Television and Class

As I watch very little television I will depart from the prompt a bit to discuss other topics.

Like many Americans I was raised to think in very conservative terms.  By that I mean the beliefs that unions are evil, the poor are lazy and criminal, the wealthy are to be revered, and government should keep its fingers out of nearly everything.  My father instilled most of these beliefs in me through repetitious mumblings and denunciations of liberal politicians as running this glorious country into the ground.  During my initial college years I encountered ideas that ran in direct contradiction to those I had been brought up with.  I quickly siezed onto these liberal ideologies, due not only to their logical appeal but also, no doubt, to my young adult's rebellious instinct.

Many of the original ideologies have been difficult to uproot, however.  The distrust of unions was so deep seated in my childhood psyche that I have had difficulty accepting them as necessary or helpful.  But the reading from Mantsios and particularly the Salon interview with Adam Smith have helped me to understand the logic of laborers working together.  I have seen in my own personal work experience the attempts by management to divide workers against each other.  Logically considering the power of "the master" and the upper classes it makes sense for labor to form unions to plead their case and increase their power collectively.  The "masters" are certainly collecting their power through mergers and tacit agreements.