Class

Posted by Parson Thru on Fri, 05 Sep 2014

Not sure what I am again.

I often wonder what I’d be, if push came to shove.  Is it out of date and old-fashioned to talk about class?  About where I came from?  Where I am now?  Is it still class?   I don’t know.

Maybe it’s about education.  Life-chances and all that.  I look around here, at the people around the supermarket and see a lack of both.  Are they working class?  I don’t think they are anymore.

And some of the people I deal with now.  The other extreme – people who've denied their emotional self since first instructed and now don’t know how to find it.  Sham lives.  You don’t get so many of those down at the supermarket, but you might end up with a knife in your ribs.  Not sure which is worse, but I think we’re talking culture now.

My family used to scream and shout and from time-to-time would get physical.  Not sure that’s a great place for kids like me and my brother to grow up, but at least we knew what was going on.  I pity the kids in some of these households.  They need a degree in politics and communications by the time they’re six.  Media-savvy parents try to maintain an image of normality within a relationship of murderous resentment, kept going only by the economic imperative, career requirement, or with an eye on the cost of private education.  Keeping up appearances?

At least you can get your bearings when your mam and dad tell each other what they really think.

I’m tempted to think this is not peculiarly British or English, nor Scottish or Somali for that matter. 

I suppose it takes all kinds.  I don’t suppose I’ll ever fully adjust to what was then and what is now. 

I’ve travelled. Been wrecked. Washed up on a strange shore.  You can’t pick your locals when you do that.  The foliage always looks greener – and dry land is a bonus for a drowning man.

The trouble with educated arguments is they are just so controlled and become an exercise in logic.  There’s nothing worse than taking a lift from an educated couple who begin to bicker.  Before long, they're setting out propositions quoting clauses of the prenuptial.  My parents just boxed each other’s ears in the front seat.  You kind of knew where you were. 

Happy days.

Comments

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Sorry. It just keeps pouring out.

Parson Thru

Submitted by scratch on

Keep pouring Kev.

 

Submitted by celticman on

in emotional language class is always about fuck them. As working class you don't need me to tell you we're getting right and truly fucked up and blamed for everything from dog shit to air pollution, to that old favourite - poverty. Poor people deserver to be fucked over. Glad I got that off my chest. Fuck those rich cunts that fuck up our lives and take the credit for doing so as if it's a compliment.  
 

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

All true, celt, but is it / was it ever class? It doesn't work that way without class consciousness, which has all but gone, yet still people are being fucked over. I'm just not sure the remedy lies with one class or another rising against its oppressor. We've been there, done that and look where we are. The rich are fucking over the rich while the poor fuck over the poor and individual people / families are moving between the two positions all the time. I honestly don't know what the answer is other than to focus more on cooperation rather than winner takes all competition. I just know it's not getting any better. There seem to be more Range Rovers fewer Ford Fiestas.

Parson Thru

Submitted by scratch on

I'm sick of this reticence from you celt, just say what you think for once.

 

Submitted by celticman on

There used to be a believe that education was the answer. That as people became more enlightened they'd be able to see the mess we were in. That no longer holds true. It's a dog eat dog world has eaten all the other dogs. All that's left is the scraps to fight over. Sad.

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

This really should be done over a pint. Someone somewhere thinks it's a good idea to recreate the slums of Mumbai in order to invigorate the economy. The split now seems to be industrial-non industrial or salaried-non salaried. Although it's probably fair to say the class barriers have largely come down. Quick-witted thugs never did badly in tyrannies. Now they get unlimited financial reward, too. Personally, I think it's a good thing to educate everyone. I'd go as far as insisting it's a duty of all citizens to be educated. That’s the only way democracy is worth pursuing. And I do mean education, not vocational training.

Parson Thru

Submitted by VeraClark on

Parson, highly interesting read at personal level. Never know what I am either. My identity is mangled from having to squash my chameleon head into absurd class boxes whilst my mum and dad smashed each other round the head with broken biscuits and bokkles. Those biscuits were next week's dinner and bokkles don't feed families. Middle-class kids / rich kids / wealthy kids /privileged kids whatever you want to call those kids, well they absolutely tormented me for being very poor (we didn't got no car to beat up in, we had to walk everywhere, we beat up on streets) Unfortunately, for the emotionally defunct links of shit, my brains worked better than theirs. A tiny little bonus in a childhood of shafting. I don't think the world's changed that much. Class exists fiercely from what I can see.

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Great feedback.

Vera,

"My identity is mangled from having to squash my chameleon head into absurd class boxes whilst my mum and dad smashed each other round the head with broken biscuits and bokkles."  Absurd class boxes - that's my point.

I might be wrong, but Opportunity is the big difference these days to me.  My dad (who worked constant overtime to run a consequetive fleet of old bangers) hated it when I went to university at the age of thirty.  "You won't learn anything from books" (quote).  Why didn't he want me to go?  Didn't cost either of us a penny at the time (I ended up with a Student Loan).

If pushed, I'd say I'm mainly a Social Democrat with political and religious liberal leanings.  Our bit of world has become highly polarised, but that's another forum topic.  Are we opposed to wealth, or do we want better access to it?

I'm not eloquent enough to carry this on, so...

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178055

Still love them, though.

Parson Thru

Submitted by scratch on

Where's the 'Great Feedback' button when you need it?  

 

Submitted by VeraClark on

Adore mine, too and that's always the dilemma.

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

"Like"

Parson Thru

Submitted by David Kirtley on

Education isn't the perfect passport to a good life unfortunately. You've got to know what to do with it. Basically if you want to really succeed careerwise you've got to have something to aim for and have some kind of plan, otherwise you just end up drifting. It doesn't give automatic position in life, and isn't even respected all that much, because most of us are quite well educated.

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Good points David. And, boy, do I drift. Marie-Celeste in human form. Most? Maybe one third.

Parson Thru