This is an interesting take. It makes total sense to anyone from the Non-Urban Continuum, but different enough from my experience to be complementary. Another point of view on the time.
Class is important and complex. Fractal, where every slice subdivides hierarchically. One thing the working class was less attuned to was the “aspirational” upper middle class. The ones obsessed with establishment class trappings but with no understanding of what establishment class socio-culture was. Get a Beemer. Get the kid into Ivy world. The implication being it’s an entry. It really isn’t. The elites were presegregated. It’s not who gets the diploma, it’s the special invitation only clubs and societies. Social networking outside school in inaccessible venues. That has no interest in a willful hedonistic outlier floating along on test scores and RAM. But I could see it. And see that it wasn’t for me.
There are - or were - class exceptions that were an important part of smooth beast system operations. I suspect that’s gone now. The elite used it to sift for useful talent. Potential ticket takers. There was a Wall St./ Big Law path into the room. Senior partners and global banksters came through an insanely ruthless selection system. Everyone wanted to be Gecko, but 98% were gone in 3 years. Others could show the right gifts and personality. But most just high-functioning NPCed their way down the available clear paths to middle class comfort. Because there was a brief window where a “meritocratic” [by system rules] path coexisted with finishing school for the elite. That’s probably gone too.
"I was intellectually unprepared to counter even the most specious of Marxist arguments. Instead, I was dumb-founded. I was wondering how he could come by the knowledge he had while I had never even heard of the authors he was referencing."
"I understand now that I was being trained according to my class and station."
This strikes an echo, in hindsight. The only real challenging ideas I was exposed to was my radically Marxist friend in secondary school. He could out-argue any one of us, though we were all his intellectual equals.
This is an interesting take. It makes total sense to anyone from the Non-Urban Continuum, but different enough from my experience to be complementary. Another point of view on the time.
Class is important and complex. Fractal, where every slice subdivides hierarchically. One thing the working class was less attuned to was the “aspirational” upper middle class. The ones obsessed with establishment class trappings but with no understanding of what establishment class socio-culture was. Get a Beemer. Get the kid into Ivy world. The implication being it’s an entry. It really isn’t. The elites were presegregated. It’s not who gets the diploma, it’s the special invitation only clubs and societies. Social networking outside school in inaccessible venues. That has no interest in a willful hedonistic outlier floating along on test scores and RAM. But I could see it. And see that it wasn’t for me.
There are - or were - class exceptions that were an important part of smooth beast system operations. I suspect that’s gone now. The elite used it to sift for useful talent. Potential ticket takers. There was a Wall St./ Big Law path into the room. Senior partners and global banksters came through an insanely ruthless selection system. Everyone wanted to be Gecko, but 98% were gone in 3 years. Others could show the right gifts and personality. But most just high-functioning NPCed their way down the available clear paths to middle class comfort. Because there was a brief window where a “meritocratic” [by system rules] path coexisted with finishing school for the elite. That’s probably gone too.
"I was intellectually unprepared to counter even the most specious of Marxist arguments. Instead, I was dumb-founded. I was wondering how he could come by the knowledge he had while I had never even heard of the authors he was referencing."
"I understand now that I was being trained according to my class and station."
This strikes an echo, in hindsight. The only real challenging ideas I was exposed to was my radically Marxist friend in secondary school. He could out-argue any one of us, though we were all his intellectual equals.
"I now know that it was more indoctrination than education."
I think this applies to almost everyone who went to college. As well as to all those who didn't.