The Grouch Reads

The Grouch reads (badly, slowly....)


Someday I'd like to write an essay about reading badly.  I've done more than my share of it lately.
I've not yet sunk to the level of the Austrian student who complained that something was too long to read during a brief trip on the U-bahn,....however....


I've just got hold of a series of conversations between Richard D. Wolff and the journalist David Barsamian.


I had wondered if it was worth purchasing.  I've been listening to Wolff a lot lately and I had worried it would be too much repetition.  Nevertheless, I have bought the book, and seem able to imagine Wolff's voice as I read.  Nonetheless, it was worth getting it.  There are some details I hadn't come across previously, such as his analysis of what's going on economically in Mexico.


So, I can without qualification recommend this book.


http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100033850


I do confess, however, that I'm not quite sure that Wolff doesn't fly in the face of clear facts about blame and responsibility. We are all part of a system, and that sort of analysis is important, and importantly unlike anything one usually hears in the USA.  Nonetheless, there is a clear difference between the comfort and power of members of the .1 percent (or even the 1 percent) and me, or you.
I am not a fan of punishment.  However, if you simply talk about causality, I have much less ability to perpetuate the system than do, say, the richest 100 men in the USA.  They benefit more, and they must know what's going on----unless,perhaps, they are all psychopaths.  But, if they are psychopaths, then that point needs making.

(I am always attracted to the Socratic thought that people act badly from ignorance; can I believe it in the case of the one percent?  Surely they have access to more resources than I do?  What is wrong with them?  They cannot justify their privilege; they can only obfuscate.  So, how can they be innocent?  How can I believe they act ignorantly?  --Only if they are psychopaths, or have psychopathic tendencies.....)  Of course, no one will be permitted to have a Socratic conversation with such an individual.  That is one of the first things they buy with their money.