Did it occur to her that it might be a good idea to figure out how to support her children before she had them?
Not that this necessarily matters, or any mother should be shamed for having children, regardless of the circumstances upon which they became a single mother, but I was married to a welder, who had a good job. I owned a house. We had two children. Then, he had an affair. So I left him and went back to school to better myself.
I started in social work, where there are a lot of good jobs, but found myself being taught how to fix people to conform to the system. I wanted to fix the system. That's how I fell in love with sociology, and why i decided to go for my master's degree.
But, like she said (about me)
If she’d only applied a bit more critical thinking to herself, she might be able to pay the rent.
Anyway, an awesome facebook group just popped up called "I blame Margaret Wente" with the caption
Margaret Wente believes that Occupiers are blaming the wrong people in identifying capitalism as a fundamental problem. She says "It’s not the greedy Wall Street bankers who destroyed these people’s hopes. It’s the virtueocracy itself. "
Well, if Wente can pick the "virtueocracy" to blame, I'm going blame her. And capitalism. But I'm especially going to blame her for her badly-argued, feebly-researched, mean, system-apologist excuses for "journalism." Because surely she is responsible for at least that.
Won't you join me? This week, whenever we identify some wrong in the world, some injustice, some oppression, some situation whereby some groups of people mysteriously end up immiserated in relation to others, let's blame Wente
Also, I will write more about the educational aspect of this either this evening or tomorrow!
Don't you hate it when people judge you although they don't know anything about you?
ReplyDeleteAnd what the hell?
"hey aspire to join the virtueocracy – the class of people who expect to find self-fulfillment (and a comfortable living) in non-profit or government work, by saving the planet, rescuing the poor and regulating the rest of us."
1. What is wrong with finding self-fulfillment by helping others? Imagine the whole world was made up of people like that!
2. How does she go from "saving the planet, rescuing the poor" to "regulating the rest of us"? Does she imply that the first two are bad? What is bad about regulation? And most important, what the hell is wrong with her?
Being targeted by some bourgeois journalist is a good thing: means they recognize, in general, that you're their class enemy! :-)
ReplyDeleteBut seriously... what is this "virtueocracy"? I can't stand these unmaterial, and ahistorical social categories that are just invented by lazy pundits who are incapable of understanding how society functions.
Despite Wente's piece being one of the most disgusting and shameful things I've ever read, what intrigued me most was how ignorant she is of her own logic.
ReplyDeleteLet's look at it this way (tongue and cheek): a small group of 'virtueocrats' selfishly engaged in conduct (i.e. grad school in sociology) that was to serve their own self-interest (knowledge, experience, social change, etc). By no real fault of their own social factors have left them with little options for how to sustain and proceed with their life and their life goals. So what should happen next? Well, the government should provide them with billions in bailout/stimulus money and the virtueocrats should be able to continue going on with their selfish pursuit. That is the logical outcome of Wente's position.
Do you disagree? Think about it this way: a small group of 'greedy bankers' selfishly engaged in conduct (i.e. creating financial speculative bubbles) that was to serve their own self-interest (capital accumulation). By a very real fault of their own social factors have left them with little options for how to sustain and proceed with their life and their life goals.
What did happen next? The government provided them with billions in bailout/stimulus money and allowed them to carry on doing what they do (exploiting people and resources).
Now, I might just be a grumpy graduate student in sociology, but Margaret Wente, do us all a favour- pull your bottom lip over your head and swallow.
Cluisanna, I was very confused about that jump as well… helping people means regulating others… maybe if you are a character in Atlas Shrugged.
ReplyDeleteJMP, I am quite amused by it as well… I wouldn’t have thought I was worth targeting, but then I was informed that I am a triple threat; a single mother, a student getting an arts degree, and a “union leader”!!!! And I googled “virtueocracy” and found a forced attempt to link it, historically, to a new class of highly educated people that believe they deserve the same rates of pay as those doing real work in the trades and helping business, but can’t find the work because it doesn’t fit in with capitalist goals or some such nonsense… actually, maybe it is truer than I originally thought… the problem isn’t the highly education liberal arts majors, however, it is capitalism!
And anonymous, you are absolutely correct, the level of hypocrisy in what she is saying is incredibly evident to anybody who is able to think critically. I think she is likely perfectly aware of it too… she is like the Globe’s fox news… her job is to convince the middle class that the poor are to blame for everything that is wrong in society. Cities are broke because police officers’ unions have negotiating dry cleaning vouchers! The economy has fallen because somewhere a single mother was working on a sociology degree! The horror!
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ReplyDeleteI was sickened and enraged by Ms Wente's despicable column and I applaud you for your political stand. I can't believe that a columnist in Canada's national newspaper would write such cruelly motivated drivel without actually interviewing her subjects and doing her homework, and get away with it. Sloppy journalism and evidence of an unethical, odious spirit at work, which must be combated.
ReplyDeleteWow you have a blog! Good on you! I just googled virtueocracy to see whether there is the counter viceocracy- and I found your blog. I read that piece by Wente and it has stayed with me for days. So that is how wealthy journalists view people who work for the government and study the soft sciences! Her verdict- study mechanical engineering and be more useful. Honestly what an awful argument. I am sorry that she used you to get her weak point across, but if you wanted empirical evidence for your sociology degree she's provided some!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I appreciate the support and kind words. It is sloppy journalism (can we even use the term journalism?) and an awful argument!
ReplyDelete