The Bourgeois Barrier.

The history of humanity is dominated by the constant treading down of the lower classes by a small, elite minority of rich and powerful people. England is no exception to this and has seen its fair share of uprisings down the centuries, from the Peasants Revolt in 1381 to the Chartist Movement during the Industrial Revolution.

I would argue that, although less extreme, the same thing is still happening. Identities have changed, of course. Where the tyrants were once the King and his landed gentry, and then the rich Victorian capitalists, now the tyrant is less easily identified. It’s a vague thing we might call ‘the system,’ represented by the bankers, the city whiz kids and prominent entrepreneurs like Gates and Branson - people who have far more money than they can ever hope to spend. The ‘peasants’ are now those stuck in low paid jobs, the unemployed, the homeless, the working class pensioners, the incapacitated, those not fundamentally equipped to do the jobs that are available in the modern world, and those living on or below the bread line in disadvantaged areas.

Based on the lessons of history, the time would appear ripe for another uprising, but it won’t happen because the system has been very clever in learning how to protect itself. It has contrived to place a formidable barrier between the tyrant and the downtrodden. It has created a burgeoning bourgeoisie, and keeps them content by feeding them a largely false notion of ‘aspiration.’ It gives them shiny badges to wear as symbols of their status and allegiance – the latest motor cars, the four bedroom detached houses in smart areas, the fashionable clothes, the high tech gadgets, the foreign holidays, the baubles, bangles and beads. It has carefully nurtured several generations of people into a rigid belief that this is the only proper way to live a human life. And it has unashamedly conditioned the bourgeoisie to look up to the tyrants and down at the peasants.

And so the peasants no longer have the power of majority. They can't reach their oppressors because there simply aren’t enough of them to sweep aside the indolent majority holding the middle ground. All they can do is smoulder until things feel so bad that they’re moved to riot. It happened several times in Britain during the Thatcher years, and I suspect it will happen again before too long. And if it does, the peasants will be held up to the hating gaze of the decent, aspirational middle classes as articles of repulsion. They will be easily denounced as dangerous and irresponsible. But two questions have to be asked here.

Who are the really dangerous and irresponsible people, the peasants or the tyrants who kick them when they’re down? And who are the real pawns in this sordid game, the lower orders or the burgeoning bourgeoisie?