Posted on 02/13/2005 2:10:10 PM PST by quidnunc
The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class
Michael Collins
Granta Books, 2004.
South-East London has never enjoyed a good press. Guidebooks treat it as an afterthought, an appendix to the real business elsewhere in the capital. Historical Greenwich is mentioned, of course, and a handful of other tourist-friendly sights, but that's your lot. The days when the South Bank theatres were surrounded by syphilitic brothels and murderous backstreets are long gone, yet the stigma persists. This corner of the capital remains a world apart.
In modern times, this imaginative distance was reinforced by the way the area was cut off, not just by the Thames, but also from the Tube system. Public transport long consisted of unreliable trains and buses, and even taxis were famously reluctant to venture 'south of the river'. The prevailing attitude among other Londoners was 'ignore it, it might go away'.
But there was a corollary: if South-East London hadn't existed, then someone would have had to invent it as a symbol of everything the cosmopolitan metropolis across the river was not. And in a way, that is exactly what did happen. Over the years, a caricature of this hinterland emerged, summed up in the phrase 'Sarf London' — a phonetic stab that fittingly bears no resemblance to the local pronunciation. The bottom right-hand corner of the London map became the modern equivalent of 'here be dragons'.
-snip-
Collins' blind spots have consequences for his own project. He is conscious of a shift in attitudes, resulting in the 'salt of the earth' becoming the 'scum of the earth', but he cannot really answer the question of why this change occurred. A political perspective would have helped explain the cultural issues that interest him.
Forty years ago, the working class appeared to have both political clout and cultural cachet. The trade unions had taken their place at the top table, and governments consulted closely with them. Consensus politics ruled, people from working-class backgrounds were making inroads into all aspects of public life, and the 'classless society' was widely believed to be round the corner. (There were dissenters and snobs of the Evelyn Waugh school, of course, but they were viewed as an eccentric and old-fashioned minority.)
Yet by the end of the 1960s the political consensus was already beginning to break down, leading to the turbulence of the seventies. The unions were crushed in the eighties, and by the time Labour came to power 1997, Tony Blair could afford to ignore his party's traditional voters and focus on the preoccupations of the middle classes.
Today, the white working class has neither political power nor cultural cachet. One consequence of this is that the rest of society sees no reason to hide its distaste when discussing it. In these politically correct times poor whites are just about the only section of society that it is permissible to insult. The council estate, once a symbol of progress (albeit of a bureaucratic penny-pinching variety), is now regarded as the British equivalent of the American trailer park, and its inhabitants, once the harbingers of a coming classless age, are derided as 'white trash'.
Such prejudices loom large in The Likes of Us, often to amusing effect. Collins tells the story of how a woman at a media party complained that she had moved to the Elephant and Castle and couldn't buy aubergines locally. The area was 'very white', she explained. The fact that she and her friends were all white didn't strike her as a problem — they were clearly not the sort of whites she had in mind. 'Her multiculturalism made her colourless; her class made her superior', says Collins [1]. Since the book was written, a more blatant manifestation of this prejudice has arisen: the fashion for mocking the baseball-cap-wearing 'chavs', who are pilloried for their accents, clothes, eating habits, ignorance and general lack of taste. The popularity of this pleb-baiting can be seen in the success of the relentlessly misanthropic ChavScum website, which has already spawned a cottage industry of spin-off books — buy one for someone you really hate [2].
One irony of this unedifying chav-baiting is that the mockers themselves are hardly standard-bearers for civilised values. The tabloid mentality is by no means the exclusive preserve of the poor and uneducated — 'dumbing down' is, after all, a phrase coined to describe the decline of cultural standards among the upper reaches of society, not those at the bottom. Why, then, are people queuing up to heap derision upon the hapless chavs?
There is a paradox in society today. The middle classes are enjoying a period of dominance in public life, but it is a hollow ascendancy. They are uncertain and anxious: they no longer have a highbrow culture to aspire to, and social status can be bought by anyone who can afford the price of admission. These days, Jack is as good as his Mastercard, and there is no going back to the days when deference was taken for granted.
Social and cultural boundaries might have become blurred, but the urge to enforce them remains. When one's sense of superiority is fragile, it is reassuring to have someone else to look down upon, and despising the chavs is thus an easy form of middle-class self-flattery [3].
On the face of it, this contempt is nothing new. Early twentieth-century writers such as Virginia Woolf and EM Forster also poured scorn on the masses for their supposed fecklessness, sentimentality, mawkishness, credulity, vulgarity, and lack of discrimination (then, as now, associated with mass-produced goods and processed foods) [4]. Yet there is one major difference between their snobbery and that of today, and it casts a revealing light on the state of the modern middle class.
In the past, the middle classes copied the upper class and repudiated the lower orders. They aspired to highbrow culture and an education featuring dead languages, classical music and literary greats. True, this culture was fully appreciated only by a minority, and there was never a shortage of philistines. Nevertheless, erudition — or a public-school education, at least — could be worn as a badge of honour, and this shared culture helped to cement a sense of common purpose. (It also helped to keep the lower orders in their place: autodidacts were often despised just as much, if not more, than the uneducated masses.) [5] Today, by contrast, the middle class has no serious cultural aspirations and no strong sense of identity.
Although the lower orders were kept at arm's length wherever possible, there was also a well-established tradition of intervention in their affairs. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, a section of the working class believed that it had both the power and motive to transform society, and began to organise accordingly. In response, politicians and missionaries of all sorts sought in their different ways to reconcile the more passive elements to the existing system. One-nation Tories tried to appeal to the patriotism, respectability and traditional values of the most conservative among them, and the archetypal 'working-class Tory' was born. The Fabians espoused their moralistic brand of watered-down socialism. The Christians tended to their inner-city flocks with scriptural blandishments, charity and soap.
-snip-
Collins talks to old people in Southwark who feel that their story — the working-class world of yesteryear — has been airbrushed out of history. One of them shows him a promotional brochure presenting Southwark to outsiders. It stresses the cosmopolitan nature of the borough, and talks of the immigrant groups that have lived in the area for centuries. It boasts that a third of the present population is from an ethnic minority and that more than a hundred languages are spoken in the area. 'They don't mention us English', says the pensioner. 'You wouldn't think we'd ever existed, would ya?'
It would be easy to point out that two-thirds of the population is not from an ethnic minority, and that it is unnecessary to draw any special attention to them. But the pensioner has a point. The authorities are uneasy about white working-class people, and sometimes give the impression that they would rather they didn't exist. The old working class doesn't fit the multicultural agenda — too many uncomfortable echoes of 'rights for whites'.
Even an issue as innocuous as recognising St George's day is a hot potato for most councils, who shun it not because of its irrelevance, but because they see the small band of campaigners for its celebration as the equivalents of fifth columnists for fascism. And it goes without saying that whenever fascism is invoked, there is an unspoken assumption that the white working class is involved. 'They were racist, xenophobic, thick, illiterate, parochial', says Collins, summing up the prevailing view. 'They survived on distant memories of winning one World Cup and two world wars… . All they represent and hold dear was reportedly redundant in modern multicultural Britain.'
Collins is on to something here. Multiculturalism, for all its talk of respect and tolerance, is nevertheless a divisive philosophy, which alienates significant numbers of white people. Yet Collins doesn't take on the arguments. Instead, by default, he adopts a position of 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'. His main objection to multiculturalism seems to be that it is a middle-class folly that excludes whites, and his implied solution is to rectify this oversight by celebrating their culture.
-snip-
Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com
Meaning, of course, that one-third are from an ethnic minority, almost all of whom arrived there within a generation. No matter where you are and what your ethnic group, does that sound like a workable plan for harmony?
I for one am happy to celebrate St. George's day. Why should those of Irish heritage get all the fun and attention with St. Patrick's Day? The Scots get off a little better as there are some St. Andrew's Day celebrations, like the Scottish walk in Alexandria, VA.
I remember standing at Elephant and Castle waiting for a bus to take me back "North" after visiting the Imperial War Museum.
To say that it was an interesting area would be an understatement,but you gotta admire ANYPLACE that has an Underground stop called Elephant and Castle.
Back in 1985 or thereabouts, my husband and I were standing at Elephant and Castle waiting on a bus after visiting the Imperial War Museum . . . when a stabbing occurred right in front of us. Two homeless men arguing about something or other. I will say that the police were on it like ugly on a warthog, they must have been following the guys. The victim was cussing up a blue streak, I don't think he was badly hurt, both he and his assailant were word-slurring drunk.
It WAS an interesting area, come to think of it. We wandered all over London and never had any trouble other than that . . . the fact that my husband is 6'6", 240 pounds, big bushy (at that time red) beard and looks like Grizzly Adams on a bad hair day had NOTHING to do with that, of course.
My wife and I took the underground to elephant and Castle when we went to the Imperial War Museum, and I agree that it is an interesting place.
We walked back to Waterloo for the return trip so we saw a little of the area.
That's why I took the Underground to the museum and the bus back. A little more sightseeing,although very slow.
The problem with the busses in London is that they run every 15 minutes on the average.
Which means that if you're waiting for example for a #47 bus you may wait for over an hour, and then six #47 busses will arrive one after another in a convoy.
Isn't that where the show "EastEnders" is supposed to be located? If that's what life is really like in Southeast London I could see why.
That's the nice thing about the US. It's not like the US doesn't have classes, but at least we're not obsessed with them. That said, this "urbane attitude" hip-hop subculture makes me sick to my stomach.
Just like the T here in the Boston area,they all come at once.
Actually I find the London transport system great. It is well marked in the Underground stations and even the bus stops are well marked.
The toughest thing for me in the UK is just plain crossing the street.God.I can't tell you how many times I almost bought the farm when I was not concentrating.
I'd like to get back this spring,before tourist season,to see the new Churchill Museum that just opened.I love history and I love old cities.
Well this is not strictly true: they've resurrected the street markets, they've still got the same seedy "luncheonettes" and I went to the same pantomine that I went to as a child, just recently.
There are too many roving street gangs, robberies do happen in broad daylight, shootouts are all too common and the only bakeries are hang outs for homosexuals. (Who give heteros the steeliest looks when they patronise "their" shops.)
Furthermore, Southwark cathedral still has a good congregation and great services.
Was in London in November... they have really, really gone overboard for this whole Eminem/hip-hop thing. MTV and videos are still onmipresent over there, and the overall effect is sad. Going back to Elvis, British pop culture has had a warped view of American society as seen through the TV filter, and now with TV monitors (and cameras) EVERYWHERE, they are subjected to our Hollywood trash culture on an unheard-of scale.
The graffiti is now much worse than New York's, and much of the youth are little foul-mouthed Eminem clones lashing out and rebelling at perceived slights where none exist. This "chav" thing is their most ridiculous manifestation of America's "gangsta" look.
Every single thing I enjoyed about my trip had to do with Britain's past; there was absolutely nothing charming about their present-day culture.
btt
I find it interesting that these people are making racial remarks at each other. It reminds me of blacks that call each other names. Is this just a societial thing that no matter what race there's always a need to talk about something racial?
This is what they do. The pendulum swings wilder in all non-US Western countries. Once upon a time it is considered Britain, with the public school and Oxbridge gentleman culture, is a farmore subdued one than the States. It's now the other way round. Contemporary British singers and bandslike the Oasis, the Verve, etc actually make their American counterparts appear more moderate relatively.
I have a Sri Lankan friend who remarked that the youth scene in the real US, outside Hollywood and Hip-hop scene, is still remarkably civil. In contrast, he says, youths in New Zealand and the UK seem to match more the Hollywood movie stereotype - vulgar, etc.
They were vulgar, ignorant, rude, violent, and, worst of all, an obstacle to the creation of a multicultural society.
The rise in denigration of the working class is a result of the rise of a new ruling class in Britain, one centered in the media, academia, and government bureaucracy. The working class was a valuable weapon in the war the New Class successfully waged against the old ruling class, centered in land, old money, and aristocracy, but now that the war has been won the old working class ideas and rhetoric formerly used against the old ruling class are a distinct threat to the new ruling class. Now they need a weapon against this new potential threat, and they don't have to look any farther than America to find that battle tested weapon: race. Racial politics give them the excuse to turn on their old allies and justifies their often undemocratic and "classist" attitudes and actions. They certainly don't want to share power with the working class, despite what they use to say, and if they brand them as Nazis they won't have to. They can pretty much sh**can all that old talk of a classless society and the heroic working man's rightful place in it, they can grab power for themselves and justify it on the grounds of anti-racism. Anti-racism in the West today justifies anything.
And in truth, there is a lot of "racism" in the working class, why shouldn't there be? It is they who bear almost all of the burden of the multiculturalism that so soothes the yuppie psyche, just as in America, and unlike their yuppie masters the poor have fewer options when it comes to pulling up stakes and moving to a nicer neighborhood when changes in their present one suddenly drive them to look for "better schools". Living cheek to jowl with the reality of multiculturalism often results in what the ruling class sees as antisocial behavior on the part of the white working class, such as racial jokes, insensitivity and, worst of all, voting Tory (not that the Tories ever do anything for them). It's the last one that really brings out the chav-bashing.
Here Julie Burchill, a former columnist for The Guardian drives the point home:
Of course, we all know who can't be trusted to play the white man with Johnny Foreigner: it's the working class, isn't it? That idle, boozed-up, aggressive white working class who are the only thing standing between this divided hellhole and life as one long Nescafé ad, with the residents of Hampstead giving high-fives to cheery old African gents in the dappled sunlight. That the working class might have a thoroughly legitimate reason for becoming more agitated about immigration than the tolerant middle class, with their health insurance, private schools and comfy cars, is never considered by these usually oh-so-caring types. Instead, anti-racism has become yet another stick for the ruling class to beat the working class with.The white English working class is now the only group of people that the chattering classes are happy to hear mocked and attacked. Whether it's Louis de Bernières decrying the "anti-education, anti-culture attitude of the white working class", Keith Waterhouse's tired old routine about the moronic Sharon and Tracey (but never Winston and Leroy, let alone Seamus and Paddy) or Jon Snow in this paper last week chiding the white working class - more in sorrow than in anger - for not being prepared to work all the hours God sends like those nice Indians/ Kosovans/Algerians, but rather wasting their time "sporting a red cross daubed across their faces watching Sky digital". (I thought the official caring liberal line was that we work the longest hours in Europe, and that it's bad for us and we should all relax more.)
What we now have is a new version of the deserving and undeserving poor - the noble new British working class, who are ethnic, and the thoroughly swinish old working class, who are white. And I honestly can't think of anything worse for race relations in this country than for its indigenous proletariat to be lectured on how lacking they are in comparison to the country's immigrant population, and how grateful they should be to have them here.
I don't remember the last time politicians praised the white working class for one damned thing they've done for this country, be it die in their millions in their masters' wars or risk their lives daily to pull coal out of the earth or face their dismissal with fortitude when their valour was repaid with the dole queue. If you want a full-on race-hate revival, just keep on telling people, as Robin Cook did, that there was no such thing as the British race (why is it on the Census, then?) or implying that, before immigration, this country was some sort of cultural wasteland, which is as silly and ill-sorted an idea as declaring that Africa and India were culturally impoverished before whites poked their noses in.
I read it's called Elephant and CAstle after a mispronounciation of a Spanish princess -- L'Enfanta de CAstile
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