[Peace-discuss] Why It's Time to Bannish "Average Joeism"

[John W.]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 2:06 PM, David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com> wrote:

In my opinion, it's all about undermining any genuine, economic notion of
> class solidarity. When Biden, etc., presents himself as working class, it's
> only to trumpet Horatio Alger bootstrap values. It's a caricature of working
> class culture. And elites even caricature themselves (or each other), as
> effete rather than ruthless, an attempt to flatter what is perceived as
> working class earthiness while submerging genuine
> resentment; meanwhile deriding the notion that the comical arrogant elite
> could possibly conspire against the public interest. Both conservative and
> liberal pundits unite in fear that the response to Palin might carry with it
> some hint of populist solidarity, however dysfunctional. The elite reaction
> is not to the mob's anger against Arabs or Obama or Bill Ayers--it's to
> their anger, period, which should be the theater of Limbaugh and O'Reilly
> rather than spontaneously displayed at political rallies. All of the sudden,
> there's defensiveness about elites from both conservative and liberal
> pundits.
>
> Common people are supposed to be happy-go-lucky like the black guy in the
> Miller High Life ads--striking a blow for "common sense" by heisting cheap
> beer from expensive restaurants in full sight of a clueless French-looking
> waiter. That's Madison Avenue's kind of class warfare, in which the working
> class is defined by its right to drink cheap beer.
>

You talking about my friend Windell Middlebrooks?  He IS happy-go-lucky in
real life, as a matter of fact.  But the ads are dumb.  He's laughing all
the way to the bank.  I'll have to forward him this series of e-mails.  :-)

John W.




>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
> *To:* David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>; John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
> *Sent:* Monday, October 20, 2008 11:25:10 AM
>
> *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] Why It's Time to Bannish "Average Joeism"
>
>  I think this actually has a lot to do with America's bizarre love-hate
> relationship with socioeconomic class.  I saw a documentary once about how
> many Americans, across how many socioeconomic lines, consider themselves
> "middle class": it's almost everybody, rich, poor, and in-between.  This is
> partly what Steve Early is getting at, I think.  We find it uncomfortable to
> talk about our country as class-stratified.  Our working class has been
> trained or otherwise developed an unhealthy habit - at least it's widespread
> - of thinking of ourselves along the lines of what we might aspire to be:
> "well off," "comfortable," living the "American dream".  It's a country
> where anyone can be president, right?
>
> But there's another side of America, too, a sort of parallel universe of
> class, in which poor people and working class people have to scrap - well,
> for scraps.  We fight bosses, landlords, the government, and each other, and
> there's a lot of resentment - and pride - associated with this culture,
> these cultures.  You can see it in many different forms, in the cowboy hats
> and Rebel flags, pick-up trucks or loud motorcycles, blue jeans and
> T-shirts, country music, in the loud thumping bass, darkened windows,
> low-riding cars, mag wheels, gold teeth, and yes it gets all mixed up with
> race and sex, but there's a lot about class in there, too.
>
> I know Steve Early, used to work with him, have read a fair amount of his
> writings, and I have more than one bone to pick with him.  (He even helped
> me lose my job once.)  But what he's saying here is hard to deny.  Whatever
> terms you want to pick, or pick at, it's the political pandering - and media
> condescension - to the millions of people in this country who have to worry
> about paying our bills.  McCain brought up "Joe the Plumber" because he's
> fighting for our votes and he knows that we know he owns 10 houses or
> whatever it is.  Joe Biden has been trying to tie himself to some kind of
> working class roots, and so have the others, because they know a lot of
> people do not identify with or trust them.  We see them in their fancy suits
> and ties, hanging with the glitzy movie stars, spending millions and
> millions, etc. - and they're afraid we won't vote for people we don't trust
> to work for our interests.
>
> To some extent they're right about that.  But I know a lot of people who
> understand that voting isn't the same as inviting someone for dinner.  We
> don't have to like them.  We don't have to trust them.  We just have to know
> what we want to get out of this election, and after.
>
> Ricky
>
> "Only those who do nothing make no mistakes." - Peter Kropotkin
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
> *To:* John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
> *Sent:* Sunday, October 19, 2008 12:07:49 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] Why It's Time to Bannish "Average Joeism"
>
>
> Well, of course I don't, assuming they serve as a voice of the people.
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
> *To:* David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
> *Cc:* jencart13 at yahoo.com; Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
> *Sent:* Sunday, October 19, 2008 10:31:45 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] Why It's Time to Bannish "Average Joeism"
>
> Interesting and not-inaccurate perspective...as long as you don't include
> those of us - or at least most of us - who comprise the alternative,
> independent media.
>
> John Wason
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 8:33 AM, David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>   Neither campaign advisors nor the media who take their cues consider
>> themselves to be either middle class or working class. They are in service
>> of the owner class. Their job is to stereotype, manipulate, and condescend
>> to folks who are not in a position to set the terms of discussion. It should
>> be clear by now that the middle class *is* the working class--that is,
>> wage laborers in the service of the owner class. Trivial distinctions
>> between mental and physical labor (as if anyone doesn't have to think), or
>> pay grades (or even nominal ownership), are irrelevant, and are meant to
>> distract by replacing economic categories with cultural categories. So Joe
>> the plumber is cast as a hardworking working class dude who wants to own his
>> business (that is, become more like the class of people who are defining
>> him)--but it turns out he's not who he claims to be (assuming the media gets
>> to define who he claims to be)--he doesn't have a license, and owes
>> taxes--if only he had turned out to be a deadbeat dad, the stereotype would
>> be complete. He wants to be respectable (do paperwork), but doesn't deserve
>> it. So let's end this brief campaign/media generated foray into the world of
>> "economic issues" and social class, and get back to the "Palin dudes" (see
>> today's NYT)--oops, another working class stereotype--hormonally-driven and
>> ignorant working class men. As Edward Said famously pleaded on behalf of the
>> Palestinians: "May I have permission to narrate?" Could it be more clear?
>> The media despise the people. Their position is predicated on their ambition
>> not to be one of them.
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>> *From:* Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
>> *To:* Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>; David Green <
>> davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
>> *Sent:* Saturday, October 18, 2008 5:32:08 PM
>> *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] Why It's Time to Bannish "Average Joeism"
>>
>>   This part of Steve Early's piece was particularly annoying to me:
>>
>> "But there's still a glaring double-standard at work here. It says a lot
>> about HOW WORKING CLASS PEOPLE GET TALKED ABOUT by politicians of both major
>> parties WHEN THEY'RE NOT BEING MADE TO DISAPPEAR ENTIRELY INTO OUR VAST
>> "MIDDLE CLASS" (which, at times, seems to include 95 per cent of the
>> population)."
>>
>> "MADE TO DISAPPEAR entirely into our vast "middle class"????? The middle
>> class is made up of BOTH white AND blue collar workers who are middle income
>> -- I'm guessing 95% of the electorate (with, btw, good manufacturing
>> jobs paying better than some non-factory jobs, at least once upon a
>> time). The biggest snobs seem to be among white collar workers claiming to
>> speaking up for and on behalf of blue collar workers, or so they suppose
>> -- Steve Early being a prime example -- who insist on differentiating
>> between the professional/business, and working classes! It annoys me plenty
>> when these guys do this, but it annoys me even more when they accuse
>> politicians who do NOT make these distinctions (but instead consider the
>> middle class to be made up of blue AND white collar workers) of using
>> "the working classes" for political gain. Grrrrrrr.
>>  --Jenifer
>>
>>
>> --- On *Sat, 10/18/08, David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>* wrote:
>>
>> From: David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: [Peace-discuss] Why It's Time to Bannish "Average Joeism"
>> To: "Peace Discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
>> Date: Saturday, October 18, 2008, 4:42 PM
>>
>>   This gets at the elitism of both parties and the media, and the
>> inevitable use and abuse of the white working class for the elite's
>> purposes. It's not by accident that "Joe Sixpack" is so quickly turned upon.
>> He's merely a moment of amusement. Ultimately, his plight and his element
>> are not to be taken seriously. _____________________
>> Why It's Time to Bannish "Average Joeism" Stop, in the Name of Joe!
>>
>> October, 18 2008
>>
>> By *Steve Early*
>> Source: CounterPunch
>>
>> Steve Early's ZSpace Page<http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/steveearly>
>>
>> Am I the only American voter who's getting annoyed by all the
>> faux-populist obeisance and condescending lip-service that's being paid to
>> "average Joes" this Fall?
>>
>>
>>
>> First there was "Joe Six-Pack," the frequently invoked working-class
>> soulmate of Alaskan "Hockey Mom" Sarah Palin. Then, there was "Joe from
>> Scranton ," Senator Joseph Biden's strained reinvention of himself as a
>> regular blue-collar guy from Pennsylvania 's anthracite region. And now we
>> have "Joe the Plumber," the Ohio handy man directly addressed by both John
>> McCain and Barack Obama in their final TV debate on Oct. 15.
>>
>>
>>
>> What's bothering me, first of all, is the form of address itself. Unlike
>> Palin's beer-loving archetype, "Joe the Plumber" is an actual person, with a
>> real last name (It's Wurzelbacher and, yes, that might be hard to pronounce
>> correctly on national TV.) Yet when someone like Joe Wurzelbacher briefly
>> commands center stage—as a random stand-in for all workers (or, more
>> accurately, would-be small business owners)—he is immediately shorn of his
>> full identity and referred to by his trade instead.
>>
>> To the extent that Wurzelbacher is now getting full name treatment in
>> post-debate media coverage, he may soon regret it. Already, it's been
>> reported that he's non-union, un-licensed, never completed his
>> apprenticeship as a plumber, and has an unpaid state income tax bill of
>> $1,200. In 2006, he was earning just $40,000 when he got divorced. The
>> two-man plumbing firm that employs him operates out of the owner's home and
>> doesn't generate enough income for its taxes to be raised under Obama's
>> plan. It would appear, therefore, that Wurzelbacher has bigger, short-term
>> problems than buying out the owner for $250,000, far more than the business
>> is worth, and then, if he ever earns more than that in a single year in this
>> economy, getting a slightly larger tax bill from Obama!
>>
>>
>>
>> Now if McCain and Obama were talking about a better-credentialed building
>> trades guy who only goes by one name—like "Jesus the Carpenter"--surname
>> dropping wouldn't seem so patronizing. (The Democrats, at least, seem to be
>> invoking His name somewhat less than they did earlier in the campaign.) But
>> there's still a glaring double-standard at work here. It says a lot about
>> how working class people get talked about by politicians of both major
>> parties when they're not being made to disappear entirely into our vast
>> "middle class" (which, at times, seems to include 95 per cent of the
>> population).
>>
>>
>>
>> When the names of the high and mighty in America—bankers, big businessmen,
>> professors, or generals--come up in prime time debates or on the campaign
>> trail, they never warrant the same disrespectfully informal and/or
>> stereotypical treatment. For example, when Obama discusses the impact of his
>> tax proposals on a well-heeled Omaha investor (who's also his economic
>> advisor) and not a mere toilet-fixer in Toledo , he doesn't refer to him as
>> " Warren the Billionaire."
>>
>>
>>
>> Likewise, when McCain launches into his favorite refrain about "corruption
>> and greed on Wall Street," he never fingers the perpetrators by their first
>> names (or any name actually). And just think of all the possibilities there,
>> from "Richard the Bankrupt" at Lehman Brothers to "Alan the Enabler" of
>> Federal Reserve Board fame. Nor does McCain cite "Dave the General" when
>> he's striving for greater credibility on military matters in Iraq . And even
>> when he and Palin are warning us about that dangerous Chicago professor and
>> Obama neighbor, they never just call him "Bill the Terrorist." We're always
>> reminded of his proper name: William Ayers.
>>
>>
>>
>> So, if ex-Weathermen are entitled to have last names attached to their
>> first, isn't it time that our leading pols got a little less familiar when
>> addressing us ordinary folks, whether or not our real name is Joe? At the
>> very least, they could stop trying to put themselves and so many of their
>> fellow citizens into such silly, stereotypical, and ultimately meaningless
>> categories, based on our choice of  beverage, occupation, or spectator
>> sport. Among the hopeful signs associated with this year's presidential race
>> are reports from around the country indicating that voters are not allowing
>> themselves to be so easily pigeonholed. In fact, many seem poised to cast a
>> vote for a candidate who's own personal history doesn't lend itself to the
>> usual race, class, or ethnic profiling.
>>
>>
>>
>> With that positive development in mind, nothing would be more appropriate
>> than a ban on "Average Joeism"—for the rest of the campaign and any future
>> ones. Unless, of course, the candidates want to start addressing our
>> "betters" with the same first-name familiarity they've heretofore reserved
>> for us.
>>
>>
>>
>> *Steve Early* is the author of a forthcoming book for Monthly Review
>> Press called "Embedded With Organized Labor: Journalistic Reflections on the
>> Class War at Home." In any voter profiling of himself, he insists that his
>> last name be used. He can be reached at Lsupport at aol.com<lsupport at comcast.net>
>>
>>
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