Okay so theres this term that drives me crazy. This term is: middle class. I think the best proper use of this term is on Downton Abbey. This show is basically about the parlour talk and drama of a bunch of British aristocrats on the eve of the death of the aristocracy as a social force in the UK. In the first season they are joined by a very wealthy young man who is a banker and yet they all look down their noses at him and treat him as more or less beneath them. So this banker guy is a new sort of creature, his money didnt come from having a title, it came from owning businesses. What is different about the world of Downton Abbey is that largely the guys who own businesses have pushed out the old feudal guys who largely inherited land and titles. Thats partly why everyone in our world walks around saying silly things like we are all middle class now. Because its a business mans fantasy that we are all in business, one of the few nice things about the aristocracy was because they didnt compete they were actually strikingly honest. A business man will treat you like an equal but let you sleep under a bridge. An aristocrat will treat you as a social inferior because you are one. So heres the thing, the aristocrats, those people are the upper class. The banker, hes the middle class guy. Then there is the help, those people are us. Even if you make mad stacks of cash in the tar sands, or work at a desk and wear a suit to work, the vast majority of us are the help. Downton Abbey is actually a pretty good microcosm of our own society and even though it is written by a Tory it is probably the most honest show on class in wide circulation in years. So yeah, you arent middle class even if you have a nice car, even if you have a nice home. Odds are you dont manage a large British bank, odds are you probably live paycheck to paycheck like the rest of us and if you got fired tomorrow you would be doomed. That is the essence of working class existence and in exchange for that insecurity we get the privilege of pretending we are just like them. But we arent, were just the help.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 17:32:19 +0000
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