Re: [Marxism] It's the stupidity, stupid

["bob" <bobo926@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Two more examples from the high school scene.
First, a student reported that after offering a pro-Kerry opinion, a teacher
responded that the student shouldn't support him because he was a communist!
Since the story sounded so out of whack, I discussed it with some colleagues
who said that they knew the teacher's views and they thought the story was
true.
Second, about half my students think that a person is required by law to
vote for either the Democrat or the Republican. This arose when they asked
me who I was going to vote for and I responded saying Nader. On a few
occasions, they were quite argumentative and wouldn't believe me and I had
to pull out a sample ballot and show that there were other candidates
running for president.

I teach in northern New Jersey near NYC, so it isn't the hinterland.

bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pieinsky" <pieinsky@xxxxxxx>
To: "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition"
<marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 10:24 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] It's the stupidity, stupid


> The provincialism and stupefication -- a process, not needless to say
> something people are born with -- of so many people in the U.S. is
> extensive.  I'm thinking of two examples from the last couple of days:
(1)
> A Web report from somebody standing in a long line to vote who used her
> passport as the required ID.  The person checking ID's said: "What's
that?"
> The election official had never seen a passport before, much less had one
> herself!  I forget the statistics but the percentage of Americans who have
> travelled to other countries (aside from being in the military) and thus
> needed a passport is very low.  Here in Vermont, you run into country
people
> who have never left the state, which is a pocket-sized state that takes
> about two hours tops to drive across east to west and maybe three north to
> south, much less gone to a foreign country (even with Canada parked right
> next door) or even to Burlington, the biggest city of 40,000 only.  They
are
> afraid of Burlington as much as going to the sinful New York City, which
is
> totally off the map.  (2) A friend reported a pre-election conversation
with
> a co-worker who was a born-again Christian.  She proclaimed that her
> minister had told her that should Kerry be elected they wouldn't be able
to
> practice their religion as they see fit.  (The Village Voice has an
article
> explaining this rumor that has been making the rounds of the fundi
> churches.)  Did she really believe that?  Of course, she believed
everything
> that the minister told her because -- you guys all know the answer
already,
> I'm sure -- God spoke to him.
>
> What we do with this kind of thing, I don't know.  Give them passports and
> send them all off to Fallujah for a learning experience?  I don't feel so
> bad about Kerry going down.  Afterall, we know where he was coming from
> class-wise.  What I do find upsetting is that so many of my fellow
Americans
> saw the stupid, sneering face of Bush as someone in their own likeness.
> It's an ugly mirror.
>
> jay
>
> P.S. The state election results in Vermont weren't too bad.  The Dems now
> control both houses of the legislature by wide margins, and more
> Progressives were elected.  Now let's see if they can put up or shut up
with
> some truly universal health care insurance.
>
>
>
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