Britain less class-ridden

Britain has become less class-bound

Source:

• Wheatcroft, Geoffrey . The Making of the English Middle Class. <http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99jun/9906class.htm> 22.10.2007

Vocabulary

l. 1	toil - hard unpleasant work
l. 3	meritocratic - a ~ system is a social system where people get power / money on the basis of their ability
l. 8	to dilate - verb to become or to make sth larger, wider or more open
l. 8	predecessor – Vorgänger
l. 10	artificial – not natural (künstlich)
l. 11	albeit – although
l. 12	bundle - They bundled her into the back of a car.
l.17	reflection - your written or spoken thoughts about a particular subject or topic
l.18	to absorb - to interest sb very much so that they pay no attention to anything else
l.22	eminent- famous and respected, especially in a particular profession
l.25	distinctive = having a quality or characteristic that makes sth different and easily noticed
l.26	to acknowledge - to accept that sth is true
l.28	occupation - a job or profession
l.28	to observe = to see or notice something
l.33	triadic - divided in three parts
l.34	dichotomous - contrasting
l.36	pedantic - too worried about small details/things
l.36	nicety - precision
l.38	to apply in - to fit in
l.39	extending – cover area/time/distance
l.40	sharply aware – to exactly know sth (sich genau bewusst sein)
l.42	gentry – rich people owning land/upper class; burghers/citizen - middle class; toilers – workers, lower class
l. 47	to undermine = to make sth, especially sb’s confidence or authority, gradually weaker or less effective
l. 48	assertion = a statement saying that you strongly believe sth to be true
l. 48	hitherto = until now; until the particular time you are talking about
l. 54	to acquiesce = to accept sth without arguing, even if you do not really agree with it
l. 60	burgher = a citizen of a particular town
l. 62	wisdom = the ability to make sensible decisions and give good advice because of the experience and knowledge that you have
l. 62	virtue = behaviour or attitudes that show high moral standards
l. 64	crucial = extremely important, because it will affect other things
l. 66	consciousness = the state of being able to use your senses and mental powers to understand what is happening
l. 69	to obsess = to completely fill your mind so that you cannot think of anything else, in a way that is not normal
l. 71	yokel = if you call a person a yokel, you say they do not have much education/ understanding of modern life, because they come from the countryside
l. 76	peculiarity = a feature that only belongs to one particular person, thing, place, etc
l. 76	significance = the importance of sth, especially when this has an effect on what happens in the future
l. 77	distinctions = a clear difference or contrast especially between people or things that are similar or related
l. 79	anachronistic = a person, a custom or an idea that seems old-fashioned and does not belong to the present
l. 81	endeavor = to try very hard to do s.th.
l. 83	hitherto = until now
l. 89	meritocracy = the group of people with power in a social system
l. 90	indication = SYN: remark, sign
l. 92	sham = SYN: false, pseudo
l. 93	heir = legal right to receive sb’s property, money etc.
l. 93	dukedom = Herzogtum
l. 93	audibly = hörbar
l. 94	agonizing = causing great pain
l. 95	striving = to try very hard to achieve s.th.
l. 96	to peter out  = to gradually become smaller etc. and then end
l. 96	marsh = an area of low land that is always soft and wet
l. 96	amorphous = having no definite shape; shapeless
l. 97	vaguely = in a way that is not detailed or exact
l. 97	plebeian = uneducated, poor people
l. 98	avocation = SYN: hobby
l. 101	to desert = SYN: to sink
l. 102	clergyman = a male priest or minister in the Christian Church

Summary of the six main passages of the text:

1. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke of an ever growing middle class of people who see themselves as "working class", but have more abilities, opportunities, tolerance and ambition than their ancestors. According to him, soon everyone will be middle class. His predecessor , John Major imagined a classless society, but did not succeed, because in a society there will always be differences e.g. in income, power, abilities, so you never achieve a completely classless society. Margaret Thatcher called class a Communist concept, as it only saw the opposition of two classes.
2. It is an English obsession to divide the people in classes. As politicians and historians claim, the English care much more about class division than other countries. But there will never be a classless society as long as there are differences between people, e.g. in education, personal abilities, salary, jobs etc.
3. There are three different kinds of class-systems: hierarchical, triadic and dichotomous. The first one means that every person is part of a chain from highest to lowest and everyone knows exactly where they stand. The Triadic model is the division into three different parts: low, middle and upper class. The dichotomous system divides society in two completely opposed classes (e.g. rich/poor, capitalists – proletarian masses => Marx).
4. History shows that classes didn't only have conflicts (Marx) but could also cooperate. Moreover, society has always only worked as the majority of the people have accept it – including the idea of social inequalities. In England, the majority of people who believe in the triadic concept see themselves as middle class and are proud of it: A nation of “burghers”, tradesmen, reasonable, educated middle-class citizens!
5. During the industrialization, the system of class divisions changed from one defined by hierarchy to one defined by class, which had a huge effect. It helped to define a working class and brought forth the idea of an upper-middle class of “gentlemen” Most important for a gentleman: language => accent. In times before the Industrial Revolution people from poor to rich spoke the accent of their country/region, but now it was a question of speaking the accent of a class. So the upper-middle-class for example began to speak/speaks the “Received Pronunciation (RP)” or “Oxford English”, often learned at a “public school”
6. Public-schooling became a distinctive feature ~~> public-school-educated Tony Blair leads Labour (!). Upper- to upper middle-class accent arrived sometime in the eighteenths century and was a sure sign of class. Today this is departing. ~~> Today educated men like Tony Blair "lower their voices" if they speak on TV ==> try to sound less "upper-middle-classy" than they are. At the same time the children or the nobility no longer find their careers in parliament, the church of England, diplomacy or the Army and also speak "Estuary English".