Published on 12, July, 2020
I was brought up to believe that we are divided socially into classes:
1. Working class.
2. Middle class.
3. Aristocracy.
I also read decades ago that classes were less relevant and were disappearing.
I'm curious as to what others think so here are some questions:
1. What class were you born into?
2. What class are you now?
3. Do you believe in 1 and 2?
4. ie Do you think class exists?
5. Do you think you can move class?
Also, without Googlerating, I'd be curious as to how these classes are defined.
I've tended to think of them as not only to do with our financial situation, but also to do with tastes, interests and education.
With regard to me, I was born working class and ?probably? still am.
That is very difficult to answer. Class in the UK has become less pervasive, but it still informs everyday life. In Marxist terms, most of my ancestry would have been from the 'labour aristocracy', that is relatively well-paid craftsmen who had served apprenticeships. I also have a couple of Victorian 'Masters', who were industrial employers, a foundry owner and a coal mine owner, in my ancestry. I would say, overall, that I have working class origins. I certainly wasn't privately educated. What am I now? I was a trades union activist and am broadly Socialist in political outlook. However, I was a professional scientist and hold an academic doctorate, I've even been to a Buckingham Palace garden party; does that make me middle class? I rather prefer the Continental viewpoint which would put me in the intelligentsia, somewhat outside the class system. Though, in the UK this isn't really a fully recognised part of society.
Great answer Martin. I long to live in another country. France seems like it might be going in a direction that ends with the overthrow of President Macron. I've also been getting back into French Cinema this year. I'm just bored of the UK. I think there are many aspects of the UK that may never change.
I am rather Francophile by inclination.
Good on you. Some great movie Directors, Writers, Philosophers and Footballers have all been French. I intend to learn more about the French.