I'm really mystified by what you're saying. I don't get it. Who is doing
the subject of this "viewed as abnormal", that is "viewed abnormal by whom"?
Is this the "us" that Judy was referring to?? Is this an expression of the
American ideology that class doesn't exist or isn't important here?? If
there's one occasion on which I'd start talking about false consciousness
this might be it.
And what is this "middle class" that people keep referring to? Is that
defined in terms of income or is it some composite of various elements into
an SES. "Middle class" is clearly not part of the conceptual system in
which class is defined in terms of the individuals relationship to the
process of social production. If anything at all, "middle class" is an
ideological notion toward which the dominant ideological forces (ranging
from school history texts to World Series promos for major league baseball)
direct working Americans to aspire or in which, if they already think
they're there, they are directed to be comfortable and not rock the boat.
The aging middle class gives us such wonders as Proposition 13 in
California, all live in varieties of San Fernando Valley, and like to have
two cars without regard for the environmental consequences (mommy drives the
station wagon). Excuse me but I'm feeling a wave of nausea about now.
I'd really like to know what you are talking about. I think that some form
of class consciousness is necessarily internalized by everyone who lives in
a stratified society. Maybe the problem in the U.S. is the denial of class
as a fundamental component of the dominant ideologies and therefor if you
bring it up you're thought to be aberrant. "Oh, Johnny has developed the
very strange notion that he's a working class lad, quick send him to the
shrink so he can be ADJUSTED, very well-ADJUSTED."
The nausea is passing but only leaving behind a strange sense of irreality,
almost opium like. I think I'll take a walk and look at all of the eroded
barren hills bereft of old growth 1500 year old redwood that has gone to
make those nice middle class sun decks.
Paul H. Dillon
-----Original Message-----
From: nate <schmolze who-is-at students.wisc.edu>
To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Friday, October 22, 1999 1:47 PM
Subject: Re: question on class
>I was not referring to this in reference to Marx, but rather how class in
>usually discussed. It is normally discussed in my experience as a deviation
>from the norm which I take as middle class.
>
>Its one thing to say class relations "seem to be necessarily fundamental to
>the development of a child's concept of self and others as well as of the
>world into which s/he aspires" it is an entirely different matter of how we
>look at that internalization. In a country like the U.S. this
>internalization tends to be looked at something that is negative, abnormal,
>in need of being fixed as apposed to having value in its own right.
>
>Nate
>
>> Nevertheless, whether economic class relations cohere into or form the
>basis
>> for a "community" (eg, a group that has picnics together on May Day or
>the
>> Paris Commune) they would still seem to be necessarily fundamental to the
>> development of a child's concept of self and others as well as of the
>world
>> into which s/he aspires.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Paul Dillon <dillonph who-is-at northcoast.com>
>To: <xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu>
>Sent: Friday, October 22, 1999 11:59 AM
>Subject: Re: question on class
>
>
>