10-29-2019, 12:25 PM
(10-29-2019, 08:21 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: "Class theory"... the very term is stupid. Is he talking about school classes? Then we could indeed speak of "class struggle".
The late Paul Fussell (my source for these categories of class from his book Class), defines class identity by occupation for most but also recognizes consumer preferences, intellectual pursuits, and consumer preferences. He largely dodges religion and ethnicity. He has his own questionnaire that establishes the class to which one belongs. A love for the archaic but reputable ordinarily establishes a high social position, and being addicted to the newest technology is suspect. Fussell wrote Class before personal computers, cell phones, tablets, and 200 channels of cable TV. Having a motorcycle in your living room is really low, but having a living room overflowing with books is impressive. It is obvious, of course, that great master paintings (replicas of the best-known great masters are social failures) indicate someone of very high status, and that mass-market schlock (velvet Elvis, dogs playing poker, Christ at the United Nations) isn't so impressive. A musical instrument associated with archaic music such as a viola or a pipe organ is more impressive than an instrument that can be used in a marching band; thus an oboe is "higher" than a clarinet, which is "higher" than a saxophone or trombone in a jazz ensemble, let alone an electric guitar. Genuine learning is high, and superstition is low. Blowing a few thousand dollars in Vegas is less classy (artificial, heavily associated with commercialism and mass low culture) than is spending much the same in Paris.
It is not cost as a rule. Natural fabrics such as wool are far preferable to orlon, rayon, and polyester. Gold is impressive if genuine, but gilded bathroom fixtures are tacky. What matters is not such symbols one has -- but instead what one wants.
Even if broke I have things to say about where I really belong. I have never had a motorcycle or a sailboat -- but I would probably enjoy a sailboat far more. I'd rather visit Prague than Vegas (I do not have Czech ancestry, but there is something attractive about a city not full of glass boxes... and I love the musical tradition of the Czechs), I use the computer to access antiquity. "Class" does not mean that one has the assets, but instead that one relates to certain things. Keeping a small aquarium in a bedroom? Sure. A big, expensive one complete with sunken galleons and opening clam shells? What? With fresh-water fish? Whatever you do, don't waste money on tickets to a boxing match. Opera or symphony? Sure.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.