tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post7040184923687765812..comments2024-03-27T14:45:28.176-05:00Comments on Adventus: "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-40403117901351915432012-10-21T12:34:13.379-05:002012-10-21T12:34:13.379-05:00You sound radically Christian, you know. First an...You sound radically Christian, you know. First and greatest of all will be last and least and servant of all, etc. :-)Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-35235737420877126892012-10-21T07:02:56.414-05:002012-10-21T07:02:56.414-05:00Hatred of the poor is probably the most widespread...Hatred of the poor is probably the most widespread vice, it is everywhere. There is no more radical concept than that poor people can be good people and frequently are. <br /><br />http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2006_09_24_archive.html<br /><br />I think the media are responsible for making people fear and despise poor people. While sentimentality about poor folks is not really helpful it's not as destructive of the cynical, class and educationally based hatred and disdain for the poor that has replaced it. Elite education is, in large part, an education into the validation of deserving more than those who don't get one. I think that is the primary attainment of those who successfully finish at an elite university, even more than any actual knowledge. It is a tacit ennobling of an entire line who are often obviously not the brightest though having that lineage and access to legacy admission obviously is also a tacit entitlement as being part of "the best". <br /><br />This has a very, very real consequence in the whole of society and the world. The Best and Brightest, with full support of the scientific, legal and other apparatuses of the loftiest reaches of reputable society are engaged in plunder and despoliation not much different from that attributed to the most backward, ignorant and, worst of all, vulgar forces in the world. It's just a matter of keeping their hygiene up and their soft hands removed from the blood and grime. They are probably far more of a danger than any poor rabble, even the most vicious and backward of it. As so often, reading Marilynne Robinson on the topic, Mother Country, has had a decisive effect on my thinking about that. Equality is an absolute necessity for defeating those forces. Without leveling life will never be more than brutal and immoral. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-81230209705764528062012-10-18T07:28:49.940-05:002012-10-18T07:28:49.940-05:00My personal story is not unlike Sherri's, thou...My personal story is not unlike Sherri's, though I grew up in a very white suburb and among people of far more privilege than they realized. (Although, to be fair, all Americans live in more privilege than they realize. Dr. King thought he knew what poverty was until he traveled to Asia.)<br /><br />And yes, it has gotten worse since I was a child; far more stratified. I don't remember "homeless" people or people living under highway overpasses in my youth. That does seem to be a consequence of closing mental hospitals (which in some cases was not the worst idea; all solution are fraught with new problems) and generally starting to shred the social safety net. But it is also a consequence of "Blow you, Jack! I got mine!", an attitude that has reached its selfish apogee (or is nadir?) with the Tea Party, not all of whom are old people who want government to stay away from their Medicare.<br /><br />There is a scene in "The Dark Knight Returns" (I am a child of my environment; I'll quote Frank Miller as readily as Dostoevsky) where Bruce Wayne laments the world he has lived into, a world run by gangs and sociopaths. They are, he realizes, purer, uglier, less humane, than the criminals he fought as a young man. Sometimes I think Miller was right about the future we're living into, although he laid the fault on the wrong people. It isn't the criminals on the streets I fear; it's the lawlessness of those who would rule. Not that we are plunging toward Miller's dystopia; but I don't think the problem of evil is coming from the bottom up.<br /><br />Which is probably very Christian of me, truth be told.....Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-25119300108482241642012-10-17T15:53:02.188-05:002012-10-17T15:53:02.188-05:00Romney was right in the debate when he claimed tha...Romney was right in the debate when he claimed that Obama does not understand how to create jobs, etc. Obama, almost as much as Romney, really does seem to believe in<br /><br /><i>self-reliance and individual initiative and risk takers being rewarded. But I also believe that everybody should have a fair shot and everybody should do their fair share and everybody should play by the same rules, because that's how our economy's grown. That's how we built the world's greatest middle class.</i><br /><br />The part about doing your fair share and everybody playing by the same rules is good as far as it goes, but Obama should know better than to think that is how we built our middle class. And he should also know better than to think that the middle class is the only issue at hand class-wise.<br /><br />*<br /><br />OTOH, my experience is slightly different than Sherri's: I grew up in what was largely an upper-middle class bubble in suburbia, although there were the kids from "old town" and the military base on one hand and some relatively rich yuppie-types on the other. It wasn't until I went to college that I met people in my generation who were from the working-class background that I only knew from my mom's stories growing up the daughter of a sheet-metal-worker. And certainly my classmates were from a higher socio-economic place than are many of my current students.<br /><br />Meanwhile, my daughter has friends ranging from working class kids in the Bronx to the kids of some truly rich people at our synagogue.<br /><br />*<br /><br />That being said, (upward) socio-economic mobility seems to be decreasing in my experience.alberichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03852752646926946626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-60052642010426189522012-10-17T14:36:57.715-05:002012-10-17T14:36:57.715-05:00Sure, there's been talk about the poor, RMJ. &...Sure, there's been talk about the poor, RMJ. "Have we no emergency rooms?"<br /><br />We've become a very stratified society. When I was growing up, I knew people across a broad spectrum of socioeconomic levels. Now, almost everyone I encounter regularly is a college graduate, and most have post-graduate degrees. As a result, my daughter is growing up in a different environment than I did. Sherrinoreply@blogger.com