On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 12:20 AM, Barry Brooks <[email protected]> wrote:

> > I especially loved this part: "Who actually wants to be called an owner,
> > even if you owned a football team? Just the title owner is just so nasty
> and
> >  disgusting."
>
> Socialism aims to make us all owners. Who spreads hatred of socialism?
>


I have no dispute with the substance of what you say, but I am with Rock on
this one: the word "owner" is nasty and disgusting.

There is the historical association of the word with slavery. It's very
definition is closely connected with the notion of private property. To
make "owners" out of ordinary men (usually men, almost never women) has
long been the promise not of socialism, but of various types of right-wing
populism. More recently George W. Bush promoted the concept of the
"Ownership Society" in his bid to privatize Social Security.

I cringe whenever I hear ordinary people refer to themselves as "home
owners", or even worse "dog owners".

I think you should find a better word.
-raghu.
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l

Reply via email to