Go Go Super Einstein Go!!!
So the most popular and respected scientist of the twentieth century was.... A SOCIALIST!!! Well, well, well, Republicans, interesting how the man we all agreed was the smartest of our times believed in a centrally-planned economy. It's kind of disappointing to me, but may be of note to you cold-hearted baby-eating right-wingers, that he spends
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now, for arrogant crap:
i've been thinking recently that the most divisive barrier between classes, social mobility, education, and opportunity is language. back when i took a sociology class wherein we discussed language as an automatic catalyst for judgement, i chalked it up to a bunch of bullshit. yet another factor seeking to explain why hierarchies exist. (when really, nobody knows for sure why they exist; except self-convinced philosophers.) i mean, why in the hell would someone's speech be a real barrier? people can modify their speech patterns at will, right? no, people can't. your language develops in confluence with your upbringing, which is bound with your culture. and culture is virtually impossible to shake. trying to fake your way into a group that communicates in a manner they've cultivated all their lives is very, very difficult. it's a significant way we size each other up -- black people "talk white" when they're "articulate", for instance. einstein's essay could have said "people with money ain't givin out the shit they need to be givin out. people without money got to get money. the united states be twisted!" it would've gotten across the same message. but his essay didn't say that, because (i assume) he wasn't brought up in a familial/educational culture that communicated that way. and honestly, i don't know anything about einstein's education except for the legend/fact that he flunked second grade. but i do know that people brought up in a culture that encourages proper language get farther in life, and i know that they seem really fucking awkward when they try to talk plain. the same is true with the reverse case. it doesn't matter if you're an american with an appalachian dialect, or an indian with a dalit dialect. your speech is still going to be a huge barrier to class mobility.
my point, though, isn't that speech is the #1 reason why there are starving children in los angeles. my point is that there is no #1 reason; there is no "one way to eliminate these grave evils." there are far too many factors involved in our world's social system to blame its problems on only capitalism. the problem isn't the economic structure; the problem is, i think, more to do with ingrained ideas of good/bad and deserving/not-deserving that constantly operate outside the radar of academics, politics, commerce, or education. which i'm sure you'd agree with.
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-as you can hear here (hear! hear! har har)
http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/voice1.htm
Einstein spoke with a thick German accent tinged with Yiddish. This was a result of his middle-class Jewish German upbringing, and his relatively late emigration. In the essay he writes in a typically academic style that is still very much popular today. I think you hit the nail right on the head when you imply that I chose this essay not because it describes the pitfalls of capitalism and the advantages of socialism better than any other, but merely for the fact that Einstein wrote it. Indeed it is more or less a pedestrian essay made note-worthy by the fact that one of the most advanced thinkers of any time wrote it. I don't think I tried to hide that fact in my synopsis.
-I agree with your opinion that changing your pattern of speech is very difficult. I'd like to point out, however, that some few people find it very, very easy and manage to exploit it to their advantage. For example, many con artists, that guy from the police academy movies, drew... This doesn't necessarily have much to do with our current topic of discourse, but is interesting nonetheless...
-I like your final point about "ingrained ideas of good/bad and deserving/not-deserving" but I think you ignore the possibility that capitalism reinforces those ideas more than other comparible systems. Certainly there have existed in history systems that very effectively foster notions of deserving/not deserving (such as deified absolutism), while other systems have diminished those notions (such as communalism). I realize I'm being naively optimistic, but I feel that the power that we have as citizens of a democracy gives us a unique opportunity to change our capitalist economic system to one that would less effectively reinforce ingrained ideas of good/bad and deserving/not-deserving, i.e. socialism. Einstein is on my side, so nanny nanny boo boo.
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