Date: Tue, 09 Dec 1997 08:52:33 -0500
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: M-I: "A little smug"


Boddhisatva,

>If I sound a little smug, maybe it's because I'm looking across the Hudson
>at all that high-rent real estate from my barrio 60 feet above sea level
>atop the New Jersey palisades.  Maybe I just like the idea of fishing for
>Striped bass off the Pierre hotel. 

What you see above is the mood that feeds Living Marxism. "I  got
mine--what's the problem with all those slobs who can't get their act
together like me."

Heartfield, sign this guy up right away. What's useful about this
intervention from the "enlightened one" is that you get a handle on the
sort of human material that is drawn to Furedi's cult. Pretty cruddy, isn't
it.

It is the same sort of jack-ass attitude that you find in Rush Limbaugh's
audience. So why bother with LM when you can get the real thing in the
Young Republican or Tory clubs? A most interesting question. I suspect that
this shows the continuing power of Marx's thought. There are tens of
thousands of middle-class people who enjoy a high standard of living but
whose lingering radical sensibilities prevent them from going straight to
the ruling class parties. So LM functions sort of as the political
equivalent of "socially responsible" investment firms like Working Assets.
It allows you to have your cake and eat it too.

Louis Proyect



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