helena said:
POC - how can you say this.....? are you trying to say that the class system is ok because its organic in a capitalist country......or are you saying that there is no real concept of class...just rich/poor and what school you went to......I think in certain spheres of our society it matters very much that you went to st andrews or sandhurst or wherever and whether your maw was an air hostess or a 'lady'. At certain levels our society is disgustingly class ridden.....I don't know if you saw the new Harry Enfield programme tonight when the city/eton types were taking the p*ss out of the scouser as their little odd servant creature to laugh at......truth is it was funny because its too close to the truth....after a decade of so called new Labour we are even more class ridden than ever before. the working class are the servants of the upper classes and are laughed at......shameful really.
Oh please. Even in the most socialist of societies, there will always be heirarchy because that is how things work. And to say we are 'more class ridden than ever' is absurd because social mobility means that changing one's standing is perfectly possible. And no the British system isn't ideal but it is getting WORSE because of this equality nonsense. New Labour and their silly obsession with getting as much of the country into higher education as possible, even if most of them are studying useless media degrees, whilst totally ignoring the importance of aprenticeships and skilled work. I am not a socialist because I believe everyone is equal, but because I believe in a welfare state and because I dislike excess. The British system has been so comparitively wonderful because along with a class system based on old families, goes a certain dignity and moral code and education standard. Don't automatically bash the class system before thinking about the implication of what you are saying.
Compare that to America, where they pride themselves of not having a class structure, but instead they have the most vulgar obsession with money. A class system based on money and acroutrements means you get these nouveau Texan oil inbreds running the country. Of course I prefer Cuba where most people aren't rich but hey ho ya know? My whole life, by some twist of fate, I have landed up in places which are dominated by the upper and upper middle classes. And there is absolutely nothing spiteful or superior about them. The system is wrong but the people are [more] decent because they are well educated.
I think when you talk about the working classes being dominated by the upper classes you are making some crucial errors. The working class and upper classes are the minority. It is the bourgeosie who are the force to be reckoned with. Secondly, nobody thinks this way in this country. It is the age of vulgar Americanisms and the age of celebrities. Chelsea girls and East End girls are united in their quest to resemble Kate Moss. Awful awful.
And let's not get swept away into mindless pseudo-socialism either. What they have done to the house of Lords is ghastly. On the surface it appeared the the government were trying to make Lords a centre of equality and equal representation. In actual fact they were increasing the power of their elected dictatorship. The Lords was the one thing they couldn't buy. Though Blair and Levi well tried. If the traditional hereditary Lords didn't exists, then they didn't need to jump through these loops.
So basically, give this socialist the class system, the monarchy and hereditary peers anyday. The alternative is far more insiduous.
That would be every newpaper editors dream
