tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6564197.post-1092533638948696452004-08-15T21:33:00.000-04:002004-08-17T17:42:34.390-04:00<A HREF="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471263761.html" target="0"><IMG SRC="http://media.wiley.com/product_data/coverImage/61/04712637/0471263761.jpg" ALIGN="RIGHT" BORDER=0></A><h3>Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams <br />by Alfred Lubrano</h3><small><A HREF="http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/61/04712637/0471263761.pdf">Excerpt from the book</A> <br /> <br /></small>Our country is very uncomfortable with class. We pretend we have no social classes, and to the extent their existence is alluded to, it is deprived of any ancillary impact. Some of us are wealthier, some less so, but according to popular myth this has little to no impact on our society. <br /> <br />This is polite idiocy. To pretend that people don't change based on their experiences as they grow up is to pretend that "Nurture" (of "Nature vs Nurture" fame) has no impact on a person's psyche, goals, morals and values. It should be the goal of any egalitarian or "meritocratic" society to minimize and mitigate the impact that these differences have on people, but to pretend they don't exist gets in the way of dealing with this issue.<span class="fullpost"> <br /> <br />Are some of these "class cultures" better than others? A silly question, but it is very clear that some <b>do</b> generally motivate people to achieve more than others, even controlling for the impact of the differences in wealth and personal contacts. No two cultures can have the same impact on a person in this (or any other arena), unless one posits that culture has no impact at all; insofar as that culture shapes people's desires and decision-making, that claim would just be silly as well. <br /> <br />So granting that each culture impacts widely disparate aspects of our lives, and that some of these cultures advantage us with regards to areas that the others find valuable, while others are comparative disadvantages in their impacts on their adherents, why do we pretend that all cultures, all mores from all walks of life are normatively equal and ought be promoted equally? <br /><ul><li>Why do we pretend that it is as "good" a choice to choose to be a philistine over being cultured?</li><li>Why do we pretend that mass culture is as "good" as, (or better than) high culture?</li><li>Why do people pretend that emulating the working class is somehow virtuous, when, given the choice, every member of that class would gladly give up their lives to live in "high society", even as they reject the values that one would have to accept to get there?</li></ul> <br />There are people who grow up in this country who see no value whatsoever in education. The social emphasis on the enabling qualities of college has convinced them that attending such and obtaining sheepskin is important, but the virtue of the liberal arts education still passes them by. Others, initially interested in the pursuits of the mind but scarred by hazing and condemnation from the knuckle-draggers they grow up with, see cultured hobbies as guilty pleasures, and fairly pointless ones. They grow up twisted, seeing virtue only in the values and preferences of the majority. Both may think to themselves that they have transcended their roots, but will inevitably prefer happy hour to a cocktail party, bowling to attending a lecture on the issues of the day, and <A HREF="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/" target="0">"Kill Bill"</A> to <A HREF="" target="0">Control Room</A> or <A HREF="http://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/programs/classical/" target="0">the National Symphony Orchestra</A>.</span>Rahul Sinhanoreply@blogger.com