In the second part of his book, “The Road to Wigan Pier,” George Orwell discusses the prejudices against socialism and the working classes. These prejudices make it challenging to improve the dire conditions faced by the people living in the industrial north of England during the Depression Era, which he described in the first part of his book. Orwell begins by examining the development of his own prejudices in the first chapters of the second part.
Orwell’s background was what he described as the “lower-upper-middle class.” Orwell’s family was not what we might call the one percent. His family was not even part of the ten percent. They were barely well off enough to distinguish them financially and socially from the middle-middle class, especially the lower or working class. In a sense, people in Orwell’s lower-upper-middle class were in a pitiable position. They were close enough to the top to aspire to rise to that top, yet not so close as to make such aspirations easy or even possible.
If Orwell’s family had been solidly middle or working class, the idea of joining the upper class would have been inconceivable. They could have led comfortable and contented lives. Because the possibility was tantalizingly close, they found it necessary to live as though they were upper class, as far as their finances would allow. They had to keep up appearances. Young Orwell had to attend the best schools possible. They had to pronounce their words the correct way. They had to have the correct manners. They had to avoid associating with their inferiors lest they pick up uncouth mannerisms.
Orwell was taught to believe that working people were coarse. They had atrocious accents. They were dangerous and violent. They were dirty and smelly. People of Orwell’s class clung to their prejudices all the more tightly because they, themselves, were so close to the working class. The most racist people of the Jim Crow South were the poor Whites. In many ways, they lived on the same level as the Blacks. Their white skin was all that distinguished them, and so they were the biggest proponents of the doctrine of White supremacy. The petty nobility of pre-revolutionary France were the most fervent upholders of aristocratic privilege. Other than their titles, they were indistinguishable from their peasant neighbors.
Among the ideas that Orwell discusses is the belief that the lower classes ought not to be too well off. They ought not to enjoy the same luxuries that middle-class people, let alone the upper class, enjoy. If the lower classes are prosperous enough to enjoy decent houses with indoor bathrooms, automobiles, etc., then the class distinctions between upper, middle, and lower start to fade away. People of Orwell’s lower-upper-middle class might find that they are not in the superior position they believe themselves to be. And anyway, what is the fun of being in the elite if ordinary people can afford some of the luxuries of the elite?
Much of Orwell’s discussion of class seems a little strange to me. I am not an Englishman, raised to believe that people can be graded like so many eggs. I am an American. I was taught that any man is as good as another and maybe a little better. It seems to me that class in America is more based on money than is the case in Orwell’s England. There is less of an idea of an impoverished aristocrat. Race also matters. The Whiter a person is, the better. Balanced against this idea of superiority of race and money, however, is the egalitarian ideal of America’s founding. That is why the definition of White has become more inclusive over time. People formerly considered nonwhite, South and East Europeans, have become White. I expect that in a few decades, Mexicans and other Latinos will be White, whatever the shade of their skin.
Yet, an American class system has arisen in recent years. There has developed an aristocracy based on going to the right universities and having the correct opinions on matters such as immigration or LGHTQETC affairs. People outside the elite class are deplorable who bitterly cling to their Bibles and guns. That explains the hostility towards Donald Trump. He may be wealthy. He is not of the proper class to be president.
What inspired my thoughts in this direction was the column, America’s Dysfunctional Overclass, by Michael Barone. I found the poll Barone cites to be particularly revealing. It seems the class prejudices of our elite are not dissimilar to those of Orwell’s background.
What does America’s overclass think of the rest of us? The short answer is “not much.” They think ordinary people’s splurging on natural resources is destroying the planet and needs to be cut back forcefully. And that the government needs to stamp down on ordinary people enjoying luxuries that, in their view, should be reserved for the top elites.
What is surprising is the extent to which this American overclass would deprive its fellow citizens of things they have taken for granted. Half of these groups, 47% of Elites and 55% of Ivies, say the United States provides people with “too much individual freedom.”
More than three-quarters favor, “to fight climate change, the strict rationing of energy, gas, and meat,” a proposition rejected by 63% of the public. Again, “to fight climate change,” between half and two-thirds favor bans on gas stoves (a recent target despite demurrals of Biden bureaucrats and New York state Democrats), gasoline-powered cars (heavily disfavored by Biden Democrats and California rules) and SUVs, “private” air conditioning and “nonessential air travel.”
The upper classes of Orwell’s time believed the working class to be dirty, coarse, and ignorant. The upper classes of our own time believe ordinary Americans to be racist, intolerant, and ignorant. In early twentieth-century England, the elite thought members of the lower classes who owned automobiles or houses with indoor plumbing to be impertinent. In twenty-first-century America, the elite think Deplorables who own gas stoves and air conditioning are climate criminals. Perhaps there is not as much difference between Orwell’s Britain and our America as we might wish.
David's Commonplace Book 