Only because we have allowed it to become hollow.
Working class solidarity was a product of the industrial revolution and even then it was mostly industry specific, like mining, the dock workers and so on, work that bound men together (and it was men), work that was often geographically specific, which in turn led to stable working class communities.
That time has gone. The conditions that led to working class solidarity have evaporated.
Today working class solidarity is as authentic as the Durham Miners Gala, you know, the one without any miners.
Only because we have allowed it to become hollow.
Only had a quick glance at this as its not something i am familiar with but this struck me and is a quote from the study.
"Interviews with the workers showed little sign of a move to middle class - instead, affluent workers seemed to hold on to their working class identity and attitudes. The researchers concluded that growing affluence does not entail the end of class, or of class politics; on the contrary, class remains an important part even of a prosperous, affluent society."
Indeed, the study found little movement from working class to middle class. Affluent workers bought stuff not as status symbols but because they wanted stuff. Affluent workers still considered themselves working class, but they were atomised, their work did not bind them together, their working classness did not, and still does not, automatically lead to any sense of solidarity with fellow members of the working class.
Why do you think equality of opportunity is disingenuous?
Two reasons, one it is disingenuous if it is a lie, this country has a terrible record on social mobility and it's not all down to the Tories.
And two and most importantly, is that it cements the idea that the only route to self worth is advancement and advancement is synonymous with getting out of the working class, this perpetuates the idea that there is no dignity, no worth, to working class jobs. This view justifies low pay, low status and poor conditions by reinforcing the idea that those who do this work are life's failures, who lack the wherewithal to advance above their lowly status.
I despise the wording free stuff. It is not only the working class who receive "free stuff" and that is why i support the concept of universalism. The who is going to pay is an argument of the right. They always find money to drop bombs but struggle to find money to feed kids. It is about priorities and if the middle class would rather we drop bombs than feed kids then tax them enough to pay for the bombs. :))
Seriously though society has to have all parts contribute and do so in a manner that makes everyone feel valued. If corporations pay there fair share then value them, if they don't penalise them. The middle class and the Upper class are recipients of free stuff dependent on how you see free stuff.
You might well despise the words free stuff, but the middle classes don't, or should I say didn't, now that some are getting a taste of just how measly our welfare system is, now that increasing numbers are dependent on it in our Covid 19 world, but before Covid? They didn't give a fuck.
You want an example of just how much couldn't give a fuckness there is? Two days ago a small number of newspapers reported, on pages three of four, that almost 700,000 of our fellow citizens have been driven in to poverty by the Covid crisis.
Where was the outrage? Where was the cry that something must be done?
Working class solidarity? A nostalgic dream.
Middle class empathy for the working class? You're having a laugh!
Multiculturalism is what we have and we have to make the best of it. I do believe that we have more common in class terms than we have differences in ethnic background.
Multicultualism is not what we have and saying we have to make the best of it (hardly a ringing endorsement) does not make it so. Do you know what multiculturalism sounds like when it is uttered as a fait accompli as you have just done, it sounds like a denial of the reality of most people's lives.
There is a mainstream culture in this country, it can be difficult to define, but it is real nonetheless, one knows whether one is part of it or not. This mainstream culture changes over time of course and the influence of other cultures plays a part, but the existence of other cultures in British society, simply by their existence, has never previously be seen to delegitimise that mainstream culture, to reduce it to one of many, that is until now.
Multiculturalism is a lie, a lie propagated, for our sins, by the left, yet another example of our increasing estrangement from the working class, a lie happily exploited by the likes of Johnson, Farage and Robinson.
I am a dreamer, there is nothing wrong with that. I do believe people work better when they work together, you could say i was a proponent of Collectivist Socialism as i do believe in a strong state and that there are more people damaged by the free market than enjoy the fruits of the free market..
I agree with much of this, but you're right, it is the stuff of dreams, but dreams by their very nature are not reality and because they're not reality they can end up being an indulgent fantasy, a sugar coated, but ultimately cruel, dead end.
