Class and family in the US and A.
I've been musing about something. Beware, for I have mused and you are now subject to its consequences! Something came up with got me thinking about family and how class continuity can effect politics. For instance, anecdote-wise, about 3/4ths of those I know are worse off than their parents than their parents were at their age. The rest are either about the same or better off. What I have noticed is how some family mindsets are undergoing radical change due to class faults. Sure, families have always been schismatic, politically speaking. You have conservative wings and liberal wings and all that. But there is a certain break-down in communication occurring, as children are "left behind". Fathers and mothers are increasingly tut-tutting and murmuring, "I don't envy you guys."
On a deeper level, this is a radical redefinition of American attitudes. Not simply that America can be a place where the family legacy gets better, ever and ever upwards over time. But rather that families are simply happy with maintaining their status-quo. A lot of families have simply given up on the idea that they or their progeny will actually get more and more over time. Great swaths of America have plateaued.
But the deeper breakdown is that a 60s-90s middle-class American mindset is entirely different than a declining middle-class 2000s mindset. People are getting disgusted with their churches. Kids are revolting against the "happy-happy everything is grand" mindset of the housewife and successful father. Religious discourse and advice-giving is increasingly met with disdain as the next generation is given doses of meaningless bourgeois prattle about God, jobs and life.
Arguments are not simply political, but social and spiritual. A whole generation is saying, "That doesn't work!" It is not an argument, but a serious conflict. Not simply a "generational divide" between equally bourgeois groups arguing about politics or technology or whatever. But sharp, class-based logics running into each other.
But the more abstract question is what do these early fault-lines entail for the political process?
On a deeper level, this is a radical redefinition of American attitudes. Not simply that America can be a place where the family legacy gets better, ever and ever upwards over time. But rather that families are simply happy with maintaining their status-quo. A lot of families have simply given up on the idea that they or their progeny will actually get more and more over time. Great swaths of America have plateaued.
But the deeper breakdown is that a 60s-90s middle-class American mindset is entirely different than a declining middle-class 2000s mindset. People are getting disgusted with their churches. Kids are revolting against the "happy-happy everything is grand" mindset of the housewife and successful father. Religious discourse and advice-giving is increasingly met with disdain as the next generation is given doses of meaningless bourgeois prattle about God, jobs and life.
Arguments are not simply political, but social and spiritual. A whole generation is saying, "That doesn't work!" It is not an argument, but a serious conflict. Not simply a "generational divide" between equally bourgeois groups arguing about politics or technology or whatever. But sharp, class-based logics running into each other.
But the more abstract question is what do these early fault-lines entail for the political process?