Joe (guy in the middle) lives one block away from me with a sale sign. Lives half the year and maybe all year around soon in Belize.
He just had a book signing in his hometown of Winchester.
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/04/joe_talks_about.html
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Joe talks about his roots and writing
After his talk last Tuesday at the Kelly Writers House in Philadelphia, Joe Bageant continued talking about writing at a nearby bar. He was joined by his host Linh Dinh (left), a poet and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, and by Teresa Leo (right), a contributing editor of CrossConnect and The American Poetry Review.
Text of Joe Bageant's talk at the Kelly Writers House in Philadelphia, Tuesday, April 3:
Thank you for the kind introduction Linh.
I've been writing for nearly 40 years. I've been a news reporter, a magazine writer and editor, and written a thousand puff pieces for celebrities of every imaginable sort. And now, at this late age, I found myself back in my home town writing about the poor and working poor folks I grew up with. Most of what I write is about class issues in America -- mainly because being born in lower class poverty leaves a person with a sense of insecurity and class awareness that remains for a life time, regardless of one's later success.
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/04/joe_talks_about.html
Before we go into the question and answer session, let me start off by asking you a few questions. Raise your hands in response.
How many of you see yourselves as members of an elite class in our society?
How many of you are college graduates or expect to graduate from a college or university?
How many of you believe the current administration's actions in Iraq and secret "black site" interrogation and torture centers around the world constitute war crimes?
The answers to all three of these questions work together in unison. For example, only 19% of Americans graduate from a bona fide university, so that makes you an elite, a person in the top fifth of society, educationally speaking. It also makes you complicit in most of our Empire's crimes both here and abroad. You see, the Empire cannot function without administrators, managers, teachers to instill its doctrine in the schools and universities, lawyers, MBAs, industrial psychologists to manage its laboring millions, economists to justify its economic rationale, reporters to write its news broadcasts, and a host of other professions and semi-professions to regulate the Empire's domination and corporate profitability, both nationally and internationally. And they come from this 19% or 20% who graduate from our legitimate universities. I call them the catering class, or capitalism's house niggers. Class anger makes some of us see things that way.
OK, now how many of you think America has become an empire causing much harm to the ecology of the planet and rest of the world?
How many of you feel that the American lifestyle, that is to say, home, car, media, clothing, foods, entertainment and other services and commodities are essentially something we all deserve and are entitled to if we work hard to pay for them?
Really? America constitutes 5% of the world's population and consumes at least 28% of the world's resources. How fair is that to humanity?
Email Joe Bageant at joebageant@joebageant.com
He just had a book signing in his hometown of Winchester.
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/04/joe_talks_about.html
-----------------------------------------------------------
Joe talks about his roots and writing
After his talk last Tuesday at the Kelly Writers House in Philadelphia, Joe Bageant continued talking about writing at a nearby bar. He was joined by his host Linh Dinh (left), a poet and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, and by Teresa Leo (right), a contributing editor of CrossConnect and The American Poetry Review.
Text of Joe Bageant's talk at the Kelly Writers House in Philadelphia, Tuesday, April 3:
Thank you for the kind introduction Linh.
I've been writing for nearly 40 years. I've been a news reporter, a magazine writer and editor, and written a thousand puff pieces for celebrities of every imaginable sort. And now, at this late age, I found myself back in my home town writing about the poor and working poor folks I grew up with. Most of what I write is about class issues in America -- mainly because being born in lower class poverty leaves a person with a sense of insecurity and class awareness that remains for a life time, regardless of one's later success.
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/04/joe_talks_about.html
Before we go into the question and answer session, let me start off by asking you a few questions. Raise your hands in response.
How many of you see yourselves as members of an elite class in our society?
How many of you are college graduates or expect to graduate from a college or university?
How many of you believe the current administration's actions in Iraq and secret "black site" interrogation and torture centers around the world constitute war crimes?
OK, now how many of you think America has become an empire causing much harm to the ecology of the planet and rest of the world?
How many of you feel that the American lifestyle, that is to say, home, car, media, clothing, foods, entertainment and other services and commodities are essentially something we all deserve and are entitled to if we work hard to pay for them?
Really? America constitutes 5% of the world's population and consumes at least 28% of the world's resources. How fair is that to humanity?
Email Joe Bageant at joebageant@joebageant.com
