The ISO held a meeting the other day at the University of Oregon campus entitled “Socialism: What It Is and Why We Need It”. About a half-hour into the meeting, a group of campus Republicans showed up, one of whom was carrying a US flag. During the discussion, someone made the point that the working class was created when peasants in Europe were driven off their land at the end of the Middle Ages. One of the Republicans said, “No one’s being driven off their land now.” A woman then pointed out that 600 farmers are driven off their land every day.
“That’s because they’re lazy,” said the guy with the flag.
Some people have it easy in life. They can sleep soundly at night, knowing that all the world’s problems are because people are “lazy”. If farmers are forced off their land, it’s because they’re “lazy”. If people can’t afford health insurance, it’s because they’re “lazy”. If people are homeless, it’s because they’re “lazy”. If a levee breaks and people’s homes are destroyed, it’s because they are “lazy”. The world is falling to pieces, but they can rest assured that it’s just a matter of people being “lazy”.
It was actually a good thing that Republicans showed up at this meeting. People got a chance to hear just how vacuous are the arguments that are made in defense of capitalism.
The Spanish Prisoner 
October 31, 2009 at 3:47 am |
When I worked on London Buses I remember just before an election the conservatives (out campaigning) were yelling and laughing at us on how they were going to put us out of a job, just like they did with the miners.
The rich have no compassion or understanding of how working people struggle from day to day. They don’t know what it is like to work three minimum wage jobs and have no health insurance.
Republicans are highly strung.
And so they should be.
December 1, 2009 at 11:15 am |
[…] to Marxist blogging. The comrade writes about a mixture of the political and the cultural, such as this gatecrashing of an ISO meeting in Oregan by morons from the Republican party, and blend of nostalgia and […]