What "them" are we talking about here ? I'm not sure. I think that I was talking about "the elites" that are regularly held up for us to vent our rage at, not at the screens.
For sure, the screens are hard to escape. Freud said many years ago that consciousness itself took the form of a screen...
What "them" are we talking about here ? I'm not sure. I think that I was talking about "the elites" that are regularly held up for us to vent our rage at, not at the screens.
For sure, the screens are hard to escape. Freud said many years ago that consciousness itself took the form of a screen...
I don't think they are "regularly held up for us to vent our rage at". If anything, they control the rage suggestions coming in from the media, the state, and so on. When we do vent up our rage at them, it's more organic!
I'm not sure that I don't belong to those elites, Nick. For sure, I am not a multimillionaire, but our family sure is comfortable compared to others out there. My husband and I have university diplomas ; for years we traveled on jet planes, vacationed in far away places (though not really as tourists), enjoyed a varied cultural offering.
That makes me an elite, doesn't it ? Maybe not as elite as other, richer people, but still very comfortable, right ?
For sure, getting less comfortable all the time, and our children are much less comfortable than we are, too. Living standards are going down all over, and for many people who worry more and more about their children's future.
But we are still not eating rats, the way the Parisians did during the siege in the 1870's or so. I think.
Trust me, we don't belong to these elites. What you describe is middle class guilt, not even full upper middle class guilt.
All of those things have for a good while just been offered to almost everyone except the very poor. Even working class kids can get a budget jet airliner ticket and travel around, and university diplomas do not really cost in most of the western world, the "student debt" is an American "innovation". Even so, about 25% of the US population 22-40 has a bachelor degree or equivalent, so much for it being an elite signifier.
In any case, the thing that makes an elite is power (as in direct personal power, political, economic, etc, to steer society and dictate laws, developments, etc), not about being comfortable, even if that's "just" 20% or 10% of the population (that would an "elite" of 35 million people in the US, hardly an exclusive membership to write home about).
> But we are still not eating rats, the way the Parisians did during the siege in the 1870's or so. I think.
That's a pretty low bar for not being considered an elite.
After all, my maternal grandmother whom I knew, did her errands in a horse and buggy, before the car, before the car, AND I KNEW HER PERSONALLY IN THE FLESH AND BLOOD., and I am still in flesh and blood, too.
As for power... we have been given to seeing it only in a very small number of places, and that is a sign of our... stupidity, in my opinion. Nothing worse than convincing yourself that you have no power whatsoever, when maybe by looking harder you could see it somewhere, in my opinion.
After all, that man who was crucified as a slave on a Roman cross, he ENDED UP HAVING A LOT OF POWER (posthumously, of course, but having it posthumously is better than not having it at all).
My over thirty year old daughter does not have any university diploma, and she is doing o.k. She is very intelligent, classy, and cultivated, and I am very proud of her. She is not jetting all over the planet in low cost airplanes (!!!) either.
I am not impressed by how much... power, or even intelligence... education has brought us, either, contrary to public opinion.
What "them" are we talking about here ? I'm not sure. I think that I was talking about "the elites" that are regularly held up for us to vent our rage at, not at the screens.
For sure, the screens are hard to escape. Freud said many years ago that consciousness itself took the form of a screen...
Thanks for taking me back to this essay. It is a very important one.
I'm reffering to the elites as well.
I don't think they are "regularly held up for us to vent our rage at". If anything, they control the rage suggestions coming in from the media, the state, and so on. When we do vent up our rage at them, it's more organic!
Hmm... just who is "we", Nick ? I'm curious.
THEY, the elites, and WE, us, the non-elites, the public.
I mean, you used "they" for the elites yourself, I was responding to that, and used the same pronoun.
I'm not sure that I don't belong to those elites, Nick. For sure, I am not a multimillionaire, but our family sure is comfortable compared to others out there. My husband and I have university diplomas ; for years we traveled on jet planes, vacationed in far away places (though not really as tourists), enjoyed a varied cultural offering.
That makes me an elite, doesn't it ? Maybe not as elite as other, richer people, but still very comfortable, right ?
For sure, getting less comfortable all the time, and our children are much less comfortable than we are, too. Living standards are going down all over, and for many people who worry more and more about their children's future.
But we are still not eating rats, the way the Parisians did during the siege in the 1870's or so. I think.
Trust me, we don't belong to these elites. What you describe is middle class guilt, not even full upper middle class guilt.
All of those things have for a good while just been offered to almost everyone except the very poor. Even working class kids can get a budget jet airliner ticket and travel around, and university diplomas do not really cost in most of the western world, the "student debt" is an American "innovation". Even so, about 25% of the US population 22-40 has a bachelor degree or equivalent, so much for it being an elite signifier.
In any case, the thing that makes an elite is power (as in direct personal power, political, economic, etc, to steer society and dictate laws, developments, etc), not about being comfortable, even if that's "just" 20% or 10% of the population (that would an "elite" of 35 million people in the US, hardly an exclusive membership to write home about).
> But we are still not eating rats, the way the Parisians did during the siege in the 1870's or so. I think.
That's a pretty low bar for not being considered an elite.
I keep my bars low these days.
After all, my maternal grandmother whom I knew, did her errands in a horse and buggy, before the car, before the car, AND I KNEW HER PERSONALLY IN THE FLESH AND BLOOD., and I am still in flesh and blood, too.
As for power... we have been given to seeing it only in a very small number of places, and that is a sign of our... stupidity, in my opinion. Nothing worse than convincing yourself that you have no power whatsoever, when maybe by looking harder you could see it somewhere, in my opinion.
After all, that man who was crucified as a slave on a Roman cross, he ENDED UP HAVING A LOT OF POWER (posthumously, of course, but having it posthumously is better than not having it at all).
My over thirty year old daughter does not have any university diploma, and she is doing o.k. She is very intelligent, classy, and cultivated, and I am very proud of her. She is not jetting all over the planet in low cost airplanes (!!!) either.
I am not impressed by how much... power, or even intelligence... education has brought us, either, contrary to public opinion.