SLPAD - 8 a touch more about class

[Mark Kohut]

"There’s yet more in the text about this “class” notion - hey, it might be
important.

He mentions the notorious failure of movement college kids & blue collar
workers to get together politically."

Yes, a virtual truism by political writers on the sixties, the movements
of. The New Left left
out workers, as people, as a 'class' whose opinions and needs needed met by
the theorists and
activists. Go read the otherwise estimable Port Huron statement or some
good histories of.

On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 12:05 AM Michael Bailey <
michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:

> There’s yet more in the text about this “class” notion - hey, it might be
> important.
>
> He mentions the notorious failure of movement college kids & blue collar
> workers to get together politically.
>
> Which, well - from the angle of work being sort of a slightly laid-back
> military, the natural distinction (& almost inevitable incompatibility)
> betw blue collar workers experiencing “enlisted person” status, and
> youngsters seeking out education so as to rise into the work equivalent of
> officer classes is laid bare.
>
> Which is another way to view academia: as a ladder into the officer ranks.
>
> As clear-eyed seekers of wisdom and truth (the canonical, cherished,
> innocent way to view college) we ideally may all say “sucks to the officer
> ranks” before - and even while - making some kind of accommodation with
> them, up to & including joining them.
>
> I mean, it’s hard for me not to think of Pynchon as some kind of officer
> (in, like, Billy Preston’s “war on poverty”) - or how about a “tech”
> rating?, but then that escalates (or devolves, hyeugh hyeugh hyeugh) into
> officership within that niche, which reclusiveness may delay but not always
> fend off.
>
> But “class” isn’t always a structure only enshrining suffering. Sometimes
> it’s a thing to celebrate a touch of. Proposition: officers *can* be
> idiots, but it’s not mandatory.
> Also, rank as some might find certain puns, eg, within the oeuvre, rank has
> its privileges.
>
>
> The several times I’ve read this Intro, I have never delved into all the
> names he drops into the next, rather generous, paragraph.
>
> Therefore, that’s for tomorrow!
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>