I agree; technically it should be the 5% or the 10% or even the 15%. But that is why I referred to it as a metaphor, and as such it now names the whole elite, independently of whether they actually belong to that 1%.
Those that we try to reach with such a slogan or those "on the verge" of joining us. It's not an argument to persuade the skeptics or the enemy. Movements are ink blots as it were, growing at their edges, not reaching out to those they can't reach anyhow. And those on the edge, those we are reaching for, will accept the metaphorical sense of the 1%. Carrol -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jim Devine Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 8:43 PM To: Progressive Economics Subject: Re: [Pen-l] Paul Farmer and the World Bank Carrol Cox wrote: > Probably the single greatest achievement of Occupy has been to popularize > and give content to the metaphor of "The 1%." That allows the coinage of so > many agitational slogans that would otherwise be so difficult to formulate. > All one has to do is stick The 1% in a brief phrase and you have made much > of your argument before you even complete the phrase. For example: > > Resist The 1% attack on Democracy! > > Defend our homes against The 1%. > > Stop the War Making of The 1%. while this makes total sense, the problem with the phrase "the 1 %" is that it focuses on only the elite part of the ruling class rather than that class as a whole, while missing the role of the social structure that defines capitalism. -- Jim Devine / "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." -- Paul Dirac _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
