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From: david@randvax.ARPA (David Shlapak)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: A Stilted World View (Warm to the touch)
Message-ID: <1753@randvax.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 14-Mar-84 22:06:49 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.1753
Posted: Wed Mar 14 22:06:49 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Mar-84 07:24:42 EST
References: <317@tty3b.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 72

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    Quoting Mike Kelly:

  >I think the net suffers from the same trouble.   We all take home our
  >$30,000 and up salaries, live in the suburbs, work in a growing industry
  >where unemployment is practically unknown.  It's perhaps natural that
  >this colors our view of theworld.   Unconsciously, perhaps, we assume in
  >a thousand little ways that everyone has it so good.  That anyone could
  >really be where we are if they just tried hard enough.  That somehow the
  >victim is to blame.

    In the words of the prophet, "Speak for your own damn self."

    Let's see now...salary, DEFINITELY well below $30k...yup, just checked my
    pay stub...home, West LA (almost suburban, especially compared to my
    former dwelling in Little Saigon, downtown LA)...unemployment an
    "unknown"...well, for the past year and a half, yeah...before that I
    had been unemployed for the better part of a year (thanks to Mr. Carter?
    Or was it Mr. Reagan?? Any votes for Rutherford Hayes??)...before that
    I HAD been lucky enough to work for 15 consecutive months...wow...

    And, since my father was forced to retire before being laid off from
    his job fixing railroad cars and half of my friends from high school
    (only 10% of my class went to college, any college, even J.C.) haven't
    worked since 1980, I naturally "assume in a thousand little ways that
    everyone has it so good."  Sure...and I'm deaf and dumb, and never read
    the papers or "Newsweek," or watch TV (except of course the sitcoms
    about other smug bourgeois bastards like me)...

    Yup, Mike, it's too bad that like most broad, unsubstantiated generaliza-
    tions, yours doesn't really make the grade when it comes right down to...
    what's that abstract obsolete concept again?...oh, yeah, "reality"...

    I'm not real happy when you imply that I should feel guilty about
    what I've achieved through my own efforts.  And, yes, I DO believe that
    most people are victims of their own laziness/stupidity/carelessness/
    what have you, but that DOESN'T mean I lack sympathy for them...
    It's important to help one another, indeed it's a moral imperative to
    some extent, but that must not preclude one from making judgments about
    the errors of others (if only for self-educational purposes).  If
    you lose your job because your union nearly bankrupted your employer
    by making incredible wage/benefit demands not justified or financed
    by any real increase in productivity, I think that (despite my obvious
    reactionary attitudes towards economics and outdated notions about
    personal responsibility) I'd still probably try to help you buy food
    for yourself and your family...I will also suggest that it might help YOU
    to think damn hard about why you're in the fix you are and hope earnestly
    that you learn something from it.

    I agree that one's socio-economic status can contribute to one's
    perspective, but it is not necessarily the sole factor, nor need
    it even be the driving wheel...to state that the positions adopted by
    various folks on this net are primarily the result of a "We got ours,
    mate" attitude is ridiculous.  Believe it or not, people can disagree
    with you for valid intellectual reasons based upon introspection and
    cogitation.  To say, or even imply, that one's beliefs are somehow
    less valid because of his salary (or address, or shoe size) is
    the same as suggesting that his opinions are meaningless because he's
    black/Polish/female/fill-in-the-blank.

    In other words, give me a break....

    "Life's a bitch.....




		   .....and then ya die..."

						    --- das