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Drooling on the Pillow

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Paradigms Lost 

An Arts and Letters Daily (which I use for my home page at home) link to an interview with Thomas Frank the author of What's The Matter With Kansas puts a match to Colby Cosh and he fulminates on the issue of the faux working class blues of the liberal chatterati.

I have not read the book, though it's been recommended to me by several liberal friends, but I understand it tries to explain how the right wing has managed to fool the red states into voting against their own interests.

I think I'll put it off for now.

I'm much more interested in how the generally middle- if not upper-class educated elite fool themselves into thinking that putting on a pair of jeans and playing "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night" on their iPods qualifies them to be a better judge of the interests of the true working class than the boys down at the feed lot. Aside from the dizzying condescension, what strikes me is how reactionary this point of view is. Don't these people understand that the ground has changed just a bit from when Mr. Roosevelt started smacking the plutocrats around? That the guy they buy their drill bits from has a 401k and may even be doing some day trading in the stock room? Do they really think their transmission was fixed by a guy who doesn't understand the shafting he's getting from Social Security? That the waitresses at Denny's are sitting around on break thinking 'I know what we need. More taxes.'?

Sadly, I think a good number of smart people do believe these things. I try not to be doctrinaire. I try to question equally all proposals, no matter where they come from. I hope I've gotten to where I am by force of argument, not a romantic attachment to sexy, but outmoded memes.

It's been said many times before but it is the right that is carrying the weight in devising strategies for the future, and the left that is stuck in the past. The terms 'progressive' and 'reactionary' are overdue for reassignment.
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