Class definition; a short, sloppy but not entirely inaccurate history of its evolution - News Block

Phoenix by Jennifer Stewart

In the West there was a time whenclassyit was synonymous with class distinction. It was about lineage, sophisticated social skills, the kind of wealth that stayed in the family, and a gene pool that turned out, not infrequently, in the long run, to be the root cause of a characteristic commonly known as weak in the head and, more recently,screeching stupidity.

Royalty. Landed gentry. Society of the upper cortex. Good manners, splendid clothes, glorious homes, power, mobility. The things of fairy tales. Now that it was class.

The outsiders—the poor, the wrestlers, the serfs and slaves, the farm laborers, the soldiers, the sailors, the tinkers, and the tailors—all accepted their place or felt, and were, powerless to change it. Oh, and let’s not forget the independent-minded women and anyone who wasn’t white, with the exception of those few notables who heroically managed to penetrate a roof made of the construction materials used to build forts.

But something happened in the collective psyche of the outsiders. A desire for a bigger experience, a bigger slice of the pie.It might have had something to do with the fact that he had a stronger gene pool, a broader mix. Some of it seems to open neurological pathways to creative thinking.

Boom. The industrial Revolution. Suddenly, hooligans without manners, without refinement, without land or lineage could amass fortunes and buy the trappings of class. However, they are not women of independent spirit, people of color or different lifestyle choices or foreign religions. Let’s never forget that.new rich they called themselves. Despised, of course, by the Original Class of Classies, and using the Outsiders in exactly the same way they had been used by their masters. Gradually these upstarts developed manners andequipmentde Clase and in many cases married in lineage, because their weak gene pool had left them with land and snobbery but no money.

And a populace of poor people who lived—or barely lived—off the land, giving everything of value to the Classies, became a populace of poor people who still eked out their lives, but lived in the cities.Still giving all of themselves, but now to the New Classies as slaves, servants, wives, factory workers. Also, for a while, collectively accepting that they had no choice. It wasn’t a pretty picture and the atmosphere started to take a real beating as well.

Once again, however, something happened in the collective psyche of those damned outsiders, the slaves and facilitators of the pleasure and good fortune of others. Perhaps it really is that the human spirit is never satisfied with being trapped in the dark ages. Perhaps it is the need for the human capacity for good to prevail over his capacity for evil.The outsiders realized that moving up was a possibility even for them.

Boom. unions. Higher wages, access to more ideas, demand education, find it, get it.Well, what a fucking mess. Thereafter there was boom after boom, the cataclysmic collapse of the old order occurring from decade to decade. The gene pool of the original Classies was completely screwed. The stinking concept of “What about me, what about them!” spreading like wildfire.Youth, women, people of color, various religions, genders, sexual preferences, and lifestyle choices making their voices heard, fighting for their rights and the rights of others, not waiting for permission but insisting they were equal, worrying about responsibility and the environment. Never give up in the face of terrifying persecution in every conceivable application, covert and overt. The desire for decency to prevail became an uncontrollable conflagration.

As the longing for a better experience seared hearts, souls, and minds; as compassion for the exploited and protest against the exploiters grew; as wealth and access to information became more accessible to many more; something else happened.classy It began to be synonymous with decency, inner strength, dignity, compassion and respect for others and for oneself, good sense, concern for the environment.

Nowhere else to go, really. Boom. The Phoenix of the human spirit emerging from the ashes.That is where we are today. Class is not about what you wear, what you earn, what you own, your status, the color of your skin, your gender, your religion, or your choice of lifestyle. It’s about who you are.Just as outsiders always thought they were just as classy as those they were desperate for acceptance when barriers to entry were shallow, today the ethically challenged who have amassed great fortunes or power strut their stuff with grandeur. boasting, loudly trumpeting how stylish they are. Completely oblivious to how obvious it is to the rest of us that whatever they have is not class.

These days, no matter what else you have, without soul class, the kind that really counts as human, you have nothing. And that shows us.