anthonyqkiernan
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Edited May 01, 2007, 15:31
Middle Class Revolt
May 01, 2007, 15:30
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The MoD's vision of the future...
"The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx," says the report. The thesis is based on a growing gap between the middle classes and the super-rich on one hand and an urban under-class threatening social order: "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest". Marxism could also be revived, it says, because of global inequality. An increased trend towards moral relativism and pragmatic values will encourage people to seek the "sanctuary provided by more rigid belief systems, including religious orthodoxy and doctrinaire political ideologies, such as popularism and Marxism".
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Daminxa
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Re: Middle Class Revolt
May 01, 2007, 16:02
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Indeed. The happy medium. The middle course of action and all that; the opposite of extremism. Interesting.
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shanshee_allures
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Re: Middle Class Revolt
May 01, 2007, 16:23
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I think they've all got pissed and started reading The Social Contract.
And that was one scary proposition!
Bet they're peeing their pants with excitement 'bout these super new killer weapons they predict by '2035'...
x
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Vybik Jon
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Re: Middle Class Revolt
May 01, 2007, 16:40
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The third way?
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Leonard
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Edited May 01, 2007, 16:54
Re: Middle Class Revolt
May 01, 2007, 16:53
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Um, is it just my old school marxist upbringing but is a 'middle class revolt' nothing new ? Its usually led by fascist parties.
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shanshee_allures
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Re: Middle Class Revolt
May 01, 2007, 18:18
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Leonard wrote:
Um, is it just my old school marxist upbringing but is a 'middle class revolt' nothing new ? Its usually led by fascist parties.
Yep. Just like The French Revolution. Got rid of the monarchy and others but by christ you wouldn't DARE have an opinion of your own, else it'd be an appointment with monsieur guillotine!
x
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handofdave
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Re: Middle Class Revolt
May 01, 2007, 22:47
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Leonard wrote: Um, is it just my old school marxist upbringing but is a 'middle class revolt' nothing new ? Its usually led by fascist parties.
The last time there was a 'middle class revolt' in the USA it's figurehead was Ronald Reagan, it's results were a massive military buildup (with subsequent massive debts), a dismantling of much of the social safety net, a rapidly escalating $ redistribution away from the poor and middle class and towards the top 5 percent of the wealthy, a nosedive in the quality and affordability of public and college education....
Etc.
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Rhiannon
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Re: Middle Class Revolt
May 02, 2007, 13:33
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Ah but the French revolution wasn't a middle class revolt? It was firmly underpinned by the masses, the whole way through.
Let's face it, generally the middle class has more than enough food and shelter, so they are never going to revolt (en masse) and jeopardise that.
If you are starving then what have you got to lose.
I've just read the lovely Mark Steel's book on the French Revolution and it's brilliant. I thoroughly recommend it.
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shanshee_allures
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Re: Middle Class Revolt
May 02, 2007, 17:46
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I made the comparison re Leonard's remark. I didn't read the French revolution as any glorious peasant uprising - in the end almost everyone became 'subject' to it with sometimes horrific consequences.
The execution of the monarch was merely an exercise in shifting the balance of power. The revolutionaries were educated and well connected, it goes. The peasants were the fodder by which they could realise their own vision!
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mercian
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Re: Middle Class Revolt
May 03, 2007, 09:27
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Where have the working classes gone? Or am I now urban under class?
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