[ExI] geezer guard

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat

>
>> Will I am a prole.  A prole is anyone not currently employed by the government.

>...As commonly used 'prole' is often used in a derogatory fashion...

No worries Dan, I am here to rehabilitate that word.  Note the origin in Orwell's classic.  It was used in a derogatory fashion only by those who worked for the government, which was the point: after a time, political power replaced currency as currency.  People without political power were irrelevant, regardless of how much wealth they owned, how educated they were, what skills they had.  It was all about power.  

>... And it is not commonly used to mean 'anyone not currently employed by the government.' It's commonly used to mean a worker -- whomever said worker is employed by...

Well there ya go, a worker equals prole.  Worker equals good.  So... prole equals good.  No argument.


>> I am a geezer too.  So far it is a mild case fortunately.

>...Well, no one's getting any younger... yet!

I am working that.  



>...I think the deciding factor would be who needs it -- not class.

Regards,

Dan

Ja Dan, that is a subtlety I fear is mostly lost on American readers of Orwell.  A prole doesn't mean lower class, it means those without political power.  That was the warning Orwell was trying to communicate.  The outer circle non-proles had some power but little wealth.  They had access to some consumer goods the proles couldn't have, even if the proles were wealthy.  I see it as a backhanded commentary on communist society, where the party officials had western goods that they somehow attained, even if they didn't have much money.  It was all about political power, not money.

Political power could get things that money couldn't buy.

In the USA, we are getting more and more toward money being used to buy political power.  We are approaching a world in which we lose the things that political power cannot buy.  

We have collectively missed Orwell's lesson.  Anyone here who has not read Nineteen Eighty Four, please stop what you are doing and read it.  Understand what he is saying there.  It is a message for our times.

spike