Really great piece, and i appreciate your take on Marx. The ‘Aspirational Class’ has a lot in common with the class that formed the basis of the Proletariat in the 19th/20th century. I’d argue that it’s honestly the same exact thing: the aspirational class is a working class that is very far away from materially owning the means of production & of their labor. When it comes to their relationship with Capital, very little separates a factory worker in a 20th century steel mill from a temp-worker or a legal assistant nowadays.
I’m biased here, because I’m on The Left & do believe in the Socialist project. A huge challenge to bringing about class consciousness is an old problem; people in an aspirational class usually want to eventually transcend their class, and leap up the ladder. Also, there’s elitism in some parts of this class; lots of the aspirational class don’t want to recognize that they are not much further ahead, if at all, than an assembly line worker, or truck driver. That’s especially difficult in a country like the US, where it’s essentially everyone for themselves, and you’re supposed to always be accumulating more wealth and a higher position and leave everyone else behind. But the economic reality is so stark, even for the highest educated of the aspirational class, that there are real fractures starting to emerge in a way that hasn’t existed since before the red scare. Which gives me slight hope. But it could go either way!
I agree that the aspiration has really broken down and worn off for lots of people. Look at this immense wave of grad student unionizing--that happened because these students no longer believe that they will ever be professors. Same thing when a college kid unionizes their Starbucks--they're realizing they might be at this place a long fucking time. It's not just a waystation.
But just as the industrial proleteriat didn't lead to socialism, I dunno if the aspirational class will either! Maybe they'll just finally get us our six hour work-day.
Happy there is a real leftist amongst my readership tho!!! Probably a majority of my readers are to the right of me.
I really like your point about Marxism, it makes me think about how people on here sometimes just refuse to discuss markets when they’re complaining about some sort of cultural development that is clearly downstream from changes in the way corporate culture works.
Yeah, like all the things they hate about literature are a direct result of corporate conglomerization at every level of the book production and sale process.
It's funny. I follow a self avowed white marxist who only wrote about online culture and never learned anything. But you're just a normal person who reads books and I feel like I've learned a lot T.T
I'm fascinated by the idea of education being a gateway to middle class life. I spent the entirety of my 20s in poverty. And even now I make less than the national average for US employees. Though it doesn't help that I just wandered around from job to job with no vision or aspiration. And no one else my age in my family had gone to college.
Do you take notes as you read? Or do you just have a great memory??
I don't take notes. I do try, when reading non-fiction, to stop and ask myself, do I really understand what they're saying here? And if i don't, I read some background material (usually by googling for glosses on the book in question) until I do. I've found it's really helpful for me to learn the same thing several times. Like I'll read a novel about a time/place, then I'll read a book about it, then I'll listen to a podcast. Each covers the same events, but hearing them repeated or re-explained is more useful to me than just trying to study up on the subject.
Really great piece, and i appreciate your take on Marx. The ‘Aspirational Class’ has a lot in common with the class that formed the basis of the Proletariat in the 19th/20th century. I’d argue that it’s honestly the same exact thing: the aspirational class is a working class that is very far away from materially owning the means of production & of their labor. When it comes to their relationship with Capital, very little separates a factory worker in a 20th century steel mill from a temp-worker or a legal assistant nowadays.
I’m biased here, because I’m on The Left & do believe in the Socialist project. A huge challenge to bringing about class consciousness is an old problem; people in an aspirational class usually want to eventually transcend their class, and leap up the ladder. Also, there’s elitism in some parts of this class; lots of the aspirational class don’t want to recognize that they are not much further ahead, if at all, than an assembly line worker, or truck driver. That’s especially difficult in a country like the US, where it’s essentially everyone for themselves, and you’re supposed to always be accumulating more wealth and a higher position and leave everyone else behind. But the economic reality is so stark, even for the highest educated of the aspirational class, that there are real fractures starting to emerge in a way that hasn’t existed since before the red scare. Which gives me slight hope. But it could go either way!
I agree that the aspiration has really broken down and worn off for lots of people. Look at this immense wave of grad student unionizing--that happened because these students no longer believe that they will ever be professors. Same thing when a college kid unionizes their Starbucks--they're realizing they might be at this place a long fucking time. It's not just a waystation.
But just as the industrial proleteriat didn't lead to socialism, I dunno if the aspirational class will either! Maybe they'll just finally get us our six hour work-day.
Happy there is a real leftist amongst my readership tho!!! Probably a majority of my readers are to the right of me.
I really like your point about Marxism, it makes me think about how people on here sometimes just refuse to discuss markets when they’re complaining about some sort of cultural development that is clearly downstream from changes in the way corporate culture works.
Yeah, like all the things they hate about literature are a direct result of corporate conglomerization at every level of the book production and sale process.
I love that you read Marx. And I love that you gave props to your mom.
LOL! I was really impressed seeing her keynote. I knew my mom was very smart and good, but seeing it in action was something else.
It's funny. I follow a self avowed white marxist who only wrote about online culture and never learned anything. But you're just a normal person who reads books and I feel like I've learned a lot T.T
I'm fascinated by the idea of education being a gateway to middle class life. I spent the entirety of my 20s in poverty. And even now I make less than the national average for US employees. Though it doesn't help that I just wandered around from job to job with no vision or aspiration. And no one else my age in my family had gone to college.
Do you take notes as you read? Or do you just have a great memory??
That's so sweet! Thank you!
I don't take notes. I do try, when reading non-fiction, to stop and ask myself, do I really understand what they're saying here? And if i don't, I read some background material (usually by googling for glosses on the book in question) until I do. I've found it's really helpful for me to learn the same thing several times. Like I'll read a novel about a time/place, then I'll read a book about it, then I'll listen to a podcast. Each covers the same events, but hearing them repeated or re-explained is more useful to me than just trying to study up on the subject.