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Tuesday, Mar 28, 2017 - 22:33 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

It Cannot Wait

Every morning these days, I wake up and load up the news and lift my gaze to the skies and close my eyes and thank the heavens from the bottom of my heart for the great good fortune to have been born in the best timeline:


See that face?
That is the face of a man who is TROLLING THE UNIVERSE!
(Source: theindependent.co.uk)



Success, Classified

Following up on our expositions on class from last July and before, the dataisbeautiful subreddit has thrown up a concise summary of how the three classic social classes view success. There's a dinky visualization available elsewhere, but the point-form overview probably captures the essence:
  • Upper Class: Success is due to (innate?) ability, hard work & spirit
  • Middle Class: Success is due to education & luck
  • Working Class: Success is due to cheating, connections & start-up capital
[N.B. This presentation does conflate wealth with class, which I feel retains the original spirit; also, the assigned "top determinants" for each class are relative.]


One immediate reaction, particularly from those who have beaten the odds to "make it", is - ah-ha! This is why the poor losers remain poor, because of their bad attitude! Happily, looking at the comments, it seems that many have attained a more reasonable understanding of the situation.

To begin with, we invoke the old story about three blind men (in this case, mapping nicely to the classes) and an elephant - it's really a matter of perspective. Also, this appears a textbook case of fundamental attribution error: the rich upper class, who are more likely to view themselves as success stories, put it down to themselves, or internal factors. Whereas for the working class poor who are barely scraping by, their failures are blamed on external factors.

Of course, each of the classes is correct in a way. I'd gather that many of the wealthy upper(-middle) class do indeed work very hard - getting to and surviving at the top of high-powered professions such as investment banking, medicine and law is known to involve hellish hours, and a degree of meritocracy. Certainly, there are dull wastrel heirs, but those in general eventually squander their inheritances.

However, consider the working-class point of view now. Their (relative) disbelief in hard work being key to success can be pounced on as a character defect, but the thing is, they're not wrong either. To them, "hard work" is twelve hours a day washing dishes or hauling boxes about at minimum wage, which cumulates in - if they're lucky - a humble nest egg at retirement, coupled with a body that's falling apart from years of physical exertion: hardly "success!" in my books.


Unfortunate, because if the GOD-EMPEROR had received a bigger loan, he would have unified Planet Earth by now
(Source: knowyourmeme.com)


Likewise, their hang-ups on "connections" and "cheating" (or, more charitably, cunning) are not unfounded, either. For connections in particular, the difference in perception between the working and middle classes, and the upper(-middle) class, is especially stark. The realisation, then is that the upper class has connections, but it's all so natural to them, that they fail to recognize all the instances where they relied on those.

For example, an upper-class kid might think nothing of landing an internship at a national newspaper, thanks to caddying for Uncle Charles, who then put a good word in for him - and hey, he worked damn hard at the Times, he'll have you know. However, to a working-class lad, "Uncle Charles" happens to be Charles X. Cabotsworth III, vice-editor of the Enquirer, who's about as unapproachable to him as Zeus on Mount Olympus; his own Unca Joe is passed out drunk on the couch.

Likewise for capital - a rich kid (who, however, doesn't see himself as rich, because his family only owns three houses, and the other two don't really count because one of them is just a cabin by the lake, a trifling three-bedroom affair, and they haven't quite paid the mortgage down on the last one yet) has the luxury of dismissing capital, and thinking himself brave for risking a year on a start-up. For a working-class person, however, that "tiny" initial fifty thousand bucks could literally be life or death for his family... if he could get his hands on it, which he can't, because banks are stingy like that.

Again, it seems that the middle class isn't a bad place to be...


...with some SABATON SPIRIT! DEUS VULT TRUMP!
[N.B. Manowar tribute; referenced songs left as an exercise]


Oh, and saw Tan Cheng Bock at Westgate during a 师妹's graduation lunch today. Had to mention this somewhere.



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Next: Hope No Change


Related Posts:
In Another Class (Part One)
The Stars Are Right
GRE
In Another Class (Part Two)
Divine Providence
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