rates, and low inheritance tax rates. The rich make this wealth off the labor power of the poor, poor who have a difficult time becoming middle class. In fact m.c. is shrinking in U.S.

[aaldav]

@amamerc But, again, in respect to the drug comment, I am not sure where you were going with it. My personal view is that often the rich get police to arrest young people from poorer financial backgrounds who use drugs as a means to remain in their smug self-assertion that "the poor are poor because they made bad choices in life - otherwise, they would be rich." I think this is very problematic - not only for the moral stamt it makes about the poor but also because it's often untrue.

[aaldav]

@amamerc As for the your point that the "proletariat member who sells drugs is just as bad as the bourgeois guy who sells drug," again, I did not mean to imply differently, although I might argue that when you feel dis-empowered to achieve a good life through more 'legal' means, selling drugs seems like a far more respectable career. Also, in terms of drug use, let us not pretend that police departments in rich neighborhoods don't sometimes close their eyes to drug use of wealthy teens.

[aaldav]

@amamerc I'm not certain I understand the point you are making. I do agree that capitalism works best when people hold certain value about their fellow human beings and the world around them, although I wouldn't say such an argument is profound. Also, I'm not trying to argue that the middle class is necessary the exploiter, although one could argue that it is disconcerting to a system in which the poor work really hard for next to no money to make wealthy shareholders more wealth.

[amamerc]

@aaldav I have a few comments. 1) Capitalism won't work well without the right values. 2) I don't agree with the "two class" exploitation perspective. Communist Manifesto: "The first direct attempts of the proletariat to attain its own ends [. . .] could be produced by the impending bourgeois epoch alone." The idea that middle class = exploiter and proletariat = exploited is arbitrary, to say the least.

The proletariat member who sells drugs is just as bad as the bourgeois guy who sells drugs.

[amamerc]

Your private school is awesome for prescribing that book. The one I went to would never do that.

[theQiwiMan]

It is a TRAVESTY that this video only has 626 views as of today.

Thank you for posting this!

[aaldav]

Julie: Don't you find it somewhat disconcerting that America has become a nation in which success is predicated upon form as much (if not more so) than upon content? Believe me, I thought long and hard about wearing a suit and/or tie, but then I thought, I would rather be myself than conform to societal expectations. The way I dress (or do not dress) should in no way effect the power (or lack of) of my message. But, yes, I understand your point. Thank you for making it.

[julieoftheearth1]

Give respect to your insights. Wear a shirt and a tie. I am not being petty here. I am trying to help you succeed! You are well on your way.