Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
yes you got it wrong (as danny pointed out) and i simply supplied the correct version.yes that's the joke
yes you got it wrong (as danny pointed out) and i simply supplied the correct version.yes that's the joke
Jarvis Cocker, who I made my remark about, as a wealthy, famous pop-star, published author and TV celebrity, with a virtually inexhaustible source of Surplus Value of his own and (no doubt) a reasonable pool of Wealth from which to draw, is not Working Class, except that he might choose to identify as working class because of feels.
I was just making my own Karl/Groucho gag, to be fair.yes you got it wrong (as danny pointed out) and i simply supplied the correct version.
yours at least had the merit of being funnyI was just making my own Karl/Groucho gag, to be fair.
pretty much every good idea which comes from a wc position (free festivals, music, fashion, art) gets stolen and monetised (and sanitised) by the middle classes. Is this a fair assessment or just some drooling rubbish from a disaffected loser.
I have a wood (yep, I think the desire for land was a visceral need for this peasant). My immediate neighbours have all started 'forest schools' creative writing classes, yoga retreats, glamping sites and wedding venues. My class history absolutely precludes me from entering into this world, even though I am horribly skint. I have opened it up for the use of the local community and am getting some pushback from my neighbours. It is fascinating (to me) that social capital and confidence has not fallen on my shoulders despite being a land-owner and having a degree or 2. Class and its discontents is all very complex for this simpleton (so much so that I am packing my toolbag to go and play in the soil).
On my small site (17 plots) there is not a single one which is being worked by someone who isn't a home-owner with gardens (although tbf, one of them only has a balcony and a shared community garden). This is not a large urban site, which tend to be more heterogenous, but a small site in the middle of the muesli belt. Not a single renter (except me). I remember long waiting lists in the 70s - not just 'The Good Life, but the Seymour's 'Self-Sufficiency' created a big surge in allotment use. By the 90s, allotments were out of fashion again and the council couldn't rent them fast enough (my youngest had one too), so at one stage, I had 4, at 2 different sites and had one in Brighton when I was at college (92-5) By around 2005/6/7, 'grow your own' was back in fashion and allotments were highly sought after - it was impossible to rent a whole plot, with council allocated divisions and subdivisions... so I started to get some grief for having more than anyone else (2 at that time) and worse, was selfishly growing flowers instead of feeding a family. I almost gave in to keep the peace (plus, there was the wood, although not accessible by bike) until it got a bit nasty, with accusations flying around on social media (at which point I dug in my heels) I couldn't help but notice none of my fellow allotmenteers were not giving up spare bedrooms to homeless people. (while I have to pay the bedroom tax)...and a few were not doing much on their allotment either (I was offered money to maintain one of the plots!). At least 2 of them have a second home (in France and Spain) and bugger off every summer anyway. Suspect for some, it's all about lifestyle boasting.. although I have to be firm with myself that I am not being 'greedy and selfish'.one of the (many) things that fuck me off is the appropriation of allotments by the MC in the seventies, pushed via programmes such as the vile Good Life with Felicity Kendal. These days many on the left will denounce allotments and laugh at working class folk having the audacity to grow their own veg.
Who are these people on the left denouncing allotments? I haven't come across this.
these are real things that actual people have said?From my experience of some, you can get a mix of:
- why will the working class revolt if they have full bellies? best keep them in a state of discontent so we can step in and guide them when they kick off.
- they will only sell what they grow and become petit-bourgeois.
- if people stopped partaking in the globalised production process it would effect technological development and put a spanner in us all going to live on mars.
these are real things that actual people have said?
Yeah, some of the bigger sites have a much wider mix of gardeners but my site is truly mc. I get on OK with most of them but it never escapes my attention that I am the only council estate resident. It wasn't always the case...but I have seen some really depressing demographic changes in my hometown...particularly in this very small, central site, over the last 20odd years I have been on this allotment.The resident trot nightmare I mentioned earlier said it was ridiculous and a waste of time for people to grow food, learn to look after themselves, learn how to live in harmony with nature etc. They should spend their time listening to him talk about Trotsky for eternity. The dickhead.
On my plot we have two posh m.class types who are not originally from the area but they're dead canny and not those poncy artisan m.class types. The rest of us are all bog standard locals.
Everyone on our plot (there's 28 gardens) is sound, friendly and really helpful. About half are retired. Everyone shares tips, seeds, spare veg and stops for a chat. We couldn't care less what people grow! I'm from Sunderland which is still vast majority working class and white but they've all taken the two mc people and an Indian family under their wing. I think it's great that a shared interest has got people mixing and really getting on with each other. However, it might be different if locals ever feel displaced by mc gardeners.Yeah, some of the bigger sites have a much wider mix of gardeners but my site is truly mc. I get on OK with most of them but it never escapes my attention that I am the only council estate resident. It wasn't always the case...but I have seen some really depressing demographic changes in my hometown...particularly in this very small, central site, over the last 20odd years I have been on this allotment.
I really only feel a bit mocking towards a couple of them (quite well paid professionals) who always make such a song and dance that they are 'saving money' and that whole frugal shit (although they never actually stump up for decent fertiliser or equipment and often buy plug plants...of bloody lettuces and stuff... They give me a hard time for growing 'fripperies' instead of 'feeding my family' ( Grief, I am a snob too, I guess).
A lot of wc people are totally displaced...not just from allotments but from any chance of living in this increasingly polarised town. Fucking silicon fen...I hate it in many ways.Everyone on our plot (there's 28 gardens) is sound, friendly and really helpful. About half are retired. Everyone shares tips, seeds, spare veg and stops for a chat. We couldn't care less what people grow! I'm from Sunderland which is still vast majority working class and white but they've all taken the two mc people and an Indian family under their wing. I think it's great that a shared interest has got people mixing and really getting on with each other. However, it might be different if locals ever feel displaced by mc gardeners.
Kenan Malik said:They do so to create “elaborate ‘origin stories’” that “downplay important aspects of their own, privileged, upbringings” and allow them “to tell an upward story of career success ‘against the odds’” that “casts their own achievements as unusually meritocratically legitimate”.
The desire to be seen as working class may seem to be at odds with the demonisation of the poor. In fact, it’s part of the same process. It’s a way of people viewing themselves as “strivers”, not “shirkers”, to use the language of former chancellor George Osborne, as possessing both the authenticity of a humble background and the nous to escape it.
Implicit here is the suggestion that those who are in precarious or low-paying jobs, or are unemployed, have only themselves to blame for not having the wherewithal to escape their background.
noToo long. Are they discussing class as an identity then?
no
includes mention of this essay from 201, for example
The rise and fall of the professional-managerial class.
BARBARA AND JOHN EHRENREICH
*i like to listen to stuff while cooking
Ta. I might have a listen if I get a spare couple of hours.no
includes mention of this essay from 201, for example
The rise and fall of the professional-managerial class.
BARBARA AND JOHN EHRENREICH
*i like to listen to stuff while cooking
skip around using the chapter links, its in bits, that helps break it upTa. I might have a listen if I get a spare couple of hours.
she talks about the book at length hereBumping this thread because I think Foley’s review of Catherine Liu’s book ‘Virtue Hoarders’ need to be more widely read. This is both a good piece of writing and really penetrating on what the PMC is and what role it plays within the left (and what role the left plays for it
The New Dangerous Class? The PMC And Virtue Hoarding | Conter
In a review of a new book about the ‘Professional Managerial Class’ , James Foley says middle-class activists dress up conformity as a war on cultural backwardness.www.conter.co.uk
Info on the book, which I haven’t read, is here:
Virtue Hoarders
A denunciation of the credentialed elite class that serves capitalism while insisting on its own progressive heroism Professional Managerial Class (PMC) elit...www.upress.umn.edu
she talks about the book at length here
shes on at 35minutes