Inverse snobbery

[Phanerothyme]

I think you might like "Making of the English Working Class" by EP Thompson.

 

Definitions of class depend on who you're talking to. A marxist historian will say one thing, Burkes peerage another.

 

Some define class simply in terms of profession. In this country the Ad men and the government use the A-E system based on profession and disposable income.

 

I think the terms working class etc, have ceased to have any meaning beyond being loose stereotypes for sectors of society, whereas a hundred years ago your class totally defined what you could do with your life. That's still true to a certain extent, but class mobility is much easier now.

[cosywolf]

Working on my 'New Terms for Your Niche in Society':

I may be about to illustrate how much more wonderfully flexible my new system could be by personally dropping straight from Mostly Comfy, past Shoe Chewing, all the way down to Oh No This is Bad.

 

Everyone out there who said they didn't support charity - well, it's personal now. I'm coming to get you.

[DaBouncer]

I support charity, I support charity.... dont get me!

 

Incidentally, any jobs on offer for your charity?

[cosywolf]

Fancy joining the class Oh No This is Bad?

 

Actually there may be...in other projects. Try the Local Jobs Boards. I can't keep up with other projects stuff. Helps if you're good at Environmental stuff:P

[DaBouncer]

Local Jobs Board? And I'm damn good at environmental stuff thank you!

[chill]

I know people that aspire to be working class, people that aspire to be middle class and people that aspire to be upper class. I know people that would get offended if you labelled them as any of those things. And then there was Tania in Big Brother who said "I'm working class" when she clearly has no class at all.

At the end of the day, trying to bracket yourself or other people into any pre-defined stereotype is a pretty fruitless thing to do. You are what you are, people are what they are.

In an ideal world. we will one day live in a society where the contribution you make to the world around you reflects more upon you than the amount of money you earn or the upbringing you had or the job that you do. This is what John Major was referring to when he stood outside Downing Street and stated his aim of having a classless society, that is what Tony Blair was leaning towards when he came to power talking of creating a meritocracy. Unfortunately they both failed because it is a sea change in British attitudes that will take years to rectify.

[cosywolf]

Back to topic (I need a little emoticon that wags it's finger sternly)

 

Any more new terms for my new classes? Any guilty admissions to bigging up your lower class origins even if you don't have any?

[gloworm]

as someone said the the generally used ABC1C2 class system may have been of use in the 19thc early 20thc but has become completely meaningless.

An example is the term middle class which basically covers anyone from the most menial clerk in the dole office or poorly paid teacher to the public-school educated types with a couple of expensive houses and a family full of majors etc

This is obviously nonsensical and the vast majority of the former (the lower middle class)'s wider families will be generally working class and they will still have more in common with the upper middle class than they ever do with the upper middle class. Similarly most of the upper working class will feel they have nothing in common with those "below" them or the underclass...to use a politically incorrect expression.

 

I think the meaninglessness of these terms can be traced back to the accessibility to brighter members of the working class of grammar school places starting in the 1930s or 40s.

 

The redundancy of the term is shown in my own history as I suppose in their terms I myself was working class for the first nearly 30 years of my life - working on building sites, in factories and doing delivery jobs etc but since moving up here to go to university I suppose I've now joined the hallowed ranks of the middle class.

 

One final thing that always makes me laugh is the Daily Mails continual outrage over perceived damage to the "middle class" usually connected to private schools etc when its a fact that their readership is lower middle class with an scattering of working class of the type who have no connection with public schools. And the type of being who send their children to the public schools are the readers of the broadsheets who wouldnt be seen dead with what theyd see as a grubby little tabloid.

[Abdul]

Gloworm, your final paragraph makes interesting reading. It seems the Daily Mail, the Daily Express (owned by pornographer Richard Desmond) and the Times (owned by pornographer Rupert Murdoch) are all trying to out middle-class each other, but with limited effect.

 

Perhaps they are aware their readership is lower-middle class, but want to give their readers something to aspire to?

[*Twinkle*]

I'm definately from a working class background but people I know in real life don't believe me half of the time! I live in a stone built cottage you see and as its seen by others, it appears huge. (It isnt massive really, just 3 bedrooms) Some people at school used to think I lived in a mansion until I told them otherwise!