[Peace-discuss] Mean Streets (2) (David Sirota on Populism, too)

[Morton K. Brussel]

Still seems pretty imprecise. Chomsky uses the word "roughly".  20% ±  
10%?   One should look at the statistics and questions from which  
these numbers arize. Moreover,  the upper 20(±10)% would have to be  
broken down rather then used as a monolithic grouping. For example,  
those I've known in the university aren't engaged a hell of a lot in  
public and economic affairs.

Like economics, political "science" is a pretty soft science.

--mkb

On Apr 26, 2009, at 3:57 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> Chomsky: "The 20 per cent figure is not mine. It is a standard  
> notion in political science called the 'political class', the class  
> that is actually active in public and economic affairs. This roughly  
> constitutes about 20 per cent of the population. From the point of  
> view of the propaganda or the doctrinal system they are a different  
> kind of target than the rest of the population..."