The statement seems curiously dated to me, like companies
that are still into quality circles because American
companies must imitate Japanese corporate culture or
perish.
With the ongoing shrinkage or
outright collapse of corporation after corporation, I'm
encountering lots of middle-aged, middle-class,
college-educated people who are newly minted independent
operators or partners with one or two others. I know someone
with a thriving salary administration business, someone who
scans documents for a living, someone who carves songbirds. I
don't personally know any PIs, but they are around; they're
sued or present evidence every so often, according to the
local newspapers.
Joy, self-employed, who'd have a whole lot of trouble
submitting to a corporate yoke at this stage
Larry Newton <
ldnewton2@attbi.com> noted:
> From the Thrilling Detective website, I saw the
following (in the
"Thoughts
> on the Future of the Genre"
> http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv136.html
page):
>
> "In the corporate culture of late-twentieth century
America, an
independent
> operator is a loser. (Freelance writers like Block
know this as well as
> anyone does.) The private eye, that seductive image
of incorruptible
> independence, just doesn't correspond to our current
sense of ourselves.
In
> 1950 Chandler wrote," The private eye is admittedly
an exaggeration--a
> fantasy. But at least he's an exaggeration of the
possible." Not anymore,
> I'm afraid.".."
>
> Anybody care to elaborate on this? Agree or
disagree? What is the
"current
> sense of ourselves"? I believe that if we (as
Americans, presumably)
don't
> see ourselves as independent operators and
incorruptible, this is a
> sea-change! Have we Americans (presumably) altered
our Weltanschauung
> ("world view")?
>
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