Random question but why do middle class people pretend to be working class when there not

I know a few and it's really annoys me for some reason no idea why it greats on me either being from a middle class back ground myself but unedcuated so have to do a working class job when I do get back into one. Think id discribe myself as mudle class. I say be proud of your class and hertige why hide it out of fear or embrasment no matter what class you are and those who denigh there even is a class system are usually the ones who hate people for there class.

Parents
  • I think that the formal class system is being steadily eroded in the UK, but at the same time wealth inequality is increasing. This leaves many people unsure of their position in society. Things are in flux. In many countries, France and Germany for example, intellectualism is respected and intellectuals are seen to sit largely outside the class system. I think of myself primarily as an intellectual, but this garners no respect in the UK and is not considered a defining social characteristic. I have been described in print as a "Marxist patrician", so I might as well identify as that.

  • Yeah but why should those who didn't succeed gain extra wealth from those who did. I accept I've made my bed and will lie in it as I didn't so well at school but don't believe in the system where you rob from those better off just to give to the poor. Some people succeed in life some don't that's democracy. Otherwise your governing a comunist society where the rich stay rich but the middle and working class remain worse off than before. Grass is never greener on the other side even if you think its like saying I'm poor so everyone ellse should be. Be no point in further education or better paying jobs either

  • I think that an enlightened society should take care of the less fortunate people in it, but also that hard work and merit should be rewarded. The extreme logical extension of a belief that the successful should not support the less fortunate, is the Nazi extermination of the disabled, including autistics. Why should society look after those who cannot materially contribute to it? Much of the wealth in this country is in the hands of people who inherited it, people who did not succeed in anything, other than in being born advantageously. The Duke of Westminster is worth over £10 billion and was the richest person under 30 years of age in the world . As far as I can see he has personally done nothing to merit having even a tiny fraction of this wealth.

    Marx envisaged the countries most likely to have a Communist revolution to have been highly industrialised nations, specifically the UK and Germany. Unfortunately, the countries that had such revolutions were Russia and China. Both were huge, largely agrarian, peasant societies, knowing only despotism as a form of government. That Communist government became despotic in both, is not surprising. As proof of this, Russia overthrew its Communist government, had a few years of quasi-democracy, then went back to being a despotism under Putin. Despotism in Russia is due to the country and its history, not the ideology of its leaders.

  • The Industrial Revolution was a double-edged sword. For all our advancement, the payback was Trade Wars. Then, along came taxation and regulation to the Nth degree.

    For every inch of progress, there was a greater recoil. 

  • People also tend to be more friendly and polite in the country.  When hiking, complete strangers say a smiling hello to me  in small villages.  No stranger says hello to me in the city streets, if I said hello to a complete stranger in an urban street, I would risk a confrontation and possible violence.

  • Sao Paulo? That's very specific!

    We definitely need healthier lives these days.

  • Urban Life has become too much like Sao Paulo. Shanty towns around the well-off regions.

    Smart Cities would make this even worse. It'll practically implement a parallel universe of people living vacariously about the latest technology.

    The Countryside produces better workers, and healthier people. But we're being priced out because we're not in a Potemkin Village. 

  • Good point. We are being fooled to believe we don't need others. We can have a million social media friends can't we...but who can we call when we need practical help at home? Social media friends are hundreds of miles away!

    I agree that autistic people are suffering more now days...due to lack of social rules to follow- we are lost in mysterious unwritten rules that keep changing. Everything is uncertain and it's sending us nutty. We work best in small communities where everyone knows us and our idiosyncrasies. 

    It's funny, I'm not a specialist at all, I have lots of interests and they keep changing.

  • I kind of agree with you, but today's society is such that we don't need other people to survive. We can get anything we want at the click of a button and it will be delivered the next day. Therefore everyone is living on their own track, unaware of other people.

    Useful observation, but I'd refine to say we are encouraged to believe that we don't need other people. We absolutely do, socially and practically, and there's nothing less personal than the (easily monetised) click of a button.  I actually think this is more true of autistic people, who are suffering because of atomisation of society, because we are natural specialists, and specialists work within a social context.

  • I know but most people don't know they need farmers and manufacturers etc. They can't see the chain of production and assume it all just magically appears. Believe me this is true. There are a lot of stupid people out there.

    Your comment about the local communities is spot on. This is a unique time in human history when most people can do exactly what they want with no consequences e.g. social media. Hence all the extreme behaviour we see everywhere. Where this leads, I dread to think...

  • I certainly need farmers and manufacturers etc., or I would quickly die. But the idea of close-knit local communities has largely disappeared. The social consequences of the expressed ideas and actions of the individual are often not concrete now, in the way the disapproval of a local community was through most of history.

  • I can't even begin to guess what you mean by this statement. Who am I selling out, and to whom am I selling them? Have you heard of the term 'altruism'? You haven't engaged with my explanation of it. 

  • I kind of agree with you, but today's society is such that we don't need other people to survive. We can get anything we want at the click of a button and it will be delivered the next day. Therefore everyone is living on their own track, unaware of other people.

    Hence the selfishness of large groups of people these days e.g. anti maskers, antivaxxers. They know that they can do what they like and humans will still survive, so they only care about themselves.

  • Good luck to you then by all means go ahead and sell us out but don't say I didn't try to save you.

  • No, humans have evolved altruism. It is found in all societies, because in our evolutionary past people who accepted help but did not reciprocate were shunned and, as a result, had fewer offspring. They still exist, sociopaths and the like, as a small minority, but they still run the risk of being shunned.

  • An enlightened society. No offence but have you been living under a rock or have you just been incredibly sheltered and fortunate from the harsh realities of this world. If people were left to there own devices the world would depend into chaos an anarchy. People aren't kind people aren't helpful people are out for themselves. Everyone's trying to get one up on eachother all the time. 

Reply
  • An enlightened society. No offence but have you been living under a rock or have you just been incredibly sheltered and fortunate from the harsh realities of this world. If people were left to there own devices the world would depend into chaos an anarchy. People aren't kind people aren't helpful people are out for themselves. Everyone's trying to get one up on eachother all the time. 

Children
  • The Industrial Revolution was a double-edged sword. For all our advancement, the payback was Trade Wars. Then, along came taxation and regulation to the Nth degree.

    For every inch of progress, there was a greater recoil. 

  • People also tend to be more friendly and polite in the country.  When hiking, complete strangers say a smiling hello to me  in small villages.  No stranger says hello to me in the city streets, if I said hello to a complete stranger in an urban street, I would risk a confrontation and possible violence.

  • Sao Paulo? That's very specific!

    We definitely need healthier lives these days.

  • Urban Life has become too much like Sao Paulo. Shanty towns around the well-off regions.

    Smart Cities would make this even worse. It'll practically implement a parallel universe of people living vacariously about the latest technology.

    The Countryside produces better workers, and healthier people. But we're being priced out because we're not in a Potemkin Village. 

  • Good point. We are being fooled to believe we don't need others. We can have a million social media friends can't we...but who can we call when we need practical help at home? Social media friends are hundreds of miles away!

    I agree that autistic people are suffering more now days...due to lack of social rules to follow- we are lost in mysterious unwritten rules that keep changing. Everything is uncertain and it's sending us nutty. We work best in small communities where everyone knows us and our idiosyncrasies. 

    It's funny, I'm not a specialist at all, I have lots of interests and they keep changing.

  • I kind of agree with you, but today's society is such that we don't need other people to survive. We can get anything we want at the click of a button and it will be delivered the next day. Therefore everyone is living on their own track, unaware of other people.

    Useful observation, but I'd refine to say we are encouraged to believe that we don't need other people. We absolutely do, socially and practically, and there's nothing less personal than the (easily monetised) click of a button.  I actually think this is more true of autistic people, who are suffering because of atomisation of society, because we are natural specialists, and specialists work within a social context.

  • I know but most people don't know they need farmers and manufacturers etc. They can't see the chain of production and assume it all just magically appears. Believe me this is true. There are a lot of stupid people out there.

    Your comment about the local communities is spot on. This is a unique time in human history when most people can do exactly what they want with no consequences e.g. social media. Hence all the extreme behaviour we see everywhere. Where this leads, I dread to think...

  • I certainly need farmers and manufacturers etc., or I would quickly die. But the idea of close-knit local communities has largely disappeared. The social consequences of the expressed ideas and actions of the individual are often not concrete now, in the way the disapproval of a local community was through most of history.

  • I can't even begin to guess what you mean by this statement. Who am I selling out, and to whom am I selling them? Have you heard of the term 'altruism'? You haven't engaged with my explanation of it. 

  • I kind of agree with you, but today's society is such that we don't need other people to survive. We can get anything we want at the click of a button and it will be delivered the next day. Therefore everyone is living on their own track, unaware of other people.

    Hence the selfishness of large groups of people these days e.g. anti maskers, antivaxxers. They know that they can do what they like and humans will still survive, so they only care about themselves.

  • Good luck to you then by all means go ahead and sell us out but don't say I didn't try to save you.

  • No, humans have evolved altruism. It is found in all societies, because in our evolutionary past people who accepted help but did not reciprocate were shunned and, as a result, had fewer offspring. They still exist, sociopaths and the like, as a small minority, but they still run the risk of being shunned.