Class Dismissed

Let's here it for the populists. The condescension around even the phrase "class warfare" needs to end. Remove "warfare" and replace it with - shall we say...class "social justice."* - only because I loath the phrase "social justice" in its current incarnation and I'd like the two words back.

This society - esp its middle and lower classes - need some justice about now. If Hillary can't survive the Obama morass - I am perfecting happy to salute smartly for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo should he have higher aspirations. He is taking BofA by the collar and at least trying to shake them down - and God bless him for it.

As I said I do not like "warfare" being bandied about. But don't think for a minute "class warfare" is not already happening just because we don't like the phrase. The middle and working class is "under attack". And not from homosexuals with an "agenda" or crazed atheists.

So far I find the Obama Admin only mildly less distressing than the one before. (two or three points granted from the L.R. executive committee in my head for lifting the choice gag and the stem cell research ban...) It is all blow and nearly no go with Barry. (apologies to Larry Sinclair) For God Sake Barry, nationalize the toxic banks for a year. Shake the crooks down and restore some teeny amount of confidence. Prove that you aren't their lackeys. So far you are trying to play us by acting as if you care. "Us" being the lower 98% of money makers.

(Please note: I know Barry won't really bite the hand that spoon feeds him. I still believe that Obama is an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill. Or rather to collect the rest of our cash. But I must, at least, implore, before we implode.)

We can all get huffy about "class warfare" - but the fact remains that the middle and working classes are being looted. As we speak. Retirement! Ha! Pension! Ha! Call it whatever you like. "Class looting". The victims are real and coming to a soup kitchen near you. Where do you think all the bailout money is coming from and going to...?

Obama has spoken loudly on responsibility and ending the taxpayer payoffs for these crooks. And, as usual, that's about all he done. How can he? He hired the perpetrators as soon as he won. Chomsky hit it with: These people should not be giving advice to the President, they should be getting indictments.

This last gasp attempt to save a patient that is terminal is just not worth it. The system of financial hijinks and false wealth failed. Let's start with that truth, get some justice, and move on. A guilty plea here and some jail time there is not enough. We need real justice. The punishment for the Madoffs and all those like him must be severe

Call it whatever you want. The war was declared a long time ago- most of just did not know we were combatants.



*(My B.S. detector starts jumping whenever I hear "social justice." Usually people who say it really mean "These people are victims and it gives me a sense of self importance to point that out and unconsciously keep them that way." There is nothing liberal or progressive about this sentiment - however well intended. It is retrogressive in a way that would make Margaret Thatcher blanch. Has any ideology hurt working class people more than the Saul Alinsky school of putrefied resentment? At least the real fascists were up front about attacking the already marginalized.)

Shakespeare's invention.

Different morning post that usual. Shakespeare is my secular god. I am an open Bard worshiper. Harold Bloom is my personal go to critic for a number of reasons. His clear headed understanding of the poison of resentment victim theories in academia is always refreshing and helpful. When Bloom writes about a play - he writes about the play. Not "social justice."

I paraphrase Bloom: Whenever a director tries to illuminate a Shakespeare play with a currently fashionable idea - the play illuminates the idea, not the other way a round. Whenever we go, Shakespeare has been there first.

Bloom rightfully understands that the only sane stance to take when approaching Shakespeare is awe. Once the largely imaginary and self imposed fear of reading the language is overcome, an endless bounty of humanity is waiting, actually demanding, attention.

Though by no means a literary critic or even all that well versed - I can find no fault whatsoever with Bloom's contention that Shakespeare invented us. That is, how we perceive our own consciousness in the West and our relationship to ourselves comes from the plays. The Bible and Koran not withstanding. Both books being about our relationship to God. Shakespeare's major characters do not change because the "gods" or any outside event changes them. They change because they overhear themselves. And listen. Much of what they hear is ugly, some beautiful, all true. "To be or not to be" predates "I think, therefore I am" and is its antecedent.

The 20th century belongs to Freud. (I suspect the 21st has long since been claimed by Einstein and his off spring.) Yet a Freudian interpretation of Hamlet is not possible in reality. Freud was obsessed with Shakespeare. The proper starting point is to attempt a Shakespearean analysis of Freud - as Bloom posits. Freud did not "discover" the unconscious. He read Hamlet and Macbeth. And at the very least, Cleopatra, Anthony being a lesser light in that play.

At any rate, my mind is well equipped for scavenging, not deep intellect. (I scavenge, therefore I blog.) The Bloom portion of the Charlie Rose show is the first 20 minutes. He reminds us that academia can and should be about curiosity and the pursuit of understanding. Not what it is now, factory farms for victims.