Today my thoughts rest in the bounds of class, and what they mean, and how they effect one's place in the world. These thoughts are by no mere chance coming to me today, for today I started reading 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' by Baroness Orczy. For those of you unaware or unfamiliar with this book, it is about an English nobleman who saves French aristocrats from the aftermath of the French Revolution. This book certainly has a definite perspective concerning the French Republicans, and it is not a good one. I agree in effect with the book to a large degree, because the Republican revolution was brutal severing people's heads simply because they owned an aristocratic name. This made me think about the perspective upon the aristocracy around the world, and moreover it made me think about the uniqueness of the French aristocracy.
The French even now are renowned for their deep and significant culture, French cooking is considered premium, and French wine is considered the same, many art movements came from France, and French was the language of all European courts for several centuries. To be considered extremely cultured today, it is often reflected in one's ability to speak French. Now, I realise that I have many frankophobic tendencies, but I acknowledge that France is considered the country of class, and that it could be seen nowhere more so than in the French court and French aristocracy. These institutions were in several ways the pinnacle of class and splendour throughout Europe, ye and indeed the world. To think that a group of plebeian proletariats could overthrow these bastions of culture,excess and wealth baffles me.
I am not saying at all that they did not have cause to overthrow their social superiors, or that the people of France were not suffering by the tyranny of the king. I know that the revolution was a result of something oppressive and horrendous to live under, but at the same time, it makes one wonder. I mean, where does class come from, and why was France particularly adept at owning so much power, influence and culture? Obviously, they are all products of wealth, and wealth is the product of excess. The ability to not really work, or not work in an occupation of resource extraction or fabrication is a condition of excess in the system. I do not think France was particularly more wealthy than any other nation to allow a group of bourgeois an extreme ability to flaunt their wealth and culture above the rest of Europe of that time, but they did all the same.
Outside of France, England has always held a great position of class-ism, but never had the desire to have a similar revolution to that of France. The English nobility, I shall allow seem far more modest in flaunting their wealth than do the French, but still, they were obvious about their positions in society. I suppose it is true that a good deal of how one's position was distinguished, and remains distinguished today, is by the usage of one's language. The more right, or proper it seems, generally the higher one's class is in society, and the more it deviates from this, the lower. So, this leads me to the obvious question: where does all of this class and culture lead us to today, in our lives?
Strangely enough, it is my very ambition to achieve a lifestyle filled with class and culture, and thereby a dignified one. If it were in my financial power, I would live a relatively modest, yet proper cultured life, that did not show gaudy excess, nor poverty. It is funny to me, because it makes me think of the superficial things in life. For example, I have taken a keen interest in fashions lately, and what one's style of dress says about him. The most obvious extraction would could make from such observations are wealth, and thereafter class, because simply because one does have wealth does not mean he has class. There is a great distinction between the two in my mind and especially in America. Texans and Californians tend to have an obsession with the superficial features of wealth, making it obvious and distasteful. The East coast, though not making any pains to hide their wealth necessarily, will not go to the same extent to exhibit their wealth. The social reasons and ramifications for this distinction between these two regions are not important at present, but bear this fact in mind all the same.
As to fashion, wearing things that are expensive is not always in good taste, or congruent with dictations of culture and class. The main point I suppose is to illustrate the ability for someone to show off their class and culture through the means of their budgets by what they wear, or in the western part of this nation, by what they drive. The class distinctions made by speech and dialect is of course very fascinating to me, being a linguist, but that is too difficult to tackle for this already too large entry. Suffice it to say, that the higher the education, making higher class, resulting from excess wealth enough to nothing especially productive for society, is the greatest indicator of one's position in life, and of course it expresses many other things, like where someone is from geographically.
Naturally, there are far more subtle elements to identifying someone's class than just these, but they are too hard to see upon the surface, save by looking at one's interests, or noticing things like how they spend their time, or learning what they know. Through Bayesian reasoning one could potentially deduce the exact standing of a person, but there is one element I think is beyond this, or at least confuses the results of thinking this way, and that is the mentality of the person being analyised. If someone has a will to access dignity and culture and class, though they may not be in the social stratus to grant them this allowance, they can achieve it in time if they work sufficiently hard, or devotedly to this pursuit. I know this is a particularly American attitude to have upon such matters, but I think with the right amount of cunning it is possible nearly everywhere to achieve. America is exceptional in its opportunities, but I think it is achievable through most developed nations.
Well, in conclusion, I think though it should not be the only pursuit of everyone, it is certainly my own, and I feel that betterment can ultimately be obtained most through dignity, propriety, class and culture. To this end, it is my ambition to achieve these things, and I hope I am not seen as snobbish or pompous for such a desire but, it truly is what I want out of my life now, dignity, class and culture.