Social Class and Culture

Class, as in social rank, is a truly self-defeating concept. Do you think "class" really exists in reality as it is talked about? How much of it is delusional? There is definitely inequality in terms of money, material possessions, and access to services and opportunities. But how much of that really determines the way people live? It's more the imaginary associations and feelings of entitlement or non-entitlement that are at the basis of action and thought. Advantages and disadvantages exist purely in the subjective realm; it is all but impossible to analyze what truly gives someone an edge. In a way, wealth and poverty are both curses. But within those curses also exist, like blades of grass in a rock-field, virtues. They need to be cultivated, though, those virtues. They will not grown on their own. Hence, culture. One can blame everything on class, as one can blame everything on race, gender, nationality. But what really matters is one's own ability to recognize the budding sprouts on the terrain on which one happens to find oneself (any terrain is a rough terrain, if you are on it). That's culture. Culture is not about family pedigree or socioeconopolitimetridevelopedevelopinginnercityrannical status. Similarly, class inequality is not about the average per capita income and the high school drop-out rate. It has to do instead with a displacement and misdirection of various discontentments and feeling of self-aggrandizement or diminution all across the board. It's all very phantasmagoric and symbolic. Mushy and shifty stuff, like light and sounds (art, music, that kind of thing). If only we were able to respect others in all walks of life (one person can be walking more than one walk at a time), and talk to each other in a straightforward way. Oh, superiority/inferiority complex! Oh, frankness! Oh, culture! By the way, there is no high or low culture. Do a somersault, and you'll see why.