[Marxism] DISILLUSIONED WITH MARXMAILers!

[Walter Lippmann]

In the world of the Socialist Workes Party and Trotskyism,
the term "petty bourgeois" is also a fancy, sociologically
dressed up way of saying "irredeemably bad person", one
who doesn't just hold an opinion one disagrees with, but
whose opinion is rooted in their tragically-unstable 
sociological position. They can't help themselves, you
see, they're "petty bourgeois". Presumably if they had
an industrial job, preferably one which has been taken
because the Proletarian Party has designated it to be
targeted for jobs by its members, you would never hold
such a "petty bourgeois" political opinion.

It's a term which tends to cut off discussion rather than
to clarify disputed issues. It's like the words Bolshevik
and Menshevik. Bolshevik is the Russian word for "majority".
The Bolsheviks led the Russian Revolution of 1917 whereas
the term Menshevik means "minority" and the Mensheviks
were opponents of the Russian Revolution of 1917.

But this term is also loaded with "democratic" implications,
since if you're a Bolshevik, and you represent the majority,
and since yours is the presumably "proletarian" point of 
view, you have all of the democratic authority which flows
from having a numerical majority. Being "proletarian" you
also are in the only class which can lead society forward.

The petty bourgeoisie, of course, the small shopkeepers,
lawyers, social workers and computer programmers are said
to be unstable, vacillating back and forth between Capital
and the Proletariat.

Louis is correct to point out that it's hardly a sociological
description, but rather a swear word, an epithet, an insult.

There are similar words used today to close minds and prevent
discussion: terrorist being currently the most prominent.


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles





















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WALTER LIPPMANN
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
writer - photographer - activist
http://www.walterlippmann.com
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