tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post1278423178999556310..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: MIDDLE CLASS -- SOME THOUGHTSRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-25599086476414092732012-01-28T16:01:59.934-05:002012-01-28T16:01:59.934-05:00I cannot possibly keep up with everything you'...I cannot possibly keep up with everything you've written at your blog, let alone what you've actually published. Nevertheless, my impression after reading this entry is as follows: One key problem is how people actually manage to vote or act against their very own interests.(And for all I know your previous thoughts about ideology are relevant here, but I couldn't manage to read them all) And here, it may be that the problem may be connected with the ability of an individual to identify with others, and form a changing and flexible group identity. (A person can in some sense have many group identifications, and they need not all influence actions at the same time---in fact, they cannot, since they may be contradictory.) So, many citizens of the USA who will never be wealthy think of themselves as potentially rich, and attempt to imitate (what they believe to be) the habits of the wealthy. (And here they are manipulated by advertising/marketing.) The capacity to identify with another human being, I suppose, can be something like empathy, and can lead to helping or less exploitative relationships. (I have always been impressed by the way that my previous bosses have disappeared to attend special "training" away from the workplace, in a more desirable location where they would be far away from those they managed. That's a clear case of making their superiority in the hierarchy a vivid psychological presence.) But, when twisted by advertising/status symbol manipulation, the ability to identify with others can lead to less beneficial , less just, behavior. (As I write this I have in mind the sort of research that Michael Dawson has done.) I wonder, however, whether it is just possible that a concern or commitment to justice can do something to sweep aside the noise here. --Please take all of that as an off-the-cuff reaction, to be read with the warning label, "for what it's worth".......Best wishes, MarkLformerly a wage slavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064562730082906589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-20482903301758887762012-01-26T00:59:44.162-05:002012-01-26T00:59:44.162-05:00As long as there's a sizeable group of self-de...As long as there's a sizeable group of self-deluded folk who will fight to their death defending the property of a privileged few, well, there's your middle class; same as it ever was.Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06486945464862663890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-10337960046024452052012-01-25T23:24:16.852-05:002012-01-25T23:24:16.852-05:00An uninformed response: I think the trouble with t...An uninformed response: I think the trouble with talk about class is that it presumes there is a single dimension - status, income, control of means of production, etc. - along which everyone can be arrayed. I think instead there are a multitude of them. Some are economic, some are ethnic (and American would call it "racial" but I think that is too restrictive and prejudicial, as it were), some are age cohort-based, and of course at least one is gender. In each dimension, one's status is determined by one's commencement point (parental standing and power relations or resources), one's personal attributes (tall and strong individuals tend to do better), and one's alliances, sexual and political.<br /><br />in effect, to establish one's status overall with respect to any one other individual is a massive parallel equation to be solved in practice, throughout life. Since this is computationally intractable in every case, we tend to aggregate markers into "classes" and use them as surrogates for the actual status makers.<br /><br />So there is a "middle class" almost by definition, if we treat the overall status makers as forming a linear scale of power and autonomy, but the median nature is simply an artifact of being in such a linear scale, and represents nothing directly that is real.John S. Wilkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04417266986565803683noreply@blogger.com