Two Cheers For Yuppies part Two
I'll call this man James. I met him over 40 years ago.
James was a yuppie though that word hadn't been invented in 1973. He was studying to be an economist. "He's so clever. He knows so much," said the woman who was living with him.
She later became a famous media star. Frankly I preferred her to her boyfriend. And she was clever too. Yet James was bright.
Yet he was a horrible man who had complete contempt for most people. "Look at this bunch," he once said about a group of people at a party we were at. "Wow, they're really dumb." James is one of the reasons I don't want to praise yuppies too much.
Then there was another yuppie I knew whom I'll call Frank. He wasn't a nice person either. He studied hard to be a natural resources economist. He knew everything about the price of coal, iron nickel, copper and many other minerals. Yet Frank had no time for the people who worked in the mines.
He launched a personal crusade to cut the costs of the company he worked for. "Yes, we're laying off people," he proudly boasted in the 1980's. "our job is to keep profits up, which means keeping wages down. That's what business is all about."
He also made it a badge of honour to pay as little income tax as he could.
Another man I'll call Leon came to Vancouver's downtown eastside to meet a woman. Leon sat in this very poor area of the city in a run down cafe sipping a coffee some time in the 1980's. "You work here, do you?" this tall blonde 40 something said to an anti-poverty activist who sat at the same table as Leon. Leon shook his fine-featured face with contempt at the whole scene.
Leon was a lawyer who was an arch-snob.
So was a woman I''ll call Andrea. She met a man at a party in the 1980's. Years before this both of them had worked in a government office. Back then, this man didn't have his own desk, though Andrea did.
Andrea made a point of reminding the man how she'd always had her own desk. To her, this showed that she was a far better person than this other office worker. "You finally got your own desk, did you?" she asked. "I never thought you'd get one." Andrea was an accountant who clearly liked herself, but not too many other people.
The list of yuppies I've known could stretch around a half a dozen city blocks. Some of them were nice people. Many of them ended up in the co-op I live in. Yet other yuppies I've known were just horrible people. They worshipped the status quo and adored wealth and power.
Now we need yuppies. So much ot the technological innovation comes from the hard work of yuppies. They definitely know how to run the society and increase wealth in the post -industrial world we live in. Yet some of the yuppies I've known truly turned me off.
So two cheers for yuppies but certainly not three.
Tuesday 26 May 2015
Wednesday 20 May 2015
Two Cheers For Yuppies
Two Cheers For Yuppies
Many people I've met don't like yuppies. Now I can see why this should be. Yuppies are usually smarter than many other people and people don't like to feel stupid. Yet let's back track a little before we proceed and look at some history.
An American journalist first coined the term when he was covering the U.S. Democratic primaries of 1984." Gary Hart has all these young affluent people voting for him," he said in effect. These young Hart supporters were soon given a new name, made up from the first and/ or second letters of the words' young urban professionals'.Of course, the term 'yuppie' came in part from the 1960's revolutionary group namely 'the yippies' or the Youth International Party. And it in turn was derived from the term 'hippies'.
The yippies were led by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Like hippies, yippies smoked marijuana, dropped out of the system, dressed any which way, and made love wherever and whenever they wanted to. Yet unlike the hippies, yippies were revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the system.
"Kill your parents," Jerry Rubin urged young people in the late 1960's.
Yuppies, on the other hand, joined the system. They didn't want to overthrow it. Yuppies became stockbrokers, lawyers, doctors, urban planners and so on. They were the winners in society and one reason they ended up at the head of the line was that they were smart.
Take the housing co-op I live in. I moved in there in 1982. When I first lived there and for 20 years afterwards there weren't too many yuppies living there. The place erupted in problems. One reason for this was that most of us had little experience in running a 40 suite apartment building.
But just as important perhaps was that many troubled people lived in the co-op and none of them were yuppies.
One man used to bring home his lovers and sometimes beat them up. A woman had two children living with her and all three of this trio were dysfunctional. "I don't think that this woman should have been a mother," another mother said at the time and she was right. The two children, one boy and one girl, tore their apartment up. It cost us $8,000 to repair the damaged place. One of my neighbours was an alcoholic who was nice when he could get his hands on liquor. Yet when he couldn't, he turned into a horrible abuser.
We took pity on a disabled woman and rented her an apartment. This was a mistake. "She had a stroke and then got hit by a car,' someone told me. "Or maybe it was the other way around." In any case, this big chunky woman was a constant source of trouble. After many long years of disputes with this woman we finally evicted her.
We had to throw out other people too. One or two people couldn't pay the rent. Another man went to pieces after his mother died.And if we had problems with adults we also had trouble with children too.
One young man set off a fire in our mailboxes. An adolescent used to break into cars in our garage. A third young person entered her next door neighbour's apartment and stole money from the lady's coin dish where she kept dimes, quarters and nickels.
Family feuds nearly tore our co-op apart. One mother moved into the place after her son did. Soon she and the son's partner were at each other's throats. They nearly came to blows.
Many of these adults smoked cigarettes, drank whiskey or beer all the time and often played bingo.
Now I must be fair here. Many of the people who lived in our co-op in its first twenty years, caused us no problems at all. One trucker helped put together our annual budget. A landscape gardener saved us lots of money and was one of the hardest workers I ever saw. A woman who worked in a bank did endless work for the co-op and was a true co-operative person. And the list of non-yuppies who kept the co-op going, was huge.
Still, wherever we had a big problem with some body it's fair to say that that person was not a yuppie
Yet then in the 21st century, we had to take out another mortgage to repair our co-op and so we had to raise our housing charges. Rising rents drove most of the problem people out. Urban planners, economists, doctors, lawyers and professors have moved into the co-op. And now co-op life moves along much more smoothly.
"Don't put yourself down," one co-op resident told a new arrival. "You're a yuppie and we need yuppies in this place.".I, who at one time was an ardent socialist now realise that life with yuppie neighbours is easier than with dysfunctional members of the lower middle and working classes. Yet that doesn't mean that yuppies are perfect either.
I'll explain more on this topic in my next blog.
.
Many people I've met don't like yuppies. Now I can see why this should be. Yuppies are usually smarter than many other people and people don't like to feel stupid. Yet let's back track a little before we proceed and look at some history.
An American journalist first coined the term when he was covering the U.S. Democratic primaries of 1984." Gary Hart has all these young affluent people voting for him," he said in effect. These young Hart supporters were soon given a new name, made up from the first and/ or second letters of the words' young urban professionals'.Of course, the term 'yuppie' came in part from the 1960's revolutionary group namely 'the yippies' or the Youth International Party. And it in turn was derived from the term 'hippies'.
The yippies were led by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Like hippies, yippies smoked marijuana, dropped out of the system, dressed any which way, and made love wherever and whenever they wanted to. Yet unlike the hippies, yippies were revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the system.
"Kill your parents," Jerry Rubin urged young people in the late 1960's.
Yuppies, on the other hand, joined the system. They didn't want to overthrow it. Yuppies became stockbrokers, lawyers, doctors, urban planners and so on. They were the winners in society and one reason they ended up at the head of the line was that they were smart.
Take the housing co-op I live in. I moved in there in 1982. When I first lived there and for 20 years afterwards there weren't too many yuppies living there. The place erupted in problems. One reason for this was that most of us had little experience in running a 40 suite apartment building.
But just as important perhaps was that many troubled people lived in the co-op and none of them were yuppies.
One man used to bring home his lovers and sometimes beat them up. A woman had two children living with her and all three of this trio were dysfunctional. "I don't think that this woman should have been a mother," another mother said at the time and she was right. The two children, one boy and one girl, tore their apartment up. It cost us $8,000 to repair the damaged place. One of my neighbours was an alcoholic who was nice when he could get his hands on liquor. Yet when he couldn't, he turned into a horrible abuser.
We took pity on a disabled woman and rented her an apartment. This was a mistake. "She had a stroke and then got hit by a car,' someone told me. "Or maybe it was the other way around." In any case, this big chunky woman was a constant source of trouble. After many long years of disputes with this woman we finally evicted her.
We had to throw out other people too. One or two people couldn't pay the rent. Another man went to pieces after his mother died.And if we had problems with adults we also had trouble with children too.
One young man set off a fire in our mailboxes. An adolescent used to break into cars in our garage. A third young person entered her next door neighbour's apartment and stole money from the lady's coin dish where she kept dimes, quarters and nickels.
Family feuds nearly tore our co-op apart. One mother moved into the place after her son did. Soon she and the son's partner were at each other's throats. They nearly came to blows.
Many of these adults smoked cigarettes, drank whiskey or beer all the time and often played bingo.
Now I must be fair here. Many of the people who lived in our co-op in its first twenty years, caused us no problems at all. One trucker helped put together our annual budget. A landscape gardener saved us lots of money and was one of the hardest workers I ever saw. A woman who worked in a bank did endless work for the co-op and was a true co-operative person. And the list of non-yuppies who kept the co-op going, was huge.
Still, wherever we had a big problem with some body it's fair to say that that person was not a yuppie
Yet then in the 21st century, we had to take out another mortgage to repair our co-op and so we had to raise our housing charges. Rising rents drove most of the problem people out. Urban planners, economists, doctors, lawyers and professors have moved into the co-op. And now co-op life moves along much more smoothly.
"Don't put yourself down," one co-op resident told a new arrival. "You're a yuppie and we need yuppies in this place.".I, who at one time was an ardent socialist now realise that life with yuppie neighbours is easier than with dysfunctional members of the lower middle and working classes. Yet that doesn't mean that yuppies are perfect either.
I'll explain more on this topic in my next blog.
.
Wednesday 13 May 2015
Maybe not only progressives die in plane and car crashes.
Last Part of 'Plane and Car Crashes Kill Progressives'
In this part of my blog I'm going to trash my own thesis.
My theories of a conspiracy or conspiracies that kill progressives may fall apart.
On one school day in February 1959 a harassed high school teacher in Montreal faced a revolt. Outside the day was cold and icy. Yet inside this woman's classroom, things heated up.
Her students in one grade ten class stood up altogether and remained silent for a few minutes. "What's happening?" the flustered tall blonde teacher asked the class. "What's this all about?"
This 20 something teacher had lots of trouble controlling her students in all her classes. And this particular grade ten class always caused her problems. Why were they silent now when all they usually did was chat, hum tunes, and talk when she tried to teach?
After five minutes or more of silence the students sat down and went back to creating their usual mayhem. One 15 year-old with slicked back greasy hair, said to the teacher, "We're remembering yeasterday, Miss."
"Yesterday?"
"Yes, yesterday three great singers died."
Yesterday was February 3, 1959. On that date three well known singers died in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. The three were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. the 'Big Bopper' Richardson. Their pilot died too.
The three singers's deaths was immortalized-sort of- in a song that came out a bit later called 'Three Stars Are Shining Bright'. As one of the classroom memorial leaders said later, "That song is just junk. And except for Buddy Holly I never liked any of these guys's music."
The students in their few minutes of silence were as usual just causing problems for their teacher. Years later, Don McLean remembered the three dead singers in his runaway 1972 chart topper called 'American Pie'. Frankly McLean's 'American Pie' was not one of his best songs either.
Yet to get back to my main point. Not one of these four dead people were progressives in any way, and certainly none of the three singers were. Nor was Patsy Cline who died about four years later in Tennessee on March 5,1963. In fact country music singers like Patsy Cline were and are very traditional people. Very very few of them buck big businesses, support peace movements or favour bigger social programs.
Jim Croce sang gentle songs about love and loss from a working class point of view. Yet Croce was no progressive either. He died in a plane crash in 1973 in Louisiana, alongside his pilot, his manager and four other people. The other six died too. None were left leaning folk.
One plane crash that did kill a very political person was the shooting down of a South Korean airplane on September 1, 1983. "This could cause a shooting war between the Soviet Union and the United States," a friend of mine said at the time.
For the plane carried 269 passengers including a very right wing congressman from the U.S. called Laurence MacDonald who came from Georgia. All 269 passengers died and it was a Soviet plane that shot down the Korean airliner.
This shoot down happened at a time of a renewed U.S.-Soviet Union Cold War. Then U.S. President Ronald Reagan loathed the Soviet Union. "It is an evil empire," he said. Luckily the result of this shoot down heightened Cold War tensions but no war erupted. Yet this plane crash involved a right winger and not a progressive.
So my theories about car and plane crashes that deliberately target progressives may be wrong. It's hard to prove. So I rest my case because the evidence of a right wing conspiracy that murders progressives in crashes can't be proved conclusively.
In this part of my blog I'm going to trash my own thesis.
My theories of a conspiracy or conspiracies that kill progressives may fall apart.
On one school day in February 1959 a harassed high school teacher in Montreal faced a revolt. Outside the day was cold and icy. Yet inside this woman's classroom, things heated up.
Her students in one grade ten class stood up altogether and remained silent for a few minutes. "What's happening?" the flustered tall blonde teacher asked the class. "What's this all about?"
This 20 something teacher had lots of trouble controlling her students in all her classes. And this particular grade ten class always caused her problems. Why were they silent now when all they usually did was chat, hum tunes, and talk when she tried to teach?
After five minutes or more of silence the students sat down and went back to creating their usual mayhem. One 15 year-old with slicked back greasy hair, said to the teacher, "We're remembering yeasterday, Miss."
"Yesterday?"
"Yes, yesterday three great singers died."
Yesterday was February 3, 1959. On that date three well known singers died in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. The three were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. the 'Big Bopper' Richardson. Their pilot died too.
The three singers's deaths was immortalized-sort of- in a song that came out a bit later called 'Three Stars Are Shining Bright'. As one of the classroom memorial leaders said later, "That song is just junk. And except for Buddy Holly I never liked any of these guys's music."
The students in their few minutes of silence were as usual just causing problems for their teacher. Years later, Don McLean remembered the three dead singers in his runaway 1972 chart topper called 'American Pie'. Frankly McLean's 'American Pie' was not one of his best songs either.
Yet to get back to my main point. Not one of these four dead people were progressives in any way, and certainly none of the three singers were. Nor was Patsy Cline who died about four years later in Tennessee on March 5,1963. In fact country music singers like Patsy Cline were and are very traditional people. Very very few of them buck big businesses, support peace movements or favour bigger social programs.
Jim Croce sang gentle songs about love and loss from a working class point of view. Yet Croce was no progressive either. He died in a plane crash in 1973 in Louisiana, alongside his pilot, his manager and four other people. The other six died too. None were left leaning folk.
One plane crash that did kill a very political person was the shooting down of a South Korean airplane on September 1, 1983. "This could cause a shooting war between the Soviet Union and the United States," a friend of mine said at the time.
For the plane carried 269 passengers including a very right wing congressman from the U.S. called Laurence MacDonald who came from Georgia. All 269 passengers died and it was a Soviet plane that shot down the Korean airliner.
This shoot down happened at a time of a renewed U.S.-Soviet Union Cold War. Then U.S. President Ronald Reagan loathed the Soviet Union. "It is an evil empire," he said. Luckily the result of this shoot down heightened Cold War tensions but no war erupted. Yet this plane crash involved a right winger and not a progressive.
So my theories about car and plane crashes that deliberately target progressives may be wrong. It's hard to prove. So I rest my case because the evidence of a right wing conspiracy that murders progressives in crashes can't be proved conclusively.
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