My working class parents did not go to college, yet I pursued my odd predilections to earn a PhD. Through marrying a very talented and lucky immigrant striver we manage to pass (perhaps?) as upper middle class, by income (barely) at least, if not by patterns of consumption. The sense of class whiplash is real and sustained. This is no doubt why Rob is one of my favorite social analysts.
I love your name. I am a Cassandra, myself. I could always see ahead of the curve before everyone else. I have an inborn talent for connecting the dots. In reality. I often sign off my posts on social media as “Call Me Cassandra”.
Wow, I didn't know that tidbit about how romantic couples sit together. Sociology's so fascinating!
I still remember in high school, reading a book talking about the difference between the social classes. It was probably written in the nineteen fifties or sixties. And one of the things that struck me was when it said a middle class person would call the thing a patio, but lower and upper classes would call it a porch.
Bingo! I’ve been saying this about the old left that claimed to speak for “the people” and/or “the workers” because I knew so many of them personally. When they claim to speak for the “people” I learned as far back as the late 1960s when I was in high school in Brooklyn that “the people” are only those who agree with them, otherwise if you disagree with anything they believe you are no longer “people” or a “person” but an enemy to be disposed of. Similarly, I grew up at a time when some leftists were actually still working people. I grew up in a secular Jewish working and lower middle class neighborhood in Brooklyn. We were the “poor Jews” and yes, my family were actual workers. Low skilled because they were all Holocaust survivors who came to the US, if they were lucky, but had very limited language or education because they lost they youth to being slave labor for the Nazis. And they were the lucky ones! Anyway, I saw for myself how silly the socialist/communist/Marxist belief system was. How it totally went against human nature. And I truly loved the principles of the founding of America and it’s been a life long love affair. It helps that I am a historian by nature if not by profession. This latest crop of nepo baby communists and the Islamists who are using them before eating them up (here’s looking at YOU, Mamdani!) need to be stopped before they ruin everything for the rest of us. Thank you, Rob, for being such a smart and wise younger analyst of reality. I am pleased and gratified to be able to support your continued work.
As always you are the best at this, Rob. I hope I'm not butchering the phrase but I use "luxury beliefs" to describe a lot of what I see in the northeast. My own background is quite working class: my grandparents lived in Deland, Florida in the 1930s and ran the college cafeteria at Stetson University. Very messy and hands-on... but my dad, my aunt, and my uncle got to go to college for free. My mom came from a similar un-privileged background, despite being white Irish Catholics (LOL). She dropped out of nursing school to help my grandparents care for the eighth of their nine children. The 'hood I grew up in was full of enormous families squeezed into 3BR/1 bath houses that maxxed out at perhaps 1,300 square feet. My working-class neighborhood did not resemble anything Mamdani experienced, nor that of any of his cronies.
My working class parents did not go to college, yet I pursued my odd predilections to earn a PhD. Through marrying a very talented and lucky immigrant striver we manage to pass (perhaps?) as upper middle class, by income (barely) at least, if not by patterns of consumption. The sense of class whiplash is real and sustained. This is no doubt why Rob is one of my favorite social analysts.
I love your name. I am a Cassandra, myself. I could always see ahead of the curve before everyone else. I have an inborn talent for connecting the dots. In reality. I often sign off my posts on social media as “Call Me Cassandra”.
Rob:
great article that explains a lot. I have never seen the subject presented at all. Your writing is insightful, concise and clear
I really enjoy and appreciate your content.
Thank you
Wow, I didn't know that tidbit about how romantic couples sit together. Sociology's so fascinating!
I still remember in high school, reading a book talking about the difference between the social classes. It was probably written in the nineteen fifties or sixties. And one of the things that struck me was when it said a middle class person would call the thing a patio, but lower and upper classes would call it a porch.
Bingo! I’ve been saying this about the old left that claimed to speak for “the people” and/or “the workers” because I knew so many of them personally. When they claim to speak for the “people” I learned as far back as the late 1960s when I was in high school in Brooklyn that “the people” are only those who agree with them, otherwise if you disagree with anything they believe you are no longer “people” or a “person” but an enemy to be disposed of. Similarly, I grew up at a time when some leftists were actually still working people. I grew up in a secular Jewish working and lower middle class neighborhood in Brooklyn. We were the “poor Jews” and yes, my family were actual workers. Low skilled because they were all Holocaust survivors who came to the US, if they were lucky, but had very limited language or education because they lost they youth to being slave labor for the Nazis. And they were the lucky ones! Anyway, I saw for myself how silly the socialist/communist/Marxist belief system was. How it totally went against human nature. And I truly loved the principles of the founding of America and it’s been a life long love affair. It helps that I am a historian by nature if not by profession. This latest crop of nepo baby communists and the Islamists who are using them before eating them up (here’s looking at YOU, Mamdani!) need to be stopped before they ruin everything for the rest of us. Thank you, Rob, for being such a smart and wise younger analyst of reality. I am pleased and gratified to be able to support your continued work.
As always you are the best at this, Rob. I hope I'm not butchering the phrase but I use "luxury beliefs" to describe a lot of what I see in the northeast. My own background is quite working class: my grandparents lived in Deland, Florida in the 1930s and ran the college cafeteria at Stetson University. Very messy and hands-on... but my dad, my aunt, and my uncle got to go to college for free. My mom came from a similar un-privileged background, despite being white Irish Catholics (LOL). She dropped out of nursing school to help my grandparents care for the eighth of their nine children. The 'hood I grew up in was full of enormous families squeezed into 3BR/1 bath houses that maxxed out at perhaps 1,300 square feet. My working-class neighborhood did not resemble anything Mamdani experienced, nor that of any of his cronies.
Brilliant and enlightening. Thank you.
very nicely written. I would love to read your views on Paul Fussell's book and the class structure of the USA (or regional variations ?).