Farida Majid
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<< The reactionary rich always denied that they themselves were involved in class warfare. Indeed, they insisted no such thing existed in our harmonious prosperous society. Those of us who kept talking about the realities of class inequality and class exploitation were readily denounced. Such concepts were not tolerated and were readily dismissed as ideologically inspired.
In fact, class itself is something of a verboten word. In the mainstream media, in political life, and in academia, the use of the term "class" has long been frowned upon. You make your listeners uneasy ("Is the speaker a Marxist?"). If you talk about class exploitation and class inequity, you will likely not get far in your journalism career or in political life or in academia (especially in fields like political science and economics).
So instead of working class, we hear of "working families" or "blue collar" and "white collar employees". Instead of lower class we hear of "inner city poor" and "low-income elderly." Instead of the capitalist owning class, we hear of the "more affluent" or the "upper quintile." Don't take my word for it, just listen to any Obama speech. (Often Obama settles for an even more cozy and muted term: "folks," as in "Folks are strugglin' along.") >>
Class Warfare Indeed
Michael Parenti, Reader Supporter News
Michael Parenti writes: "The moneyed class in this country has been doing class warfare on our heads and on those who came before us for more than two centuries. But when we point that out, when we use terms like class warfare, class conflict, and class struggle to describe the system of exploitation we live under - our indictments are dismissed out of hand and denounced as Marxist ideological ranting, foul and divisive."
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