Re: [Marxism] Why are American workers so passive?

[Mark Lause <markalause@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well, who do you think they're going to interview in such a
publication?  Ward Churchill?  Howard Zinn?

To a large extent, you are dealing with what Zinn rightly described as
the gatekeepers and guards...the shapers of public opinion in the
media, academe, etc.  The social function is to minimize any
independence among the people, to disparage its value, to keep
everything flowing through its proper channels.

When it asks interesting questions, it's going to formulate it so as
to provide socially safe answers.  That is, they will slip the
conclusion they want into the premise.

Institutions defend themselves and large institutions are mutually
interdependent.  People responsible for making them work engage
largely in bullshitting themselves about how they actually work. This
is the nature of what has been cast as "professionalism."  Being
"unprofessional" is the sin of all sins in academe or journalism.  It
usually means telling the truth and letting the chips fall where they
may.  The "professional" thing is to rally 'round the institution for
which you have been responsible and cover up its shortcomings, deny
the truth, or disparage the importance of the truth.

That's just the game.

ML

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