"bourgeois, but not upper-class"

Posted by MadScientist (Düsseldorf, Germany) on 29 June 2008 in Cityscape & Urban and Portfolio.

Coming home from a day trip to lovely Bonn, we had to wait a few minutes at the subway gate and watched the mishmash of celebrity news and advertisements that was projected at the opposite wall by one of the omnipresent beamers. (These are attached to the ceiling and were installed to oversaturate your brain with useless information. It's difficult not to watch their programs.)

One of the displayed news catched our attention. It was not the fact that somewhere happened a murder, but how the news was composed. A photo showed a common house with a front lawn: the crime scene. The short report ended with the simple but remarkable fact that "the crime happened in a bourgeois, but not upper-class quarter of the city".

I say! Obviously reactionary tendencies have developed very far in my country: you might have a job, a family, your own house, you might mow your front lawn but if you set up some lawn gnomes you might be bourgeois at the best, but you're never upper-class! Especially not if there happens a crime in your neighborhood!

It's not that I'm dreaming of the classless society, that other part of Germany had its socialist experience and I'm not keen on retrying this. But to draw the line between so-called bourgeois and so-called upper-class people is nothing but pride of place: look, says the news, they pedal like mad to be like us, but there's a murderer among them, how can they dare to be like us? And so, hey presto! the crowd is again kept within its boundaries.

I'm living in a democracy. Many people died decades ago to make this possible. Boundaries between social stratums based on pride of place, on a "we're better than them"-feeling is 19th century thinking at its best. But it fits well to the recent Biedermeier-revival we experience here, it's just that I don't want to live in sort of a post-industrial feudalism. Very interesting is that the borders are drawn between the "upper" and the "almost upper" classes and not between workers and bourgeois. Perhaps these simple borders between workers and lords don't exist anymore, perhaps the upper-class people are not so sure about their own position that they have to constantly convince themselves of their own importance. That makes me sick.

And now we're coming to today's photo: this shows such a "bourgeois, but not upper-class" street: (mostly) beautiful buildings, gardens (in the backyard), (almost) everybody has a job, but also just middle-class cars, many auslanders, families with many children, many of them don't speak German fluently. Bourgeois maybe, but definitely not upper-class, they never will be. Social tribalism is the new opium of the people. And that makes me sick.

Comments (12)

Ted from South Wales, United Kingdom

As rants go, it's well illustrated by the photo...I hope you feel better now its off your chest!!!!!

29 Jun 2008 2:28am

@Ted: *lol* It's a blog, so I'm allowed to write :-)
But no, this development is just starting, our society is bursting into smaller and smallest particles and measures of distinction are becoming more and more important. A big challenge for future generations!

Michael from Wuppertal, Germany

Thanks from the bottom of my heart: For both- shot , info & comment, Manfred!

29 Jun 2008 8:07am

@Michael: Thanks! I was really pissed when I read that news rubbish on the wall.

Jen from Alpharetta, United States

lovely!

29 Jun 2008 9:04am

@Jen: Bonn has plenty of these, a really beautiful city.

Ronnie 2¢ from London, United Kingdom

Sounds like you are suffering social reconstruction over there on the mainland! I meet the full social spectrum from the homeless to the highest in the land and am envious only of the happy.

29 Jun 2008 9:47am

@Ronnie 2¢: You're absolutely right, nobody wants to draw a blank. But the phenomenon we're experiencing here is a vanishing middle-class that desperately tries not to crash (in the end a lost struggle) by inventing more and more measures of distinction (usually lifestyle plays a vital role here). The idle talk about war on terror is senseless because the terror is already inmidst society: it's a struggle for disappearing resources and the fear of becoming a loser. When journalists refuse to reflect on this and just use the same patterns of mindfuck (as I've written in my post), this makes me speechless.

Ina from Krugersdorp, South Africa

Very nice! Like you write-up too!

29 Jun 2008 10:58am

@Ina: Thanks, Ina! Sometimes a picture not enough, or better said: just the picture would have been a too vague suggestion.

jenniellen from little town, United States

wonderful! inspiring!

29 Jun 2008 11:20am

@jenniellen: Thanks! How do houses in 'little town' do look like? :-)

Observing from Local, United Kingdom

A difficult subject Manfred and I do agree with you. Having lived most of my life abroad I am fortunate to view the social situation from two angles, one as an Englishman, and the other as a foreigner. I have come to realise that it is pretty much the same everywhere.

I have medals of my grandfather who fought in WWI 'The Great War for Civilisation and Freedom'. Where is our freedom today..? It is none existant. We are told what, how, and when to do everything. CCTV cameras, phone tapping, email interception, DNA data...... it's all part of the conspiracy to keep the bourgeois in their place. Carbon footprint and Green taxes..? bullshit, what about the Royal family and government ministers flying around the globe.

Very nice shot, and cool processing.... it's a pity my blood isn't cool !

29 Jun 2008 11:31am

@Observing: Thanks, Mike! I agree, but I think that there's no need for a government (or whatever dark force) -controlled action, because this development did take on a life of its own. It's inmidst our society, it's social Darwinism with a smile. Politics backs off due to privatisation, thus making everybody a little businessman. When only the fittest survives in this system, one must not wonder why measures of distinction become so important. All these surveillance instruments you mentioned are producing distance: when everybody is a suspect, this just reflects the ongoing war in our society between the members of the vanishing middle-class. Society in its core is breaking apart and the struggle for resources (jobs, homes, the 'right' lifestyle) has just begun.

Edit: a little bit confusing, what I've written here. I might elaborate on this in following postings.

JoeB from Brampton, Canada

The middle class the heart and drive of most western societies is disappearing were turning into the haves and have nots. A few years ago I heard a man on the radio say that the next big war will not be between counties, but be between citizens and corporations.

29 Jun 2008 9:59pm

@JoeB: Thanks, Joe! I'm watching this development with great concern and it really annoys me that there is almost no sceptical public disputing with it - at least not in Germany. The so-called elites, the intellectuals are just busy with themselves; the public is greatly depoliticized but also unsettled, thus explaining the 'great' mood in society. I've read an intelligent book whose authors believe that war has already entered society and that recent strategies of distinction are just a characteristic of this. The consequences of globalization are heating up the situation furthermore.

Twelvebit from Victoria, United States

I bring earplugs with me for every trip to any place, like a doctor's office, where a television may be blaring. But look at the bright side, there are still enough people in Germany who know what the word "bourgeois" means for it to be used on a television news broadcast. In this country most of the people hearing a word like that would probably assume the news was about a murder in some "liberal" neighborhood.

I think Observing is essentially correct --that things are more or less the same everywhere. In the West, the methods of dealing with those of us in the under classes have changed a little since the days when they locked the "steerage" passengers below decks, and signs announced "Whites Only." However, I am sensing sort of a resurgence in upper-class feelings of entitlement, and seeing signs that the ruling classes are seeking more overt representations of their special status and privileges. They long for the "good old days" when the great unwashed knew their place and accepted it on bowed knees.

I also think the little mini-dictatorships of the modern global corporation are now the greatest threat to the freedom, and even the existence, of human beings, in the world today. The threat of "terrorism" is like a mosquito bite compared to corporatism's weapons of mass destruction. I share Belloc's view on the Servile State: that the mass of men shall be constrained by law to labor for the profit of a minority, and that this state is the ordinary and natural ends of both capitalism and socialism, though they may arrive there by different routes (where socialism and capitalism have very specific meanings apart from the way these terms are used as agitprop in the mainstream media).

30 Jun 2008 5:45pm

@Twelvebit: Thanks for that comment! There's a state of nervousness, and it grows. I like to compare the situation of today with that 200 years ago in Europe: the big threat was given by Napoleon, the bogeyman of a great coalition of countries fighting against France. (Today it would be called: war on terror.) After his defeat the absolutist rulers of Europe made their power permanent, using all means of surveillance and oppression available then, like censorship and constables. Many people retired into private life and the three decades of Biedermeier began. At the same time the rise of industrialisation changed the social structure of these countries significantly, providing a basis for later conflicts. In the end this old world collapsed, and I see a lot of similar developments in the world of today.

Damon Schreiber from Toronto, Canada

I've really enjoyed your writing on this page - certainly a lot to think about. We (in the bourgeois -but not upper class) are living in a gadgetocracy (new word - don't look it up) where we're too busy being distracted by cheap shiny toys (manufactured by near-slave-labour in China) to notice what's going on in the world. I don't know the solution, but at least we can try to keep independent thought alive. I'm writing from my home in a happily lower-upper-middle-class street.

2 Jul 2008 10:22pm

@Damon Schreiber: Gadgetocracy is a cool term, thanks for that! I would subsume this kind of toys and all other things that distract you from the 'real' life with the term 'escapism'. While in former times work usually was (physically) hard and exhausting and prevented people from thinking, today we have the benedictions of mass media and gadgets. (I don't want to paint a simple black/white drawing here, but there certainly is a risk of permanent disconnection from real life.) Escapisms of today are usually widely supported because the keep the consumer market going.

Sara from new york city, United States

Thank you for your post. I almost felt alone with my thinking. I live in America and come from a very small town in the black forest.

17 Jul 2008 9:15am

@Sara: You're welcome! As you can read in the comments: you're not alone and many people are concerned about some developments. It's important to keep an alert mind, be it here or overseas.