It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
A bit of an overgeneralization, don't you think? Obama, Perry, and Cain all talk about their humble beginnings. Hey, even the fairly famous Rush Limbaugh started off as a small town DJ.
Originally posted by openminded2011
The real problem is, the upper classes, the class that runs the country, is totally disconnected from the common people. . . . They do not understand the concept of financially living on the edge. And I do not even think its that malicious. Its circumstance.
I have some difficulty here. You seem to be saying that the two groups are equally isolated and equally dismissive of the other. I don't know. "Eat the Rich" signs do break down the isolation, but only to stick threats in the face of the other group.
And the top one percent is perhaps the most isolated group. . . . So you have two groups who have had almost no real contact and preconceived dismissive perceptions of each other. That is the real problem here. The rich do not see the poor as human beings and the poor do not see the rich as human as well.
But again, it is not equal. You point out that the rich don't think about the poor, but the poor think about the rich and call them evil and criminals who should be shot. It looks like the first move towards reaching mutual understanding is with the poor. Unless, of course, the movement doesn't want understanding between the two groups (which I now think is the case).
Also I think there is a tendency to humanize the people in your own socioeconomic group and to dehumanize the "other". The protesters are doing this by protesting against "wall Street" and the corporations. The rich on the other hand perceive the protesters as losers and dead beats. Neither side perceives the other as human. Something has to break though this for things to change. It is all a problem of perception. Changing perception is the only thing that will change things.