"There was no literate middle class to produce a literature. In a pastoral cityless land they lived remote and at economic war with both slave and slaveholder. When they emerged, gradually, son by infrequent son, like old Sutpen, it was not to establish themselves as a middle class but to make themselves barons, too.”
[William Faulkner, describing the class structure of the prewar South to Malcolm Cowley.]
Rich are evil
ReplyDeleteMiddle are better
Lower are best
Strikes me that an alcoholic serial adulterer finds economic aspiration to be an immoral act.
ReplyDeleteI don't think what Faulkner is describing is economic aspiration. What he's describing is delusionsal thinking.
ReplyDeleteConsistently, when surveyed, some 75% of drivers place themselves among the top 10%. Delusional thinking.
Similarly, the middle class all vaguely want to be in the top 1%. I say vaguely because it's not that they really have a plan to get there, and most have no better chance than the lottery of that actually happening. But they can kind of see themselves there. Clearly, less than 1% will actually make it (since some started there to begin with). Again, delusional thinking.
And Anon 1:32, again, criticizing the speaker, as opposed to the substance of what s/he says, is sloppy thinking, and doesn't advance the discussion.
Ken
Dallas
It won't really have success, I consider so.
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