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The Class System
North Miami Beach, FL August 23, 2001 Aaron H.
Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then, Opinions pro or con are welcome.
I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT OUR CLASS SYSTEM
It's been hard for all of us to change our way of thinking about things.
There are still some people who think and believe the world is flat, that
"man" should not venture into space and that the murder of six million Jews
in World War II did not happen.
I've been thinking about our class system. We still think in terms of -
from top to bottom - that there is an Upper Upper Class, an Upper Class, an
Upper Middle Class, a Middle Class, an Upper Lower Class and a Lower class.
Essentially the three classes, Upper, Middle and Lower have been divided
into two classes each. If you think about it you can probably divide each
into three and so on. There has always been trouble about this system of
thinking about class. It rests on the numerous ways the three groups can be
separated from each other. For instance, just think about income.
There are the impossibly rich, the super rich, the rich, the wealthy, the
less wealthy, the poor, the very poor and the abject impoverished poor.
This still leaves out many sub groups and the distinctions must be self
determined instead of being declared by scholars. Like my old mother used to
say, rich or poor it is nice to have money.
I like the idea of consumers being categorized by their purchases. The
highest class of consumer would be those who can buy the best of anything.
The next highest would be those who have to settle for very good. And, then
there is the group who can afford little and still get by. The last would
be those who have no money to afford to buy anything but accept the leavings
of the upper groups. Like this one?
Another classification system would rest on test taking. Get the most
difficult tests ever devised and label those who pass or get very high marks
the upper class. Don't even think about our degree system as part of a class
system. This is the one where there are Full Wise Men, Associated Wise Men
and Assistant Wise Men with Instructors first, second and third class above
Tutors and so on. I first heard this one from Garrison Keelor. The people
who can take any test and do well are another group. There are the test
takers who die in the process and fail every time. Then there are the ones
who cannot read and cannot take any test designed on paper. I am
uncomfortable with tests. I have designed and given them but do not take
them.
Dress could be another classification system. Those who wear the most rare
and beautiful clothing designed for the individual would be pretty high.
Those who buy knock offs or off the rack clothing come next. And finally
there are those who deliberately dress down and wear outrageous combinations
would be near the bottom (on my list). The absolute bottom would be those
who cannot afford anything but the leavings in the bins used by agencies
that collect for the poor. Did you notice that this one is also sort of
based on wealth?
We actually use another classification system. This is based on age. There
are those who are Social Security beneficiaries. These are the remnants of
the Depression Age. Then there are their children - the Baby Boomers. Next
there is a group who are the children of the Boomers who have been labeled
Generation X. Finally there are the children of X and I have no real
understanding of how they coalesce.
There are the technocrats and those who are the middle managers. There are
the leaders and followers. There are the Anointed and those who destined to
go to Hell. And so it goes.
One last example. This one is based on the division of people by their
"morphs". These are the three physical types someone thought up that
include "ectomorph", "endomorph" and "mesomorph". These roughly translate
into excessively thin (perhaps those that starve themselves to be beautiful)
but are that way by nature; the middle or "normal" group; and finally the
very large and barrel shaped individuals who are, again, that way by nature.
You can argue that those who by nature are thin and those who starve
themselves are not a class and you would be correct. Anorexia is a choice
and some thin people can eat and eat and never gain weight.
The "normal" or middle group seem to be able to stay that way while there
are those who can eat little and still grow into "barrels". A corollary to
this would be a sick system. There are those who have excellent health,
those who have some problems and the last being those destined to be plagued
by all the unimaginable conditions that plague the human race.
The way we classify people and the classes in which they live needs to be
reconfigured but probably not the way I have figured. What do you think?
Carol says this is too long and too preachy for her to be bothered to read.
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