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: : [I]if there's anything the underclass, working stiffs, and exhausted [declassed?] middle classers like less than pampered college students who don't know what it's like to work for a living telling them what to do, it's their even more pampered college professors who preach equality and justice from the comfy halls of academia.: Right on. This clearly articulates WHY the Greens will always be a fringe force in American politics.
Nevertheless, the Greens have an important message regarding environmental devastation and sustainable lifestyles, which must be heard and heeded.
: The 'middle class'---either the independent proprietor (traditional middle class) or the educated member of the labor aristocracy who serves capital (modern middle class)---will always vacillate between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie depending on their material interests. Hence their inability to clearly articualte the class struggle.
I'm not so sure about that, Barry. There's been a lot of consciousness raising this century especially since the Russian Revolution. The middle class KNOWS what's wrong. I speak as a member of the exhausted middle class. I have no extra time or money, and I'm going nuts trying to keep it all together. I point this out because I'm not alone -- millions are like me, and millions more (blue collar and service industry working class, unemployed/dispossessed underclass) are even worse off. We're ready for a revolution (peaceful is my desire, others no doubt differ). You say this attitude may change as our material wealth increases -- maybe so, but that phenomenon would extend to all classes; would a service industry type who works their way up the corporate ladder until they're "comfortably" middle class forget what life was like before? I hope not; in my case, I don't anticipate being anything other than what I am now (revolutions aside), but if I should somehow strike it rich, I would hope that I wouldn't forget where I came from. Not to insult you, but I think you may be underestimating the idealism of many non-upper class Americans, and perhaps some of the upper class themselves.
: This inability stems from the fact that the middle class is removed from the production sphere itself, i.e. works primarily in the circulation sphere or other unproductive fields. The further one gets from the actual production process, the further one gets from the primary class struggle between workers and capital. More details here.
You're thinking like a marxist, obviously. You're not a member of the professional middle class, circa 2000. You know the anger and frustration of the working class; I know the anger and frustration of the middle class. It's there, don't discount it because it doesn't fit neatly into your marxist philosophy. I'm telling you Barry, the anger and frustration out there is enormous, and it runs straight through from the welfare mom to the two-income professional couples who work all day and finally eat dinner at 8 or 9 o'clock. We're fed up.
None.
