Class? (long) (602 hits)
Category: GeneralLabels: Intelligent Design
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Submitted by YELLOW-MAN ® (View user info) at 2005-11-18 15:18:57 EST
For some time now, a question has been plaguing my mind. The question being, what is class? I don't mean class in the sense a class room, no I mean class in the sense of Upper, Lower, and middle. Meaning the social structure or hierarchy of society. The reason such a question has plagued my mind is because of something a former girlfriends mother said to her in reference to me. She told her that she couldn't wait for her to break up with me and get with someone more her class. Now ordinarily that is something that would offend most people. Sure I took it with a grain of salt but I wondered why she would say such a thing. Well there are many reasons, one being she was just a bitch. That's one I thing most people would agree with me on. Well I didn't mean "Why" as in that way why. I meant why should it matter and why class of all things? I mean consider my appearance at the time, I had long hair, always had a band t-shirt on (metal usually) and wore a trench coat. Of all the things that bothered her it was something like class? Of course I realize that the clothing you wear and the way you present yourself is a factor determining class, I just never figured that was the reason behind her judgement of me. I always figured it was because of the neighborhood I lived in and the fact that my Mother was divorced.
Yeah well the question made me persue sociology to a great degree. Sociology deals with the whole "Class" study and they do so in a very interesting way. I took a class in sociology my Jr, year in high school and I learned so very much because I had probably the best teacher of my entire grade school life teaching it. He was an awesome teacher and I learned so very much from him. I know the students in my class underestimated him and they obviously didn't listen as much as they should've. But I got an extrodinary amount of knowledge from the class (speaking in terms of a class room now heh). But I did take some notes and I did post this on ubersite way back when (here's the link http://www.ubersite.com/m/28845), the definitions of class. And i'm glad I did because i'm very certain I lost the original notes I took. But here are the terms of class from back when I took Sociology.
Upper Class - In America the Social Class that is made up of families who own large amounts
of property from which they derive a great deal of authority.
Corporate Class - The Social Class consisting of people who have a great deal of Bureaucratic
authority in major corporations and in government.
Middle Class - The Social class that comprises people who own realatively little property but
whose occupations provide them with high to middle income,prestige,authority.
Working Class - The Social Class that is composed of people who own little or no property whose
jobs give them middle to low income and prestige.
Lower Class - The Social Class that comprises people who dont own property who frequently have
no jobs, and who have no authority or prestige.
Class is also determined by where you've grown up, the class your parents fall under,
the area you live in, the language you use, the way you dress, and the kind of people you are friends with.
So give all of those factors thought when thinking of what class you actually fall under.
That was pretty much all I had to offer back then on the subject of class. I didn't know much but I knew what I read was important and tried to let as many others know as well. And the fool that I was I decided to post it on uber but, I got flamed as you might of guessed. But it has been something that has been an interest of mine. Mainly because they say all men are created equal (and women for all you feminists out there). But obviously if such barriers exist, this is not the case. If I can't get into a country club because of how much I make or the way I dress, then clearly someone doesn't believe I am their equal. If I get strange looks at a restraunt because I stand out with the garments I chose or perhaps the way I look in general, then clearly I must not be equal in their eyes. Either way, equality is something that obviously can be bent to mean many different things. And that is why it has interested me. I was spoon fed at birth that I was just the same as everyone else. But, there's always an exception to everything. And the Hierachy of class is that exception.
I think one point I should make here (and this relates trust me) is something my grandfather said. My grandfather grew up in St Louis Missouri back in the 50's and 60's. He grew up in a bad area of St Louis and had quite a rough life. I could dedicate an entire post to some of the stories believe me, they're that interesting. But I do recall he told me about the unfair treatment the cops tend to do. See you always hear about different things that cops do, some do drugs on the side, some sell drugs and other illegal activities. But i'm not talking about those sorts of things, i'm talking about something that was perfectly legal and was done for quite some time. Now it may not be done today I honestly have no idea if it is, but back then it was. They called it being put in "Key". See the thing is a police station can only legally hold you for 72 hours. Well what they would do when they put you in key was they would send you to another precinct, saying they have you under investigation or some bogus crap like that.
And you see they could legally do this, mainly because the people they did it to had no money. They were dirt poor and pretty much couldn't fight back with lawyers or the law. So, obiviously based on that, money and class does have some importance. Do you think that they would've done the same to Michael Jackson because he wouldn't confess? Of course not, Michael Jackson is too well known and he has millions of dollars. He is of a higher class so if something of that sorts were done to him, then the walls would literally have come crashing down. And I didn't use that example because he's black and because there's always been this stereotype of black people and the cops. No, the cops of my grandfathers generation put anybody pretty much that pissed them off or wouldn't comply in key. Not just people of African descent. Racism might of been a factor in some instances, but just as many people of other races were put in key as well. But more to his point. He said to me once that "You're only entitled to rights if you can pay for them." Pretty much meaning if you have money. So that really says a lot.
I'm happy to tell you my grandfather moved out of the slums and is a self made man pretty much. He could've turned out a lot worse given how he grew up. But he made it and he did so through hard work. See, he worked his way up in the Class hierarchy system. He came from low class and went to working class. Now i'd like to say, because he's my grandfather and I care for him very much, he's probably upper middle but considering how much work he's done and how much he knows about repairing things, he's a "Working class hero" as John Lennon would put it. And my father further upped himself in the whole class category. You see my father came from parents of a working class and gradually made his way up. My father was born into a working class family and then became middle with the college degrees he's received. But now that he's gone through medical school and become, not just a doctor but a chiropractor as well, someone of the upper class. Well to be quite honest, I think he's upper middle, maybe lower upper if that makes any sense. And I say this because he is divorced and he doesn't live in a mansion and drive a BMW. And yes beind divorced affects your class status. You go down a bit.
But that side of my family has all that interesting history behind it. So many shifts in the classes they reside in. And because of my father, the kind of work he's put into his craft. I myself am of a higher class than you would probably expect. Now i'm not boasting or anything i'm just simply saying. To be quite honest, with how things are with me right now, I think i'm lower middle if anything. And I don't want to get too personal about it because the things that affect that reason are extremely personal and things I may share at another time. But one factor in particular is that I come from a divorced couple. That definitely dropped my class points so to say. And it wasn't just that but it's where I grew up. I grew up in a poor side of the city I live in. And I went to schools that well weren't the best, they weren't the worst either, but they were nothing like the ones I went to later on. So you see, in my family alone there are many examples of the class structure. And it fascinated me to learn this. So I pressed on the more I could relate to the topic.
I told my mother about what my ex girlfriends mother said and she was a bit mad. She told my aunt, and my aunt the person that she is, had to research it and check everything out. In a way I did what my aunt did but I didn't do so to reassure myself that i'm superior or i'm just as good as you, no I did so because I wanted to simply know. See my ex girlfriends father is a General in the air force I believe and they lived in a very nice home. they had two cars and went to church. This made them probably upper class if anything. Possibly upper middle because of the area they lived in and because their children weren't in private school. And well the person that my aunt is, tried to reassure me that all was well and that I was just as good as them. My uncle put out a few books on the market. Nothing any of you would probably be interested in they're books on computer type things. And she said that because of him and my father being a doctor were just as good as them. And that she researched how much a General makes and that he made more. But did you notice something there?
She thought of money when she thought of class. So obviously, money plays a role (though i'm sure that was obvious). But it plays more of a role than most people think. But no, they weren't "Superior" so to say because of how much money they made. If that were the case, most drug dealers would be considered upper class people in America. Because I guarantee you, some of them have seen more money in one days time than some people see in their entire life time. No the whole class thing on their part came about because he is in fact a General in the Air Force, not just the size of his wallet but that is also a factor to consider. Being someone of such a rank is of high importance to America. It shows not only hard work but that you are a loyal and proud American. And that is called prestige all those in T.V. land reading this. And having that is vital to class. Can you have prestige and still be considered lower class? Yes, look at Mother Theresa, or Ghandi. They lived what most would consider a poor persons life (in the sense of not possesing a sports car and a mansion.) But they are well known and respected.
But you see it never really bothered me though. I knew she was a Bitch pretty much and I didn't really care. I wasn't going out with the girls mother, I was going out with her so what did it matter what she said. Albeit she could've made it very difficult seeing my ex heh. Class was always something for me that seemed like it was on paper if anything. Because at any time it can be stripped from you for any reason. Say your living the million dollar life style, you have a successful company and you have a beautiful wife and two kids. You are the American dream wrapped up in a neat little package. Well one day your company could go under, your wife could leave you, and your things may all be taken from you. Leaving you at a much less rank than where you were at. And like I said, it's something that's on paper. I mean anybody, and just about anybody can look like they're from a higher class. They could have a BMW, a Mercedes, and "Dress for success" but really be about 400,000 dollars in debt and living in a crappy apartment some where. But you see, if you see them in the streets you'll think of them as someone of importance based on their looks, and they will be considered of higher class because of this. And that's why social status always seemed like something that was on paper to me.
Well i've put up a good fight as far as this whole thing is concerned so i'll mention one more example and then i'm going to finish this off because this is a very long piece and if you're still reading I thank you. I read in this book called Beyond Civilization - by Daniel Quinn. I read about a people known as the Natchez. I'll tell you the passage and to be on the safe side, site my source.
"The Natchez, a people found by seventeenth-century Europeans to be flourishing in the area around modern Natchez, Mississippi, had a society rather midway between a federation of farming villages and a full-blown thocratic civilization like that of the Egyptians or the Maya. They had three classes of nobles and one class of commoners. At the top were the suns, the chief of whom was a living god, The Great Sun. Next came the nobles, then the honored people. The commoners at the bottom were Stinkards. What makes the Natchez experiment noteworthy is the fact that the classes were hereditary, but membership in them wasn't (or at least not exactly), because every member of the nobility was required to marry a Stinkard. This meant that every member of the Stinkard class saw its children rise a notch, while every member of the nobility saw its children sink a notch. Passing over the details, the effect of marrying into the Stinkard class was this, that the son of a Sun was a Noble (not a Sun), and the son of this Noble was an Honored (not a Noble), while the son of this Honored was a stinkard. But having reached the bottom of the social scale, this great-grandson of a sun was no eligible to marry a Sun woman, and their offspring would be a Sun, thus beginning the cycle all over again." (Beyond Civilization, Quinn, 83).
I found that absolutely fascinating, that tid bit there. No matter how high your status, one of your parents was a stinkard, or someone of a lower class. So as you can tell it works to keep everybody happy in a way. The only problem is you would run out of the "Lower Class" because everybody would be married into the higher class already. So that would definitely be a problem that would arise from such a system. But you have to admit it is rather interesting that such a thing could've existed. Unfortunately the Natchez people were Wiped out at the end of the 17th century by the French, and had they not been it would've been interesting to see what kind of things would've happened with them. I also read that because they had such problems with keeping the Stinkard class in supply, they would use captives as considered Stinkards. So you see had they been left alone they would've definitely spread out and started conquering the land on a much larger scale.
well this has gone on for a very long time, I did post this on pulsehead originally but decided i'd see if anyone on uber would enjoy it. Thank you for reading.
User Reviews
Submitted by joedaddy (user info) at 2005-11-19 17:27:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
without the middle class, you lose your democracy
+
-1, for mentioning the other place
Submitted by MightyForce (user info) at 2005-11-19 14:56:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by EAZEDZT (user info) at 2005-11-18 19:40:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
LOng ass post but well thought out, take a bow.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-11-18 15:33:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
if I want a long boring post, I'll click on one of Steven Durel's, thank you.
BUt, I like you, and you put some work into this, so have a +2.
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2005-11-18 15:27:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Long, but I liked it. The distinctions of class certainly haven't gone away, no matter what our school history books tell us. There will always be an upper and lower class.
I see the classes as inevitable, but not necessarily polarizing. There will be those born into poor families and with less opportunity, and those born into rich families and with the ability to pay their way into any college in the country, inherit and create their own wealth, and propagate the cycle of stratification. It's rare that a wealthy man falls, or a poor man rises into riches.
That's not to label it as a negative or positive quality. I don't hate the rich, nor do I hate the poor, as it's not a matter of choice as to what position one is born.
I didn't mean for a long review, and I'm kinda ranting, so I'll end it.