Books, Arts & Manners: A Word Edgewise

Boston “There is no doubt about it,” as a Marxist would say, “the masses are suffering from false consciousness.” To be explicit, recent events have demonstrated you can get more people to attend a Harvard raft race on the Charles River than a “Ground Zero” protest against nuclear policies. Ground Zero, an organization that was coordinating a nationwide week of protest, was simply ignored: eight people turned up for its monster rally in Utah.

For a while the apocalyptics had things pretty well their own way: while most folks were hibernating, they got resolutions favoring a nuclear “freeze” on the agenda of Vermont and other New England town meetings. Most of the electorate saw these as comparable to supporting apple pie and cheerfully passed them by voice vote.

JR

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John P. Roche

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Boston “There is no doubt about it,” as a Marxist would say, “the masses are suffering from false consciousness.” To be explicit, recent events have demonstrated you can get more people to attend a Harvard raft race on the Charles River than a “Ground Zero” protest against nuclear policies. Ground Zero, an organization that was coordinating a nationwide week of protest, was simply ignored: eight people turned up for its monster rally in Utah.

For a while the apocalyptics had things pretty well their own way: while most folks were hibernating, they got resolutions favoring a nuclear “freeze” on the agenda of Vermont and other New England town meetings. Most of the electorate saw these as comparable to supporting apple pie and cheerfully passed them by voice vote.