anarchy. eat the middle classes
For many years I have derided the popular ‘we are what we buy’ theory concerning class status but I’m not so sure anymore. In a recent poll, upwards of 70% of the populace now regard themselves as middle-class. Where exactly did this squeezed middle majority come from and when did they appear? I am genuinely shocked at the bloodless coup that must have taken place whilst I popped out to put the kettle on.
What has happened over the last thirty or so years is that the main political parties cottoned on to the idea of aspiration being a major vote winner. With the demise of unionisation and reliance upon manual labour, these aspirations quickly and simplistically became portrayed as ‘material aspiration’. Home owning, self-reliance, a decent job, nice holidays, a taste for authenticity and better coffee all came to define us. What we bought rather than what produced or what we thought came to define us. Yes, this is reducing social class to the trivial level of consumer power but I am coming round to believing that this is in fact our Frankenstein.
Whilst The Iron Lady may have been the most visible and outspoken leader of the purchasing party the Labour party have been as complicit. Last year our then Presbyterian PM was promising he would create “more middle-class jobs than ever”, and would also represent “the mainstream majority”. Notwithstanding the fact that I’ve no idea what these claims actually mean are they any more true than Georgie Boy’s more recent blatant lie that “we’re all in this together”? The coercion of smooth, achievable middle-classness was made complete under New Labour. What Maggie started, Tony finished.
