Re: paradox of class and leadership--another paradox...

[Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/15/06, Mark Lause <MLause@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> One of the arguments among historians has been the role of change from the
> bottom up.  The problem is that those who deny this happens argue that
> working class people are silent and deferential.  Therefore, when people
> cease to be silent and deferential--when they become leaders--they're not
> working class any more but middle class.

That's a function of delegation and representation.  It is probably
impossible to run a modern state without doing so full-time and being
assisted by an army of experts and bureaucrats.  Once running a state
becomes your full-time job, it is difficult to say that you are still
a member of the working class -- your experience is not the same, your
perspective is not the same, your interests are not the same as
before, even if you come from a very humble working-class family.
That is a necessary division of labor that is probably inescapable in
a modern state, so we have to have a way of ensuring democracy based
on that division, rather than pretend that such a division can't or
shouldn't exist in a pro-working-class democracy.

Term limits may help.  So far, almost all socialist leaders whom
revolution elevated to the highest office of their country have acted
as the faqih for their respective nation, ruling for their lifetime.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
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