It makes them look different to everyone
else. That’s because they are
different. They are a newly emerged social species of being who differ in
habit, attitude and values… broadly definable as a new social class. Just a few
decades ago they didn’t exist. Today we call them the Underclass.
They are to be found all over Britain,
numbering as many perhaps as five million. They are also to be found across
Europe, predominantly in Eastern Europe and the Ukraine but less so in Germany
and France, and given that their emergence coincides precisely with major
socio-economic changes in Britain and elsewhere, which, while different in
character, explain the reasons for their appearance. In Britain the political
era of Margaret Thatcher that dominated the 1980’s saw a profound decline in
traditional industrial manufacturing and the skilled labour that accompanied it
A process that had begun slowly in the preceding decade sharply accelerated and
continued on into the 1990’s. Occupations needing skilled and semi-skilled
labour were replaced by those requiring few skills in the new service
industries. The impact of this sudden, radical change in the employment and
cultural cohesion of the traditional working class and their communities was
substantial. As industrial production gave way to commercial and finance
capital large numbers of working people found themselves unemployed,
underemployed and bereft of their old identity. Those especially at the lower
levels of educational attainment pitched into poverty and cultural chaos. Prey
to demoralization, family conflicts and crises, their children subsequently
becoming victims of dysfunctional family life, alcohol and drugs.
And with these children, often descendants
of skilled working households, came the emergence in the following decade of a
new social class, its hapless members only too often the victims of family
break up, disharmony and despair. Semi-educated at best, unskilled, unemployed
or unemployable. Dissociated from old social values stressing stability and
loyalty of family ties, subject to alcohol abuse, engaging in petty crime, drug-taking
and violent conduct and unable to engage in constructive stable relationships.
A new class of people which in the absence of viable employment is economically
sustained through a culture of benefits dependence and petty crime to fuel
escape mechanisms such as drugs.
Having emerged in Britain they quickly took
on their own cultural identity. The women are fat and men semi-malnourished because they eat cheap. Eat
cheap because they have little money, spending much of it on tattoos, alcohol
or drugs. They keep aggressive dogs because they themselves are aggressive and
angry. They are the descendants of those who got left behind and abandoned by a
fast changing society and became coalesced into a social-historical excrescence
with its own content and form.
It was different in Eastern Europe. The
rapid formation of an Underclass, or lumpen-proletariat in Britain resulted
from rapid social change, mainly as a consequences of de-industrialization and
identity crisis. Elsewhere the situation arose from the political collapse of postwar
Stalinist regimes in the 1980’s and 90’s and subsequent economic chaos and
impoverishment when their populations could no longer rely on economic bailouts
and support from the old Soviet Union which had collapsed. Economically these
countries were now on their own, facing radical change as their industries
shifted from state support to private finance and enterprise. It meant millions of workers throughout
Eastern Europe and particularly the industrialized Ukraine facing catastrophe.
The result of this great economic turmoil and upheaval has seen a similar
social decay of the old working class throughout the region and emergence at
its bottom end of an angry, shiftless, unskilled, semi-educated new class with
new cultural values and symbols of identity. Indeed, an Underclass strikingly
similar in appearance and character to that which we have in Britain today!
This newly emerged British and East
European Underclass is clearly a generalised consequence of rapid
socio-economic upheaval and change. In Europe its political identity is often
with the far right. In Britain, fuelled by extensive immigration, the
manifestation of its political identity is that of a narrow Englishness rather
than a broader national identity of Britishness though the same can also said
to be true for the lower middle class! We are becoming a nation divided. One of
discrete narrow national identities replacing that which once was a collected
united whole.
The Underclass has been as politically
discernible in this narrowing identity as much as its culture and values make it
sharply discernible from all the other social classes, perhaps with the
exception of their love of aggressive dogs which again is also one of the joys
of lower middle class life. In fact, come to think of it, there is a strange
similarity in the cultural characteristics of both social classes. The
Underclass is often semi-literate whereas the lower middle class, while proudly
opinionated, is often stunningly ignorant with it. This similarity of
educational deficiency may best be explained by the desire in both social
classes for assertiveness. In the latter this is a function of their
marginality, in the case of the Underclass that of sheer aggression. Either way
both seem to know what’s what more than anyone else and won’t have anyone
telling them otherwise!
The lower middle class however are not into
tattoos. They prefer adorning their semi’s with decorative art forms rather
than their own bodies. Here garden gnomes come to mind, standing rigidly serene
among clusters of toad-stools, or girls with green faces lovingly suspended in
silence in countless living rooms. None of this Death’s Head or Chinese
lettering crap on arms and legs so beloved of those far below them in status and
class. Or even the delight of a Rose so lovingly etched above some stupefying
anal crack. This too is expensive but never mind, it’s often paid out of
benefits.
Such cultural joys are part of the fleeting
upside of life and little to do with the downside of Underclass existence,
either hidden behind the front doors of council dwellings or grimly emerging in
Social Services offices. Lack of money, prospects, fidelity and an inability to
cope. These are its main characteristics. For most any sweetness and light is
never sustained. However the problems caused by their dysfunctional lifestyle
are echoed only too often in family trauma as is readily seen in the Jeremy Kyle
show, an only too evident display of all that is deeply and disturbingly dysfunctional. Endless histories of appalling
behaviour where the conduct of both perpetrators and aggrieved victims never
fail to astonish selected audiences of other family members and random viewers
most of whom are underclass themselves or peripheral to it.
Not all of the Underclass lead disturbed
and dysfunctional lives. Mostly those whose circumstances, possibly a
combination of family background, unemployment and poor education, engender
stress and lack of self-control, ultimately leading to anger and violence. The
fact is that they exist in very large numbers. It’s no use going on about them
being vile as some media commentators are prone to do. Their existence is a
function of the social dynamics of modern economic life. They’ve suddenly
arrived as a social class whether anyone likes it or not and it’s useless for
the middle class to complain about their appearance onto the social scene. As
useless indeed as it will be to complain when half a million gypsies pitch up
in coach loads out of Romania during the course of next year!
The question is, are we to feel sorry for
or sympathize with the Underclass because of the problems they face and be
tolerant of their cultural lifestyle? I mean, simply as a matter of plain human
kindness if you will? Can we not say that their plight is really no fault of
their own and requires understanding?
WELL ACTUALLY NO!
People don’t have to behave badly to each other and everyone else. No-one’s
forcing them to externalize their problems. Give others trouble and misery not
of their own making. Cause problems and offence all over the show! If you don’t
like the deal you’ve been handed toughen up and do something about it to make a
better life for yourselves. It’s possible if you’ve got the courage. However,
this is for those whose social and personal behaviour is wanting in dignity.
Many of those in the Underclass are not prey to their emotions or victims of
their situation. They live normal untroubled lives and make the best of their
circumstances. It is only their poverty and culture that makes them only too
visible and easy to condemn by the snobbery that pervades British society i.e.
if you don’t like their culture then condemn it! Rather like our attitudes
towards immigrants who all so desperately want to be British! Well the Underclass
in a way are like immigrants. They’re newly arrived into the social structure
of British society with their own culture and values and they won’t go away.
Not until economic circumstances change over a generation or more and their
children move back up into the working class.
And like immigrants, the Underclass have
the distinction of being only too visible in appearance, habits and manner. But
then, and here’s a thought, can immigrants themselves belong to the Underclass?
Well we don’t see many Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Somalis or Poles wearing
hoodies and walking bull terriers on leads let alone wearing earrings, and
short trousers to show off their tattoos. Perhaps that’s because the majority
are ambitious and upwardly mobile, but not all. Gangs of Pakistani youths in
our northern cities display many symptoms of social deprivation but do they
belong to an Underclass? If so do they identify themselves with the youth of
the English Underclass? Perhaps not. Both groups may experience the same deprivation
but deeper cultural factors preclude any social class homogeneity. Social
scientists await further development for study, particularly among and between
the four traditional national identities of English, Welsh, Irish and Scots.
Meanwhile for the sake of a generalised
national identity, the Underclass is a social group that most people recognise
but don’t want to think about let alone come across. Except when they want to
get some fun out of them by watching the Jeremy Kyle show. In a way, observing
their dysfunctional conduct and learning its history provides an affirmation of
their own good fortune, their own ‘better’ more conservative values. A
reflection of what they are in
contrast to the sad awfulness of what they see. The question is, are the people
who appear on the show all hand-picked special cases, carefully selected as
case studies for one form of ghastliness or another, or is the entire
Underclass jam-packed with dreadful behaviour? It’s a fact that the show is
exceptionally popular. So much so that a parallel series runs in America with
much the same grossly fat women appearing! It’s popularity, perhaps, is that
many viewers want something unpleasant to contrast themselves with. As I’ve
said, a kind of self-affirmation or reverse mirror image of their own personal
sobriety. See, this is what you get if
you live normal… not like the
others. But then maybe those in the Underclass think that their own lives
are normal! Just consider… If they have no-one else to compare themselves with
except those in their own peer group then maybe they think everyone else is
just like they are, even Daily Mail readers who resent every penny they’re
getting on benefits!
But then not to worry! There’s no group of
people in the entire country who resent everything and everyone more than Daily
Mail readers! I mean if aliens from Planet Zog suddenly made a surprise landing
and said hi guys we want to be friends
you can bet your life that Daily Mail readers would seriously resent it. The paper
next day running a front page story on the dangers of Britain being invaded by
illegal alien immigrants with Ed Miliband promising to give them all immediate
free housing and state benefits if he won the next General Election after
having met their leader in secret! However the Daily Mail, after exposing this ‘vile’
socialist betrayal, wishes to assure all its readers that it is personally
taking up the case with the Prime Minister and will campaign tirelessly against
alien immigration from Planet Zog into Britain and make it their editorial
policy no less! And furthermore mobilize the entire population of Essex for
their campaign!
Finally let me say this. There will
undoubtedly be many seriously fat women out there who strongly resent any
blanket membership of the underclass they think I’ve ascribed to them in this
post. This is certainly not the case and is indeed a denigration of all those
who may engage in, for whatever reason, the uncontrolled guzzling of sugary
cream cakes and donuts. On its own any such sugar addiction does not
automatically qualify people for membership. Indeed, on a recent visit to a
local hospital I witnessed a couple of grossly plump ladies doing responsible
and important jobs in the National Health Service and on asking both for advice
it immediately became clear that they were certainly not members. No, belonging
to the underclass comes via a combination of qualifications acting in concert,
so no-one should jump to any conclusions if, for example, they see men covered
in tattoos. Things like that are only a pointer. However if you add to it a
pair of stud earrings, endless boozing, a predilection for eating cheap pies
and a fanatical support of certain football teams your supposition could well
be taking you in the right direction.
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