class consciousness Charles Brown charlesb at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us Sat May 9 10:51:49 PDT 1998 Previous message: social science production (was: Dark Sides of Next message: social science production (was: Dark Sides of 'Solidarity'?) Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] Search LBO-Talk Archives Limit search to: Subject & Body Subject Author Sort by: Reverse Sort Greetings fellow Detroiter ! I'll take a stab at your questions >>> Richard Gibson 05/09 1:41 AM >>> I am new on the list and concerned that I raise an issue already thoroughly hashed out, but if not: If the working class was fully class conscious, given what we know about the failures of socialism as we knew it, Chas. -What exactly are the failures of socialism as we knew it ? You are speaking of European socialism I take it. since you use the past tense and there are still China, Viet Nam Cuba and Korea. what would the working class know? Chas. -The working class would know that the establishment of socialism is a multigenerational, epochal process with ebbs and flows, two step forward, one step backward, and other things. They would know that the rank and file must step up and govern itself, with knew forms of proletarian democracy. What questions would the ruling class be unable to answer--or feel desperate to mask? What central issues should egalitarian democratic educators see as centripetal? Chas. I have to think about these a little more. Best, rich Rich Gibson Director of International Social Studies Wayne State University College of Education Detroit MI 48202 http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/index.html http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/meap.html Life travels upward in spirals. Those who take pains to search the shadows of the past below us, then, can better judge the tiny arc up which they climb, more surely guess the dim curves of the future above them.