Post #290,823
8/14/07 1:44:34 AM
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Guess what? NY Times David Brooks sez
[link|http://select.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/opinion/14brooks.html?hp|We have no dignity.] (The hyperlink is available, alas, only to fools like me who have paid for the privilege). The reliably fatuous Brooks chats up a grizzled old trucker and fairly swoons at his Stars-and-Bars manly bits: I don\ufffdt know what came first, the mystique of trucking or the country music songs that defined the mystique, but this trucker had been captured by the ethos early on and had never let it go. He wore the right boots and clothes. He had a flat, never-surprised way of talking. He didn\ufffdt smile or try to ingratiate.
He has one of those hard jobs, like mining and steel-working, that comes with its own masculine mythology and way of being in the world. Jobs performed in front of a keyboard don\ufffdt supply a code of dignity, which explains the spiritual anxiety that plagues the service economy. Aren't we all ashamed of ourselves, we spiritually-impoverished keyboard guys, lacking as we do the manly dignity of the steering wheel and steelmill* set? effetely, *Twenty years ago, in the course of my BDS international division duties, I had occasion to tour a steel plant in Maryland. At one point I found myself on a catwalk high above the galvanizing operation, which involved a young man using what appeared to be a repurposed railroad tie suspended by a chain from the factory ceiling to push blocks of zinc into a tub of molten metal. "How much are you paying him?" I asked the tour leader. He named an hourly sum equivalent to about a quarter what I was making at the time. I thought, if I'm to be involved with the steel industry, better to be preparing BDS summaries for the Department of Commerce for my wage than getting spattered with red-hot zinc for his. Talk to us again, Brooks, after you've hauled a coupla big loads back and forth across the country on an 18-wheeler. Until such time, STFU. Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
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Post #290,824
8/14/07 1:53:23 AM
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Must be true
it was in the New York Times.
I can feel the dignity oozing from my body with every letter typed.
Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry.Adrian Belew
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Post #290,830
8/14/07 8:25:03 AM
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Free linky.
[link|http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/|Marion in Savannah - Dragging stuff out from behind firewalls]. More: As the trucker spoke, I was reminded of a book that came out a few years ago called \ufffdThe Dignity of Working Men,\ufffd by the sociologist, Mich\ufffdle Lamont, who is now at Harvard. Lamont interviewed working-class men, and described what she calls \ufffdthe moral centrality of work.\ufffd
Her subjects placed tremendous emphasis on working hard, struggling against adversity and mastering their craft. Her book is an antidote to simplistic notions of class structure, because it makes clear that these men define who is above and below them in the pecking order primarily in moral, not economic terms.
People in other classes may define the social structure by educational attainment, income levels and job prestige, but these men are more likely to understand the social hierarchy on the basis of who can look out for themselves, who has the courage to be a fireman, a soldier or a cop, who has the discipline to put bread on the table every night despite difficulties. As you say, there's a certain fatuousness about it. One can make an argument that class in America has more to do with "moral" (whatever that means in this context) than economic terms, but it's redefining terms to do so. One would expect a book by a sociologist to explain things in social rather than economic terms, no? People generally feel better about their place in the world when they feel that it gets better over time. Resentment builds when one sees anyone, be they "manipulators" or not, do better while one lags (while attempting to play by the rules). Perhaps populist movements do better when they appeal to "moral and social conditions first". But how is that different from "conservative movements" or "progressive movements" or politics in general? People who get enthusiastic about politics usually do so because they want to be part of something they regard as important. If there's something in it for them, so much the better. So I don't see it as an attack on paper-pushers, but as an attempt to explain why working people don't support "populists" any more. It's a poor attempt, though, IMO. Cheers, Scott.
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Post #290,842
8/14/07 9:40:45 AM
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Re: Free linky.
One would expect a book by a sociologist to explain things in social rather than economic terms, no? Economics is simply a more specialized form of sociology (macroeconomics) and psychiatry (microeconomics). Sociology is the study of groups and their behavior...Macroecon is the study of groups and their behavior >with their money<. Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry.Adrian Belew
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Post #290,880
8/14/07 6:50:50 PM
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Werd.
I was helping a local contractor (friend-of-friend) redo roof, including my share of shingling, the reengineering of the fascia, from flimsy --> to: heftier, to strengthen both it and the roof it was girding. We determined to do cabinet-grade work on this important structural surround: so as not ever to have to re-do. (Odd-angled joints to accommodate roof angle changes, glued and screwed etc.)
And.. later, a walk on roof demonstrated once again, F=MA
He came back after dusk, for some tool - caught me adding second paint coat to some pieces, priming the backside (too) of a hefty biscuit-glued section we were to install next day -- via Halogen lamp.
Wandered up, did a double take; all akimbo entoned -
Working. Class. Hero. Award !!
I be so proud..
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As to the other ?common?-definitions whose entirely inividualized-defs are, instead: the meat for every scream-fest that replaces sane debate (and here, is mixed-into 'Class', for another indication that - In the final analysis, everything depends on everything else)
I see that the Dems finally are figuring out that 'progressive' connotes ~~ a willingness to see if we just might have learned Anything since the 'status quo' became quo -- as distinguished from the now meaningless connotation of 'Left' (with its anarchists holding a bowling ball-cum-fuze.)
As to the 'conservatives' (never mind the ludicrou$ 'compassionate' Rovian style lead-balloon)
I find that.. (even harder than for those of That ilk to, "elaborate on what 'progressive' might mean?") -- most self-labelled folk encountered:
have Extreme difficulty in describing what they "mean to conserve/preserve". Including right here in River City; oh Wait: those most unwilling to proffer ever, 'a personal definition', are er 'Libertarians' -- izzat it?
Libertarian means .?. you don't ever have to say either, I'm sorry your kid starved to death - he just didn't work hard enough and.. there IS no free lunch. (seems a lot like 'conservative' there) or otherwise explain just how 0-Regulation would work (unless every single person knew how to use a mandatory Glock, prolly starting at about age 6?)
C o n s e r v a t i o n -
now That's the same root, but somehow so very much less-fuzzy .. innit?
Why IS This intentional mind-fuck dance more popular than crystal meth? Have one theory - -
..and we haven't even gotten to Ivory tower\ufffd, Red-neck , Pro-death penalty-Pro-lifer, Cheneyesque' :-/ ... ...
See.. I think that most folk squirm about defining these [now meaningless] terms because
-deep-down- they *are* clear about how little they've ever pondered the matters, from the scale of one-pair --> millions / or,
they Know that the visceral reptile brain does that talking and, who wants to be embarrassed in public?
Just a WAG, mind you.
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Post #290,836
8/14/07 9:19:07 AM
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That's a 10-4, good buddy! :)
Having stayed overnight many a time at a Flying-J or Pilot while en route in my class-C motorhome, I know of what he speaks.
Alex
Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law. -- Sophocles (496? - 406 BCE)
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Post #290,840
8/14/07 9:37:13 AM
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did he mention what all the kleenex in the parking lot was
for? Truckers are a unique microism of society. One may buy drugs, wimmen, go to church, have prayer meetings and gamble without every encountering non truckers.
thanx,
bill
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep
reach me at [link|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]
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