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Originally Posted by Kemmer
Nah. The middle-class just got caught up in the romanticism of praising the "less civilized." Think: Rousseau. They became ashamed of themselves, and tried to dumb themselves down, ASAP. (They, now, attend funerals dressed like they're ready to clean the garage.)Sometimes, excessive shame is a kind of arrogance. I fault the American middle-class for their turn-around (yes, back in the '60's) that left those of us in blue-collar America, and in "poor-America", who looked up to them, and tried to emulate them, mired in dysfunction.Aristocrats always indulge in nasty practices, just because they can. "The Poor" indulge in nasty practices, just because if you can't be a success, you might as well just have fun.It's the stodgy middle-class, with all its proscriptions on indulging in fleshly pleasures, and demands for hard work, thrift, responsibility, and general moral rectitude that keeps society on an even keel.IMHO, our middle-class has lost its way. From that, all dysfunction flows. Without a PROUD middle-class, we're left with aristocrats (CEO's of Mega-Corps & high, government bureaucrats) & peasants (the rest of us.)*shudder*Different explanation, same conclusion.