In a class of my own

I think Britain’s class system is out-dated, but it’s is still a big influence over millions of people’s lives. The working classes are supposed to be the uncouth, beer drinking proletariat with few manners and little culture. While the middle classes aspire to be like their lords and masters;  the upper classes.

I’ve never felt that I was part of any of these classes. If I want to visit an art gallery or even review an exhibition I don’t think this is above my station because I talk with a regional accent and come from a working class background. Someone once said that being a member of LinkedIn was for people who were full of their own self importance (or words to that affect). I don’t think so; I’ve made a few friends through LinkedIn. It is different from Facebook and Twitter, but it’s still social media. I think social media has been a great leveller in British society. Some people who see themselves as working class will still add me as a friend on Facebook, even though  they see me as being bourgeois middle class. Even the bourgeois middle classes will add me, even though they see me as one of the uncouth, beer drinking proletariat. 

There are some people who want a divided Britain. They want to lord it over others and look down their noses at people less fortunate. They talk about people aspiring to be like them. Who wants to be a greedy self centred sociopath? I read on LinkedIn that there is no absolute truth, only relative truth. That is true! We can’t know the truth about anything for  sure. Who decides what the latest fashions are and what movies we can watch or what soccer team  people should support? It’s all decided by the rich and powerful who control the media in true Orwellian style and brainwash everyone.

I don’t watch television much, I am very aware of it’s hypnotic power and the power of suggestion. This week people were talking about some murder in Eastenders. At the end of the day, who cares? Know wha’ I mean?

I suppose in Marxist terms I have become one of the bourgeoisie. I don’t have a mansion like Arthur Scargill or Iain Duncan Smith and I try not to exploit other people, but I am into investing for the future.

My investments include education, which I see as important; not just the education of others, but my own education. We are never too old to learn and it’s not just about remembering facts, but gaining wisdom. I think exercising my brain might delay senile dementia a bit too. I just wish I had been able to learn more when I was younger. I can appreciate Mozart and Bach, but I would have liked to have learned to play it too.

I feel like I’m in my twilight years now, but I still have some ambition. One of my ambitions was to write a weekly feature for a magazine or newspaper. Something like my Sunday rambles, but with more humour and a hell of a lot more readers. I might still be able to realise my ambition, at least I am a step closer, some of my blog posts are being published on a newspaper website.

I suppose soon newspapers and magazines will die out anyway and it will all be digital. I read almost all my news on my laptop and  I’m starting to use my tablet computer more. I think when tablets get cheaper, with better high definition displays; that will be it. Newspapers and magazines will become a thing of the past and we’ll all be carrying around a tablet just for reading the news and Skyping with friends. Yes, I use Skype too. I’ve always been ahead of my time. It was suggested this week that I take my tablet into the bank and ask the cashier to talk to a graduate over 5000 miles away, so she could give her permission for me to enquire about her account. I still might have to do that. The only email address I have for the bank is for their chief executive. I am a bourgeois shareholder in the bank, so I could ask him to fix the problem with the account and cut out all the middlemen.

They talk about a cashless society, we need a classless society too. I hardly seem to use cash these days. I use a card everywhere I go, that shows that things can change. Maybe it really is time to scrap the house of lords, the royal family and strip the aristocracy of their titles? I think it’s a myth that tourists want to come to Britain to bow and scrape to our elitist classes. I think all those Americans taking photos outside Buckingham Palace are just curious. I don’t think they want a monarch to be the head of state in their country. They have enough problems with the president.

I suppose I’m in a class of my own. I’m not an aristocrat, I’m not middle class because I don’t aspire to very much and I’m not working class because I listen to Mozart and never read the Sun newspaper. It would be so much easier if everyone was in a class of their own. Don’t you think?

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