RE: An American Manifesto [was RE: Tr: Ghost World]


Subject: RE: An American Manifesto [was RE: Tr: Ghost World]
ZazieZazie@hetnet.nl
Date: Mon Aug 06 2001 - 13:43:31 GMT


I fully agree with you on the social issue, but i am little more pessimistic. Social power structures never change, or slowly unless there is a big shock, like a war, or natural disaster, or Sony's act from God :)
In our history class Quwait was held up as an example but even there the war didn't bring more democracy, well, a little but not as much as we thought it would be. Oh theories ....

-----Original Message-----
From: "owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org" <owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org> on behalf of "Cecilia Baader" <ceciliabaader@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2001 7:26 PM
To: "bananafish@roughdraft.org" <bananafish@roughdraft.org>
Subject: An American Manifesto [was RE: Tr: Ghost World]

--- ZazieZazie@hetnet.nl wrote:
>
>
> I can't help but think, 16-year-old kids? AMERICAN 16-yearold kids??
> Waddaya expect? Not to slur on America or something but in general
> big-country people tend to have less attention, interest in what goes
> on in other countries, especially if this is enhanced by the fact that
> they are not yet fully aware/grown-up.

Sigh. Many sixteen year old American kids are lucky enough not to think
of more than what they're going to be doing on Saturday night, but
that's not always true. The American Economy has been (relatively)
strong for the last twenty-five years, and the majority of the
population has sunk into a mire of complacency.

However, you're falling into the trap of believing that middle class
America IS America. When most Europeans picture an American, they think
of a loud (yes, I know we're loud), laughing middle class WASP (White
Anglo-Saxon Protestant). That might be voting America, news-making
America, but America? No. The latest Census figures state that more
than one in four Americans is NOT part of that annointed group racially,
and that number is not final -- we have yet to see how economic figures
will affect that data. In big cities like Chicago, that number rises to
a whopping two in three.

Unfortunately, these groups are not only disenfranchised socially,
they're more likely to be disenfranchised economically, too. Just
because you don't see this population on your television set or
wandering around European hotspots doesn't mean that they don't exist.
And these kids aren't thinking about Marx and friends, either. They're
too worried about getting through the day.

The time to start tossing ideologies around is when things become
untenable for enough of the population. The voting right wing made up
approximately (that is, less than) half of the vote casters at the last
election. However, that situation is likely to change. With the last
election, more minorities came out to vote than ever before, and they
made a difference. In Florida, the large mostly Republican-voting Cuban
population made the decision that the rest of America had to live with.
Remember the Bay of Pigs? No? They do. And they made their voice
heard.

There was a point to this. Ah, yes. No, your average sixteen-year-old
isn't thinking about Marx, and approximately 70% of them aren't spending
a lot of time looking at social issues. But the Census figures project
that twenty years from now, more than 50% of teenagers will be either
African American or Latino. And believe me, this is not a population
that will look on the state of the Union the way that the current group
does.

And when that group grabs for the power structure in this country,
you're not going to recognize the place.

Regards,
Cecilia.

ObSal: I finally had the opportunity to listen to Will's and Chris's
fine interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation. (I love that Juan
Williams.) One of the callers had a point that I thought Will handled
exceptionally well, that low-income, inner city teens, this same group
that I've been discussing above, cannot relate to Holden's viewpoint,
simply because of his economic status. Will disagreed; how about the
rest of you?
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