Vladimir Innit Lenin
30th December 2009, 21:33
I was just replying to some right wing reactionary on another forum, i'd like to paste my reply in here. It doesn't have a lot of marxian/class references simply because it was posted on a non-political forum, where trolling is endemic, and a post littered with typically long-winded marxist rhetoric would simply recieve some sort of troll response.
My post was made in response to this right-winger saying that my views on the masses were similar to the old Tories who opposed universal franchise on the false premise that the masses were moronic. This was because I decried the currently reactionary views of many working people - in the UK, I was referring to -. However, my point was that this was due to a criminal lack of adequate education, which is a rather salient point, in my opinion. In any case, I just wish to share my thoughts with you all, and perhaps start a theoretical discussion regarding the pivotal role of educating the entire populace, in particularly the workers who are often overlooked when it comes to 'aspirational' education systems that we find in countries such as mine. This is the re-post:
You completely mistake my position.
My argument is that one must be careful against taking every reactionary decision.
Currently, looking at the ridiculous arguments one hears on the street, and by official measures such as exam results and the number of people going to 'lesser' universities, it is not hugely controversial to say that the majority of people in this country have had a sub-standard education.
I am not decrying peoples' ability to be educated, their intelligence or their potential to accrue intelligence. In fact, I am making the opposite point to the strawman that you provide. My point is that currently, it is undoubted that a lot of working people are subject to the prejudice and discriminatory views of widely distributed tabloids such as the Sun, Daily Mail and so on. I'm sure we can agree that a theoretical understanding of the political positions of The Sun newspaper is no way to initiate or indeed implement policy. However, this is not to say that the current, uneducated level of the general populace is the zenith of their intellectual potential. That is the argument which you identify correctly with the Tories and 'gentry' of old. My argument is that this lack of education, and thus the prevailing lack of informed opinion amongst the people, is representative of the nadir of working peoples' potential level of intellect and education.
To imply that my attitude towards workers is condescending and arrogant is really just an untruth. By saying that the people are uneducated, i'm not saying they are the 'hillbilly' stereotype. The tools available to the wider population, such as the internet, prevent the total desecration of human intellect. Indeed, the ordinary person is not quite hovering over the precipice in terms of his/her intellectual ability. However, we can all agree that the majority of people are failed by orthodox lines of education (schooling, university) and by other lines of education (news media,, for example) and as such the masses, whilst not bone idle, are not educated enough to formulate anything even approaching an academic opinion on most topics. I could elaborate further, indeed write a thesis on this sad topic of under-education, but I think you get the basic jist of what my argument would be.
My post was made in response to this right-winger saying that my views on the masses were similar to the old Tories who opposed universal franchise on the false premise that the masses were moronic. This was because I decried the currently reactionary views of many working people - in the UK, I was referring to -. However, my point was that this was due to a criminal lack of adequate education, which is a rather salient point, in my opinion. In any case, I just wish to share my thoughts with you all, and perhaps start a theoretical discussion regarding the pivotal role of educating the entire populace, in particularly the workers who are often overlooked when it comes to 'aspirational' education systems that we find in countries such as mine. This is the re-post:
You completely mistake my position.
My argument is that one must be careful against taking every reactionary decision.
Currently, looking at the ridiculous arguments one hears on the street, and by official measures such as exam results and the number of people going to 'lesser' universities, it is not hugely controversial to say that the majority of people in this country have had a sub-standard education.
I am not decrying peoples' ability to be educated, their intelligence or their potential to accrue intelligence. In fact, I am making the opposite point to the strawman that you provide. My point is that currently, it is undoubted that a lot of working people are subject to the prejudice and discriminatory views of widely distributed tabloids such as the Sun, Daily Mail and so on. I'm sure we can agree that a theoretical understanding of the political positions of The Sun newspaper is no way to initiate or indeed implement policy. However, this is not to say that the current, uneducated level of the general populace is the zenith of their intellectual potential. That is the argument which you identify correctly with the Tories and 'gentry' of old. My argument is that this lack of education, and thus the prevailing lack of informed opinion amongst the people, is representative of the nadir of working peoples' potential level of intellect and education.
To imply that my attitude towards workers is condescending and arrogant is really just an untruth. By saying that the people are uneducated, i'm not saying they are the 'hillbilly' stereotype. The tools available to the wider population, such as the internet, prevent the total desecration of human intellect. Indeed, the ordinary person is not quite hovering over the precipice in terms of his/her intellectual ability. However, we can all agree that the majority of people are failed by orthodox lines of education (schooling, university) and by other lines of education (news media,, for example) and as such the masses, whilst not bone idle, are not educated enough to formulate anything even approaching an academic opinion on most topics. I could elaborate further, indeed write a thesis on this sad topic of under-education, but I think you get the basic jist of what my argument would be.