Poverty Is Not an Accident

Poverty Is Not an Accident
Nelson Mandela

Monday, August 02, 2010

MOVIE: "Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral"

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Why, when progressives make it out of working class backgrounds and become academics, they turn their backs on us, using us only for rhetorical purposes? Someone states it was the idea of soldiers to round up & execute village men & relocate women & children in Viet Nam/ this was called Operation County Fair. It was the idea of commanders. Soldiers are factory workers: do as told, produce the product for which paid. The ONLY difference is that, if they refuse to produce, they do not just get fired; they can be put in prison &, in advanced cases, executed. That is a lot of pressure to put on a working class person who is just trying to feed a family & keep buddies on the field alive. This is an example of how the working class is exploited as a tool by the academic intelligentsia: they forget we are watching occasionally, & a statement like that slips out. They do not care about, associate with or TANGIBLY support those of us outside their rarefied atmosphere. So, Boston is prissy enough to make Dunkin Donuts call their shop something else? THAT is a metaphor: do not get too close to Harvard & Unitarian Universalism unless you cloak your crass capitalism as something trendy. Zinn likes Dunkin Donuts coffee. It is not free trade coffee, nor are the workers unionized. With his financial privilege, he could drink any coffee in the world. Where is the peace movement now? Am I supposed to really believe it is just coincidence that Bush is replaced by Obama & Not In Our Name is silent about the wars? Zinn seems like a nice fellow, if what he says is sincere. But we cannot fall into the reactionary trap of turning cultural workers into saints. It is no more honest, & as much revisionist history as the film, Molokai: The Story of Father Damien. I reviews that film on Nutflox, too. I affirm here what I said there, I like pagans a whole lot more than saints. Just cuz u can sing Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? does not mean you can relate to us.

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