Caste.in America

[haustusstevemcclure]

There is a fascinating article in the February 13/20 issue if Time Magazine by the Isabel Wilkerson, the author of the book entitled Caste, The Origins of Our Discontent which I mentioned and recommended on Haustus some time ago.

I recommend this 5 page essay in Time. 

Steve

Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device

[jrbdo...@aol.com]

Gentle readers, 

Is is possible that this author, Ms. Wilkerson, went through school backwards? That she started in twelfth grade and graduation from pre-school with a diploma printed on her diaper? It is hard to imagine any more empty liberal palaver that would be more dangerous to the causes it purports to promote than this. 

This is a classic example of stringing faites stupides together, but falling completely short on context and structure. What is it in the recent past that has driven so many people to 'drink'. Drink the Kool-Aid perhaps. And how do we think about this? In what context? 

The anger of these 'white' people is NOT unmotivated. It is certainly misdirected. But our utterly vile and unaccountable establishment has destroyed millions of white American lives since 1980. By both intent and neglect. Do this for any set of people and they'll find scapegoats. Every time. 

Since I've called attention to this many times before, I'll provide documentation / detail if asked. 

But the failure to have any framework for understanding this, a framework such as 'economic' conditioning, for example, renders this diatribe silly. 

Best,

Jim 

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[haustusstevemcclure]

Gawd, thus is arrogant nonsense.

Wilkerson clearly articulated in her book that the grievances of the "angry whites" are real snd legitimate.

What she is analyzing is how these grievances and the underlying causes giving rise are being wrenched and shunted into a perceived threat to tribal/caste group self-definitions -- and thereby becoming weakness oriented and possible to solve.

Your screed, Jim, would fit quite nicely into "We whites] are bring replaced" by the threats to our racially defined caste/tribe.

Which is just the kind of caste/tribal misdirection process that robs those in crisis from any real ability to solve the real underlying problems.

But pretending that our culture and polity does not define itself in racial caste/tribal terms is to ignore facts on the ground, rob the dispossessed of political allies and power, distract those in crisis into false and even silly gamesmanship, and thereby preserve the hidden power of the few.

For decades, another perceived threat to the U.S. power structure were those Micks and/or those wops.

Now no one really thinks about these tribal definitions.

But Colored/Black/Brown definitions government vast ramifications in our polity and culture -- as they have since the days when all 13 Colonies had slavery.

And the fact that on the whole these tribal definitions have been willy nilly converted into castes still plagues our polity. 

Refusing to admit these facts -- and resorting to the most ignorant name-calling as you have done, Jim  -- simply preserves the inequities our caste system fosters.

Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device

[jrbdo...@aol.com]

Do I remember correctly that you majored in philosophy, Steve?

I am baffled that you invidious glide over the aspect of economic 'conditioning' that I mentioned. Marx called it economic determinism, determinist because his context was the mechanical world. We now realize that 'conditioning' is a better model because biology and psychology are not as rigid as mechanics. 

But thanks to savage, elitist, heartless neoliberal policies, millions of industrial workers lost their jobs, their livelihoods, their families and, for many, even their lives. 

That disillusioned them and left many of them in blind anger. Are Trump and others misdirecting that anger. Yes. Of course. That anger was misdirected. But what you doing is similar to blaming the Syrians and Turks for their earthquake. It's like you would send Bill Maher and other 'comics' to the town of Logan to add sneers at these clods who cling to their Bibles and their guns. 

"When officials in Logan, West Virginia, were contacted last week about hosting Hillary Clinton for a local rally, it didn’t take long for them to respond with an answer: Hell no.

“Bill and Hillary Clinton are simply not welcome in our town,” they wrote in a letter to the office of Sen. Joe Manchin, whose office had inquired about the availability of local facilities. “Mrs. Clinton’s anti-coal messages are the last thing our suffering town needs at this point. The policies that have been championed by people like Mrs. Clinton have all but devastated our fair town, and honestly, enough is enough. We wish them the best in their campaign, however we again state they are not welcome on our city’s properties.”

While Clinton might have the support of much of West Virginia’s political establishment in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, the Logan letter reveals the depth of some of the opposition to her candidacy. It’s sparked to some degree by a remark that continues to haunt her in coal country, two months after she made it in a March town hall.

Referring to the transition to clean energy, Clinton said: “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

Ex abundantia cordis, os loquitur.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/sanders-looking-to-rack-up-west-virginia-win-over-clinton-222952

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[haustusstevemcclure]

I agree with all thst you say in this post, with a slightly different outcome.

What I was reacting to was your apparent sneering at Wilkerson's organization of these ideas under the concept of caste.

[jrbdo...@aol.com]

Quam bonum et quam iucundum fratres cohabitare in unum

It's good when brothers are on the same page, Steve. 

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, my focus is to do what is in my power to make the Democratic Party more genuinely the party of the people. I will share with the twenty-some thousand people on the two political Facebook groups that I am in how much money Democratic office seekers take from Lockheed Martin, Grumman and other 'defense' contractors. Neither the contributors nor those who receive their contributions are willing to listen to Ike about how many schools and hospitals each horrible instrument of war costs the American people and the people of the world. 

The fact that our officials are absorbed with their relationship with their powerful donors of all stripes is, in the final analysis, the reason for their indifference to the plight of so many among us. 

Best regards,

Jim 

 

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Subject: Re: Caste.in America

I agree with all that you say in this post, with a slightly different outcome.

What I was reacting to was your apparent sneering at Wilkerson's organization of these ideas under the concept of caste.