1/8
Interesting article, even if there is much about it about which to be skeptical. But while this condition may be more extreme in England, I think contempt for their countries identifies the cultural elite in many places besides England.
unherd.com/2021/06/the-se…
Interesting article, even if there is much about it about which to be skeptical. But while this condition may be more extreme in England, I think contempt for their countries identifies the cultural elite in many places besides England.
unherd.com/2021/06/the-se…
2/8
And its a weird, almost provincial type of contempt, because, as the author notes, it often involves idealizing the people of nations whose cultural elites are no less contemptuous of their own people, and for the same reasons.
And its a weird, almost provincial type of contempt, because, as the author notes, it often involves idealizing the people of nations whose cultural elites are no less contemptuous of their own people, and for the same reasons.
3/8
In part this contempt is supposed to be justified as a reaction against and corrective to the previous idealization of the nation. But I think it really reflects a shift in the membership of the progressive "classes".
In part this contempt is supposed to be justified as a reaction against and corrective to the previous idealization of the nation. But I think it really reflects a shift in the membership of the progressive "classes".
4/8
For many years things like civil rights and progressive economic policies were championed, or at least strongly supported by, farmers, small business owners and various parts of the working classes (along with their allies), and in the US, for example, leading progressive...
For many years things like civil rights and progressive economic policies were championed, or at least strongly supported by, farmers, small business owners and various parts of the working classes (along with their allies), and in the US, for example, leading progressive...
5/8
intellectuals were more likely to be graduates of free universities like CUNY, or non-graduates, as graduates of elite universities: consider for example black civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s.
In the past several decades, however, it has been an elite...
intellectuals were more likely to be graduates of free universities like CUNY, or non-graduates, as graduates of elite universities: consider for example black civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s.
In the past several decades, however, it has been an elite...
6/8
education that seems above all to define the front line of progressive thinking. In that case perhaps it is no surprise that being progressive now has more to do with cultural politics than with the aggressive defense of the economically marginalized. After all once you...
education that seems above all to define the front line of progressive thinking. In that case perhaps it is no surprise that being progressive now has more to do with cultural politics than with the aggressive defense of the economically marginalized. After all once you...
7/8
have an elite education, it probably isn't a surprise if redistributing income downwards is no longer as much of a priority as it was for working-class or immigrant progressives, while raising cultural and social awareness has become more of a priority.
have an elite education, it probably isn't a surprise if redistributing income downwards is no longer as much of a priority as it was for working-class or immigrant progressives, while raising cultural and social awareness has become more of a priority.
8/8
Marx proposed that economic circumstances largely determine cultural and ideological beliefs. If that's true, then when the economic circumstances of progressives changed, it's no surprise that so did their priorities.
Marx proposed that economic circumstances largely determine cultural and ideological beliefs. If that's true, then when the economic circumstances of progressives changed, it's no surprise that so did their priorities.
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