Certainly one of the social conundrums, Chris, and studied to death by social scientists, in an earlier era. The poor and disempowered are more likely to victimize one another, rather than ruling class elements, as we both know. I have talked to poor and working class moms, in social housing, who have organized to keep their neighborhoods safe from unemployed and unemployable youth who have become drug dealers to survive after being pushed out of the local school system. The war on the poor, and the way being poor is represented in the media, is generating an excess of self-hate that crosses the line into violence when the level of misery and despair is high enough. The marginalized victims of Neoconservative/Neoliberal common sense and cutbacks are often its most passionate supporters, as I have found in dealing with folks within these groups. Some might call it 'false consciousness', but I don't like that simplistic tag. [Prefer to think of consciousness in terms of a mix of good sense and bad sense relating to day-to-day survival and the hope for something better.] Partially explainable, all of this, on the basis of a contradictory culture that is drumming out of us a social understanding of almost everything and a sense of soical connectedness to one another. An SUV sliced in half a Grand Am, a block from my house, this week, killing two high school girls, but I have yet to see any discussion of whether these vehicles should be on the road, in the first place, in any of the local media. I am still a little ill thinking about these unecessary deaths resulting from the overconsumption of a driver massaging his own self-aggrandizement. The schools promote critical thinking skills, but usually devoid of much social content and the way power works. I have always liked Michael Lerner's idea of learned powerflessness in his "Surplus Powerlessness" (and Futurework, too, of course) as a counter to the dogma of the hegemons.
B. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christoph Reuss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 11:04 AM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its own > Robert E. Bowd wrote: > > It creates a complex matrix of self-blame among people who convinced of > >their > own powerlessness. [Poppycock, really.] > > Victimologically, it is interesting to observe that the disenfranchised > individuals turn against the lower (or middle) strata instead of the > "responsibles". E.g. the sniper Lee Malvo, or just the usual muggers. > > If people have nothing left to lose anyway (and know that the death > penalty is in force too), wouldn't logic suggest different targets? > > Chris > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword > "igve". > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
