[Leica] class etc.

[Robert Appleby and Susan Darlow <laintal@tin.it>]

This was written by someone else:
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2000 18:50:14 -0800
From: Mike Quinn <mlquinn@san.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica Class

I didn't mean that we don't have class or classes. I just said that we
didn't have a class STRUCTURE in the US.
Class may be a huge issue, but fortunately it's not (yet) hereditary or
enshrined in our social or political systems.

We do have loose associations with people of similar interests, background,
economics, etc. People tend to feel good (superior) about their unique
differences, and feel comfortable with others who share them. Still, the
structure of US society (e.g. the public school system) is designed to
minimize those differences rather than preserve them.

Anyway, we get to pick who we hate, rather than having it thrust upon us.

- - -Mike Quinn

This was written by me:
Before I make a comment on the above, I should just say that I come from
one of the most class ridden societies in the world: Great Britain. I no
longer live there, largely because of the class thing. It means that as
soon as you open your mouth everyone thoinks they know everythoing about
you from your accent. My accent happens to be "upper class" because I'm of
German origin and therefore English is n aquired language for me. As an
example, I recall once asking whether the next train in was for Oxford (in
an Northern England train station), and was told that "only wankers go to
Oxford" (with the obviousimplication that I'm a wanker - maybe many people
would agrre with this assessment, but they at least know me better than the
person I asked).
Anyway, I've just recently read a book called "Cold New World" about the
class problem in the US. It reports that the social mobility which was such
a feature of the american scene in the post war period (land of
opportunity, etc) is largely a thing of the past, and that many young
people from what would previously have been called middle class backgrunds
find themselves in a class trap which condemns them to stay at the same
level or drop down, while the rich, of course, as is always the way, get
richer. As for working class people, they have virtually no future. I see
the same thing happening in England: while house and other prices go
through the roof for the pockets of the privileged members of the
"information economy", in reality a tiny minority, the streets of every
town are inhabited by frightening numbers of  homeless people in the 14-20
age group. Having been away in India for a single year, I was in London for
Christmas and was amazed by the surge in homelesness and begging since I
was last there.
I think that every socety has a class structure, it's just that some have
ideologies which deny the fact. Whether it's hereditary or whatever, there
are losers and winners. Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to
endless night.
Enough blah. 
Rob.
Robert Appleby and Sue Darlow
Via Bellentani 36
41100 Modena
Italy
Tel/fax [39] 059 303436