Jim Devine wrote:
> (It reminds me of when Harry Braverman reports that polls indicate that
> most people consider themselves middle class -- and most people consider
> themselves working class, too.)
Could this be interpreted that most people are both in touch with the reality
of their lives (they are working class) but also have incorporated one of the
core concepts of bourgeois ideology (the middle class) into their thinking.
(This is not to deny that there is a demographically small but perhaps
politically important class of petty producers, many of whom also consider
themeselves both middle class and *workers*, if not "working class.")
One source (or effect) of this omnipresent illusion of a "middle" class is the
value judgments it sneaks in. There is an "upper" class and a "lower class" --
and "lower-class" is a not infrequent sneer word.
Carrol
