Wibbly-wobbly classy-wassy

[sqbr]

I'm currently reading "The Making of the English Working Class" by E. P. Thompson. I'm almost certainly not going to finish it all 800+ pages before I have to return it to the library, but what I've read has been interesting. I keep finding parallels with the current situation. Reading #OccupyOz captures the mood, but its critics are too busy demanding the possible to be realistic and Occupy Australia and the Antipodean “bubble”, which criticise criticisms from the Left of the Occupy movement within Australia, there is a common paradox: that the most effective way for those outside the ruling class to effect change is to join the ruling class, and that this is used a carrot to get people to focus on being upwardly mobile and just trust that those in power have their best interests at heart.

Reading 17th century politicians arguing that property owners are the only people sufficiently invested in the country to be able to vote responsibly reminds me rather of certain modern Republicans :/

Two half finished thoughts:

I've been thinking about the difference between classism as in actual prejudice towards working class or poor people, and classism as in acting to create or maintain a system of inequality, even if this action is motivated particularly by prejudice. I've seen left wing people complain that the latter is what really matters and that it's too easy to focus on small scale stuff like "Don't make fun of people for being bogans" and avoid questioning the underlying problems. I can see their point, but focussing too much on fixing "the system" can be used an excuse for all kinds of horrible behaviours to individuals (who are what the system is made of, after all), and seems to be a really common excuse for being sexist/racist etc.

There seems to a trend for people thinking the best solution for working class people, both individually and as a group, is for them to become upwardly mobile. This strikes me as similar to people who think that the best solution for disabled people is to help them stop being disabled. And obviously a lot of poor people would like to stop being poor, and a lot of disabled people would like their impairments ameliorated, but there's a lot more to it than that. A more important focus, imo, is making sure that life for those are are disabled, or working class, doesn't totally suck, and that they're not seen as inherently lesser.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I like the more recent focus on less income inequality - it's not that working class people need to be not working class, but that their work should be appropriately paid and carried out in safe conditions. This strikes me as more similar to disability rights in that we want to be able to access society freely and fairly right now, whether or not an amazing cure is just around the corner.

[sqbr]

Yes! And it avoids the idea that we just need to make sure that the good, hard working poor people have the chance to be upwardly mobile.