people from other planets
Jan. 24th, 2009 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaI don't know W*ill Sh*tt*rly from a hole in the ground, and have no interest in bringing out the rabid fandom hordes to my non-fandom LJ, but I just gotta say.
(The following is quoting a post of his at his blog; see coffeeandink's LJ for a link and context):
"a) My "class", no matter what you mean by the term, changed enormously when my grandfather's money became available to me in my mid-teens, and changed again when it was gone. The newspaper article here explains my father's class background as well or better than I could.
b) People who see the world primarily in terms of skin color or gender may not realize that class can change. So they may have been confused by noticing that I've lived more than one lifestyle, and concluded that I must lie."
CLASS DOES NOT CHANGE LIKE THAT. His family's income changed, and/or his access to financial resources changed. (The newspaper article he references talks a lot of about his father's political activism and some about how he earns his living, but does not mention his upbringing, whether or not he attended college, etc. I see nothing in the newspaper article that references his father's class background - did I miss it? Edit: I re-read; his father is described as a "self-educated high-school dropout." Now, that could mean a lot of things - were his parents sharecroppers, or was he the rebellious child of priviledge? Note also he is described as a "businessman" operating a theme park, restaurant, and gas station. He has the resources to send his children across the country when they are threatened at school. End edit.)
S. may have lived in poverty and as a social outcast in his narrow-minded community as a child, but he came from people who had heard of Choate, and inherited the money to send him there. That alone means he was upper-middle class. His parents, had they chosen to do so, could probably have lived a much different life (i.e. one of suburban middle-class comfort) from the one they chose. I've been richer or poorer in my life, though I've never been destitute or hungry. I have always been the child and grandchild of upper middle class people, which fact alone means I know how to behave in polite society (though it took a little time to get used to the Actual Rich when I attended Choate, in the late 1980s), it was always assumed I could and would attend college, and it was always assumed I could be almost anything I wanted to. It sounds like S.'s class background is not actually much different from mine, although our life experiences are vastly different.
(The following is quoting a post of his at his blog; see coffeeandink's LJ for a link and context):
"a) My "class", no matter what you mean by the term, changed enormously when my grandfather's money became available to me in my mid-teens, and changed again when it was gone. The newspaper article here explains my father's class background as well or better than I could.
b) People who see the world primarily in terms of skin color or gender may not realize that class can change. So they may have been confused by noticing that I've lived more than one lifestyle, and concluded that I must lie."
CLASS DOES NOT CHANGE LIKE THAT. His family's income changed, and/or his access to financial resources changed. (The newspaper article he references talks a lot of about his father's political activism and some about how he earns his living, but does not mention his upbringing, whether or not he attended college, etc. I see nothing in the newspaper article that references his father's class background - did I miss it? Edit: I re-read; his father is described as a "self-educated high-school dropout." Now, that could mean a lot of things - were his parents sharecroppers, or was he the rebellious child of priviledge? Note also he is described as a "businessman" operating a theme park, restaurant, and gas station. He has the resources to send his children across the country when they are threatened at school. End edit.)
S. may have lived in poverty and as a social outcast in his narrow-minded community as a child, but he came from people who had heard of Choate, and inherited the money to send him there. That alone means he was upper-middle class. His parents, had they chosen to do so, could probably have lived a much different life (i.e. one of suburban middle-class comfort) from the one they chose. I've been richer or poorer in my life, though I've never been destitute or hungry. I have always been the child and grandchild of upper middle class people, which fact alone means I know how to behave in polite society (though it took a little time to get used to the Actual Rich when I attended Choate, in the late 1980s), it was always assumed I could and would attend college, and it was always assumed I could be almost anything I wanted to. It sounds like S.'s class background is not actually much different from mine, although our life experiences are vastly different.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-24 02:12 pm (UTC)You are absolutely right about class. Money may help with mobility between classes, the creation of a new class, or in creating the illusion of class mobility, but in the end, class is about your worldview, your social network, your ability to speak the 'language' of a specific class/culture, your assumptions about what 'normal' life should look like, etc.
I could probably be more coherent, but honestly, the coffee is still kicking in.