- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Don't get me wrong Jimmy

Posted by: Winslow Wacker ( USA ) on July 22, 1999 at 16:08:29:

In Reply to: I'll explode this myth here and now posted by Lark on July 21, 1999 at 17:16:47:

: So what your saying is that we're like well removed from the working class, the very class that we're supposed to represent?

No, I never said you weren't part of the working class. As far as "representation" goes, I thought anarchists were supposed to be against representation, delegation, etc. I'm tired of priveleged intellectual workers (whether they are anarchists or not) claiming to represent me.

: I'll explode this myth here and now, socialists and anarchists etc. are of the opinion that the oppressed deserve the support and defence of everyone of goodwill, fundamentally we're against eliteism. The issue of class isnt irrelevent but people who play it up, as I suspect you are, are stuck in a time warp.

If you are against elitism, as you say, then why did you accuse me of a "lack of schooling" a while back? That smacked of elitism. How do I "play up" the issue of class? My point was that intellectual workers should learn to listen to non-intellectual workers - we might not be able to quote Habermas, but a lot of us don't like capitalism either. Also, how are we to determine who really has "goodwill"? After all, even Lenin pretended to be an anarcho-syndicalist before the Bolshevik coup (check out "State and Revolution"). I think representation and delegation set us up for defeat.

: What's wrong with being an intellectual with time on your hands?

Nothing, until intellectuals open their mouths and claim to speak for the working class like asshole politicians.

:personally I stack shelves in a chainstore with a tyrannical employer, I dont even own the computer I'm typing from, it's the local libaries, so I'd never have thought of myself as the the elite intellectual sort but every michigan militia style anarcho-capitalist that flexs intellectual muscle as an excuse for gun ownership and anti-state paramoia and ignorance of the meddeling of the fortune five hundred never gets bounced for their behaviour.

It seems to me that you are trying to prove how much of a prole you are - this makes it look like you are also hung up on class. It's o.k., I don't think you ARE an "elite, intellectual sort", you just act like one. As for the militia folks, they can kiss my ass too.


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