Dumbing down.
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Handwriting an art.
In the spirit of Paddy Shannon’s article, but archaising instead of modernising, I shall deliberately employ long outdated orthography. For instance:
chuse instead of choose
antient ” ancient
betwixt. ” between
reply’d. ” replied
& ” andand so on …
I did this with my monthly newspaper years ago (The Raven), printed in 18th century newspaper style.
I like annoying people in this way, because it is in fact modernists who are the bigger snobs. This is especially true in France, where my use of archaic septante, huitante and nonante, and my use of ‘s’ rather than acute or circumflex, makes steam issue from nostrils and earholes.
“I like annoying people in this way“.
I think we’ve gathered that, TM! But what is the point of this thread? To show that the rest of the working class are dumb and that we are therefore never going to get socialism?
ps Are you sure they don’t take you for a Belgian when you say “septante” and “nonante”? And Four score and ten sounds more archaic than ninety.
No. Just making my point that the things we all knew as schoolboys: basic grammar, basic history, basic geography, etc. are now all specialist subjects.
The traditional view is that of a working class becoming conscious of “its historic role.” How is that to come about when even basic history is neglected? Whence will come the historical self-awareness and maturity of a class conscious proletariat that knows what capitalism is and how its overthrow is its obligation?
How is the surgeon to recognise his common cause with the dustman? The scientist with the street cleaner?
The traditional view of an educated, historically aware working class must then be abandoned, to be replaced with a different scenario: some kind of spontaneous explosion whereby the historically ignorant become united through necessity, not knowledge.If the outcome is to be socialism, your “historically ignorant” masses would still have to want and understand socialism. This would only require an understanding that (1) capitalism does not work and cannot be made to work for them and (2) that the way-out is a society based on the common ownership and democratic control of productive resources and that this requires their active participation to work.
If you think that workers today are so “dumbed down” that they can’t understand this then you may as well give up and concentrate on grumbling about how bad modern times are.
Alright then. Then we admit they don’t need to be historical materialists.
P.Albelard – Just to point out the obvious. The great majority of well ‘educated’ people are anti-socialist. This implies that education/intellectual intelligence is not the major component of socialist consciousness. An ability to imagine the alternative to authoritarian social structures is primarily the realm of psychology.
When did workers ever learn about socialism at school or university?
Education is for work in capitalism.I would have thought we expect most of the majority needed before socialism can come into being will be materialists in the sense of being non-religious. After all, socialism is a practical project to make things better down here on Earth for the one and only life we all have.
I don’t know about the extent of the historical theory and knowledge they will need to have. Certainly not a degree in history or even O level history (but I don’t think that exists any more now that the good old days have gone?). I can’t see why it would need to be all that extensive, just that capitalism came into existence some centuries ago, couldn’t solve the problems it caused working class in particular and humanity in general and is about to be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Ok. As long as that is clear, then i’m satisfied.
My opinion of “education” as imposed by schools etc. is the same as yours.“All those incapable of learning have taken to teaching.” (Wilde).
It’s just that my dad was one of those unschooled but self-taught working men who were always representative of class consciousness before the 1980s.
They knew basic history by teaching themselves, as I did thanks to his encouragement. I don’t see that any more.They knew basic history by teaching themselves, as I did thanks to his encouragement. I don’t see that any more.
You can’t see this as they are searching from ‘Google’ and other places.
Looking for info such as ,’what flaws of communism did gorbachev highlight in his book perestroika’ and finding on our website,
also from Bing and other search engines arriving at,
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/publications/why-we-dont-need-money/
It is ‘dumb’ indeed to be extrapolating from the general silliness of the capitalist media with its manufactured celebrity and advertising obsessions to be making disparaging remarks in ideological reinforcement of prevailing norms.
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