"t1gercat" wrote in message news:1117513371.077997.168100@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
>
> WakeUp2005@adelphia.net wrote:
>> On 30 May 2005 09:34:51 -0700, "t1gercat"
>> wrote:
>>
>> >A high
>> >school diploma does nothing to embellish the life of a bricklayer or
>> >landscaper, and no one who needs his or her grounds managed gives a
>> >flying damn whether or not the hedges are trimmed by a person with a
>> >degree.
>>
>> Wow, what a contrast to, say, the great Bronx-born (of German
>> immigrant stock) "longshoreman-philosopher" Eric Hoffer (author of the
>> much-lauded "The True Believer" and other prescient works). The
>> largely unschooled Hoffer, who was blinded in a childhood accident and
>> subsequently regained his sight, was a young man during the Great
>> Depression and made his way hitching trains to California during the
>> 1930s. He wound up as a longshoreman in San Francisco and while
>> working on the docks became an internationally acclaimed author,
>> well-known for his wide and varied knowledge and for authoring several
>> great books.
>>
>> The reason I'm referring to Hoffer is to point out the contrast
>> between a burly, unschooled longshoreman who, through sheer thirst for
>> knowedge and self-improvement, literally became, for a short time in
>> the 1960s, the USA's most celebrated honest-to-goodness philosopher.
>
> And Hoffer,whom I've read, was one in a million.
Actually, among the working class in the 1930s were quite a few
self-educated intellectuals, and lots of them were on the docks. Many
workers in those days were involved in unionizing. Many were
politically aware and involved. And many were well read.
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