Breakthrough Writer

Updated for 4-4-16: Paul Fussell's Class Anxieties, The X Way Out, and Sample Thesis Statements

 

 

In-Class Bluebook Essay Prompt

Explain how being an X Person (from the chapter "The X Way Out") helps save us from the misery of class status.

Paul Fussell’s Class Anxieties Lesson 4: Language, Speech, and “The X Way Out”

Four Writing Options

One. In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.  

Alternative Option: 

Two. In a 4-page essay, defend, refute, or complicate Fussell’s assertion that class is not as mobile as the American Dream purports it to be; rather, social class is more fixed like a caste system. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources. 

Alternative Option:

Three. Using bell hooks' essay "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class" (Acting Out Culture, pages 287-295), develop a cause and effect analysis thesis that supports Fussell's contention that ascending the class ladder results in colossal psychological upheaval and speaks to the hyper-competition that defines the American Dream. 

Alternative Option:

Four. Develop an analytical thesis about the way class is perceived in the African American community or another ethnic group. How do race, culture, and history contribute to the unique attitudes minorities attach to the codes of social class? 

Class Definition Summarized

Where you live, what degree of education you have, what kind of job you have, how you dress, and entertain yourself, and how you speak all are part of the class code by which our fellow Americans judge and rank us according to the hierarchy system. 

Let us be clear: Your class can even determine your happiness and life expectancy, as we read in "All Hollowed Out," an article that would make a good resource.

Also consult "America's self-destructive whites."

And consult "Why Are White Death Rates Rising?"

Study Questions 151-187

One. What social class is most guilty, according to Fussell, of using pretentious, self-regarding language?

The middle class is fond of advertising how “educated” and “classy” they are by using elevated terms when a more plain term will do quite nicely.

They’ll use the following:

Cocktails instead of drinks

Individuals instead of people

Position instead of job

Albeit instead of although

Roadway instead of road

Purchase instead of buy

Affluent instead of rich

Subsequently instead of later

Proceed instead of go

At the local level instead of locally

Academia instead of college

Matriculating through college instead of going through college

Predicated on instead of based on

Utilize instead of use

Terminate instead of end

Tres chic instead of very chic or very cool

Mindful instead of thoughtful

My journey instead of my life

Élan or moxie instead of energy or spunk

Vis-a-vi instead of regarding

Montage instead of mix

Voila! instead of wow!

Gauche instead of tacky

Entrée instead of dinner or main dish

Fin de siècle instead of end of century

Sobriquet instead of nickname or pet name

Coquettish instead of flirtatious

C’est la vie instead of “it is what is is.”

Joie de vivre instead of lust for life

Denouement instead of conclusion

Chanteuse instead of singer

Circumferentially challenged instead of fat

I work as a garbologist instead of I work as a garbage man.

Two. Fussell is clearly disgusted with the vanity and pretentiousness of the middle class. He says the way out of this nonsense is to become an X person. What are the X person’s distinguishing characteristics? 

You belong more to a category than a class because you do not identify with a class. A class is a label that society tries to impose on you. It is a label that insecure people aspire to embrace because they lack the core identity to define themselves in ways that are beyond class status. 

You are born into a class, but you earn X status through hard work, curiosity, and rejection of society’s consumer scripts and clichés. 

Entering category X often results in ostracism from family, friends, and the “tribe” that dictates your class because your rejection of their “lifestyle” and values is implicit condemnation of them. 

Entering the creative class—through the pursuit of art, music, and writing—often makes one a member of category X. 

Being a member of category X requires artistic talent and originality. 

X people are independent and have arch disregard for the status yearned for by the middle class. In fact X people have contempt for middle-class aspirations. As a result, they are sometimes referred to as bohemians. 

X people avoid brand clothing because they prefer to dress comfortably and to “dress down.” 

A lot of X people clothing choices are explained in David Brooks’ masterpiece Bobos in Paradise. X people wear “earth shoes” and earth colors and coats made from the fur of alpaca and llamas. X People dress according to form and function more than to show. 

X people are drawn to Subaru cars, which evidence oneness with nature. 

X people’s priority for living location is based on proximity to delicious, cheap restaurants than social status or living in “the right place.” 

X people are not dependent on their job, job title, career choice, or income level for their self-identity. 

X people live in the present rather than waiting for some future where their lives will be “full of grand moments and riches.” 

They prefer old house to new tract home. And they never manicure their lawns. During drought, they are the first to let all the grass and shrubbery die. 

They keep their cars for over 15 years and rarely wash them. Nor do they touch up dents and scratches as these imperfections give their cars “character.” 

X people never eat turkey on Thanksgiving, but prefer more off-the-track dishes such as Thai Curry, Vindaloo, Spanish paella, Russian borscht, Ethiopian Doro Wat and Injera, and Nigerian fufu. 

X people avoid all chain restaurants like Appleybee’s, Olive Garden, TGI Fridays, and Cheesecake Factory as these restaurants are condemned as soulless and corporate owned, designed to make food based on focus groups and “market research.”  

X people are good cooks and can make delicious meals with a few good ingredients.  

X people are voracious readers. 

X people are masters of geography and can look at a blank globe and point to the city of Karachi, Nairobi, or Vallejo with great ease. 

X people are critical thinkers, and they never “drink the Kool-Aid” of one camp of thought as they prefer to balance one type of thinking with its counterpoints in order to have a better informed opinion. 

X people avoid euphemisms and other forms of phony, pretentious language. 

X people avoid ostentation at all times. 

X people never advertise that they are X people. Content with their identity, they feel no need to be evangelists for the X Way of Life. 

Unlike the rest of America, X people do not suffer from class anxieties.

Perhaps most importantly, X People value critical thinking, the craft of developing informed opinions, more than consumerism. If we had to boil down the difference between X People and the rest of Americans it would be this: A life of ideas or a life of buying things. 

Applying Paul Fussell's Chapter "The X Way Out" to Essay Prompt #1

In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.  

Sample Thesis Response

Paul Fussell convincingly shows that the idea of social class in America is a mental disease, either a lowly condition of learned helplessness in the lower classes, a neurotic and fearful need to conform in the middle or a lofty position of obnoxious pride in the upper. Our "only way out" is, to follow Fussell's pointing to the Exit Sign is to be a X Person. An X Person rejects the learned helplessness of the lower classes, the pathetic groveling of the middle classes, and the disgusting smugness of the uppers. The X Person is characterized by having a sense of irony, a sense of the cosmopolitan world traveler, a love for knowledge for its own sake, a curiosity for all things, a disdain for class status, a love of critical thinking that makes her reject society's soulless scripts for living, and an appreciation for culture and the arts. While I am too young to have fully fleshed out my X Person aspirations, my Aunt Ciara is a bona fide X Person, as defined by Fussell, evidenced by __________________, __________________, ____________________, and _____________________. 

Another Response

McMahon's championing of Paul Fussell's X Person Archetype is bogus. A close examination of the X Person reveals a vain human being, not all free from social status, but just as imprisoned by image as his upper- and middle-class counterparts. The X Person's imprisonment is evidenced by _________________, ________________, __________________, and ___________________. 

Another Response

While I will concede that X People can be vain, I am not claiming that X People are perfect. What's compelling in Fussell's book is that Americans tend to be enslaved by a social class category due to a lack of critical thinking skills that renders them consumer philistines. In contrast, X People demonstrate a more desirable existence evidenced by __________________, ______________________, _________________________, and ________________________. 

Another Response

While X People begin their critical thinking journey with noble motivations, their bohemian or hipster lifestyle eventually gets co-opted or appropriated by big industry so that the trappings of X People--clothes, cars, hairstyles, to name a few examples--become part of a consumer script that is just as lame and superficial as any other class designation. 

Another Response

Even if, for the sake of argument, my opponent is correct and that X People cultural mores become appropriated by Big Industry, that doesn't make the X Person lifestyle "lame" or superficial." One can embrace an authentic movement or one can simply want that movement's class status. It's a matter of depth of character, motivation, and having a deep knowledge of the X Person lifestyle. 

Types of Arguments 

(I've adapted these ideas from Chapter 3 of How to Write Anything by John J. Ruszkiewicz.)  

Know what kind of argument you are writing: 

Argument to advance a thesis: 

You argue for a thesis as you champion an idea or a cause. 

For example, you might argue for eating steamed vegetables three times a day and provide the many benefits of employing such a practice.  

Another example would be a writer who argues that the Paleo diet is the most effective way to maintain lean muscle mass.  

Another example would be for a writer to argue for water rationing and triple water bills for homeowners who go over their water threshold.  

Refutation argument: 

You refute an already existing argument or practice, showing point by point why the argument is weak, precarious, or even fallacious (fallacy-laden). 

For example, you might refute Civil War reenactments on the grounds that they are white male fantasies based on the infantile hunger for nostalgia, the toxic Kool-Aid of White Supremacy, and the denial of moral accountability for the evils of slavery. 

In your refutation, you paint Civil War reenactments as a grotesque pageantry akin to a racist Disneyworld where are all the actors are white and black history has been erased because "it would be too disturbing" to the bogus, idealized world inhabited by the emotionally-arrested aspirants of "the good old Confederate days" and their other shameless displays of morally-bankrupt tomfoolery.   

Once you decide on your argument or claim, you must consider finding compelling reasons to support your claim.  

Support Your Claim 

Without support consisting of data, statistics, reasoning, logic, and refutations to counterarguments, your opinion exists in an abyss or a vacuum. You must develop a considered or educated opinion, which is the result of fearlessly studying the pros and cons of your subject in which you try to minimize your prejudices, biases, and other emotional baggage that might blind you from the truth.  

Understand Opposing Claims and Points of View 

You don't have an educated or considered opinion until you have been tested by your opponents' strongest arguments. If you can refute those arguments, then you can continue with your claim.  

You will also gain credibility with your readers for showing your understanding of your opponents' views.  

You will gain even more credibility when you can refute your opponents with assured insouciance rather than infantile hostility. Also choose polite insouciance over hostility as the former is a sign of intellectual superiority; the latter is a sign of juvenile fear and inexperience.  

Give Appropriate Sartorial (Clothing Style) Splendor (Writing Style) to Your Arguments 

Your argument is the "body" of the essay. Your writing style is the fashion or sartorial choice you make in order to "dress up" your argument and give it power, moxie, and elan (passion). 

Here is the same claim dressed up differently in the following two thesis statements: 

Plain 

Civil War reenactments are racist gibberish that need to go once and for all. 

More Dressed Up 

Our moral offense to civil war reenactments rests on our understanding that the participants are engaging in nostalgia for the days when the toxic religion of white supremacy ruled the day, that the participants gleefully and childishly erase black history to the detriment of truth, and that on a larger scale, they engage in the mythical revisionism of the Confederacy narratives, hiding its barbaric practices by esteeming racist thugs as if they were innocent and venerable Disney heroes. Their sham is so morally egregious and spiritually bankrupt that to examine its folly in all its shameless variations compels us to abolish the sordid practice without equivocation.   

Plain 

We need to stop blaming the poor for their poverty. 

More Dressed Up 

The idea that the rich are wealthy because of their superior moral character and that the poor live in poverty because of their inferior moral character is a glaring absurdity rooted in willful ignorance, the blind worship of money, and an irrational fear of poverty as if it were some kind of contagious disease.  

Qualify Your Thesis to Make It More Persuasive and Reasonable 

Qualifiers such as the following will make your thesis more bullet-proof from your opponents: 

some 

most

a few 

often 

under certain conditions 

when necessary 

occasionally 

Example: 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Examine Your Core Assumptions 

Assumptions are the principles and values upon which we base our beliefs and actions.  

Claim 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Assumption 

Treating drug use as a medical problem that requires rehabilitation is morally superior to relying on incarceration. Some may disagree with this assumption, so the writer will have to defend her assumption at some point in her essay.  

Here's a link (with grammar errors) for writing counterarguments and refutations in your essay. 

Notice the link, which is from a community college, is riddled with grammar errors. We all make mistakes from time to time, especially on the Internet, but a pattern of errors is disturbing indeed.  

McMahon Grammar Lesson: Comma Rules (based in part by Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers)

Commas are designed to help writers avoid confusing sentences and to clarify the logic of their sentences.

If you cook Jeff will clean the dishes. (Will you cook Jeff?)

While we were eating a rattlesnake approached us. (Were we eating a rattlesnake?)

Comma Rule 1: Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) joining two independent clauses.

Rattlesnakes are high in protein, but I’d rather eat a peanut butter sandwich.

Rattlesnakes are dangerous, and the desert species are even more so.

We are a proud people, for our ancestors passed down these famous delicacies over a period of five thousand years.

The exception to rule 1 is when the two independent clauses are short:

The plane took off and we were on our way.

Comma Rule 2: Use a comma after an introductory clause or phrase.

When Jeff Henderson was in prison, he developed an appetite for reading.

In the nearby room, the TV is blaring full blast.

Tanning in the hot Hermosa Beach sun for over two hours, I realized I had better call it a day.

The exception is when the short adverb clause or phrase is short and doesn’t create the possibility of a misreading:

In no time we were at 2,800 feet.

Comma Rule 3: Use a comma between all items in a series.

 

Jeff Henderson found redemption through hard work, self-reinvention, and social altruism.

Finding his passion, mastering his craft, and giving back to the community were all part of Jeff Henderson’s self-reinvention.

Comma Rule 4: Use a comma between coordinate adjectives not joined with “and.” Do not use a comma between cumulative adjectives.

 

The adjectives below are called coordinate because they modify the noun separately:

Jeff Henderson is a passionate, articulate, wise speaker.

The adjectives above are coordinate because they can be joined with “and.” Jeff Henderson is passionate and articulate and wise.

Adjectives that do not modify the noun separately are cumulative.

Three large gray shapes moved slowly toward us.

Chocolate fudge peanut butter swirl coconut cake is divine.

Comma Rule 5: Use commas to set off nonrestrictive (nonessential) elements.

 

Restrictive or essential information doesn’t have a comma:

For school the students need notebooks that are college-ruled.

Jeff’s cat that just had kittens became very aggressive.

Nonrestrictive:

For school the students need college-ruled notebooks, which are on sale at the bookstore.

Jeff Henderson’s mansion, which is located in Las Vegas, has a state-of-the-art kitchen.

My youngest sister, who plays left wing on the soccer team, now lives at The Sands, a beach house near Los Angeles.

 

 

 

 

 

Updated for 3-28-16: Class Anxieties Lesson #2

  

Four Writing Options

One. In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.  

Alternative Option: 

Two. In a 4-page essay, defend, refute, or complicate Fussell’s assertion that class is not as mobile as the American Dream purports it to be; rather, social class is more fixed like a caste system. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources. 

Alternative Option:

Three. Using bell hooks' essay "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class" (Acting Out Culture, pages 287-295), develop a cause and effect analysis thesis that supports Fussell's contention that ascending the class ladder results in colossal psychological upheaval and speaks to the hyper-competition that defines the American Dream. 

Alternative Option:

Four. Develop an analytical thesis about the way class is perceived in the African American community or another ethnic group. How do race, culture, and history contribute to the unique attitudes minorities attach to the codes of social class? 

Class Definition Summarized

Where you live, what degree of education you have, what kind of job you have, how you dress, and entertain yourself, and how you speak all are part of the class code by which our fellow Americans judge and rank us according to the hierarchy system. 

Let us be clear: Your class can even determine your happiness and life expectancy, as we read in "All Hollowed Out," an article that would make a good resource.

Also consult "America's self-destructive whites."

And consult "Why Are White Death Rates Rising?"

 

Study Questions from Paul Fussell's Class

One. Why is the subject of economic-social class so sensitive for Americans? 

We too often lack other ways to define ourselves. Our social class, a mix of income and tastes (personal interests, hobbies, and consumer goods), defines us more than anything.

We define ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, by our money, job, trophies, and other consumer goods that cumulatively create our image of class to others in society. 

How others perceive our social class affects how validated or esteemed we are, or not. It is human nature to seek validation, and we find this through social class. 

Class Insecurity in a Hyper-Competitive America

In the 1980s, America, it is agreed by all economists, became hyper-competitive. Real wages fell, and both parents had to work, creating "latchkey kids." Money started siphoning to the 1% and today the problem is worse than ever. 

The idea of class is made worse in an age where the number-one issue perhaps in politics and cultural life is class warfare between the 1 Percent and the Rest of Us.

The sensitivity is further reinforced by the manner in which class status speaks to America's hyper-competitive nature. Already, preschoolers are trying to get an edge for kindergarten. Elementary school students are cramming for SATs. High school students are already volunteering for outstanding citizen projects to put on their resume. 

Many parents micromanage their every child's movement in time to insure maximum productivity toward the goal of competing in the Darwinian marketplace. 

Millennials and Hyper-Competition

Millennials may provide a turning point in this hyper-competition. Unable to buy a house or even pay off their student loans, they may be creating new ways to define themselves based on empathy and cooperation. From this point of view, Fussell's book may be in part outdated.  

With a shrinking middle class and a war—both explicit and implicit—on the poor, the idea of class has never been more volatile. 

Need for Human Belonging and Being a Member of the Club

Our class standing is also sensitive because Americans use class standing as a primary way of judging others and deciding to accept people into "their pack." 

Social Class and American Myth of Equality

And yet another problem of discussing class is that the very idea of class clashes with the American mythology that we are all equal in a democracy that gives everyone "an even playing field."  

Looking at stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, a shrinking middle class, the health care crisis, the education crisis in the inner cities, mass incarceration of the poor, the cost of higher education, and the shrinking of desirable jobs and we have a very sensitive issue on our hands when it comes to talking about class. 

Social Class and Materialism

A very unsophisticated and low-class way of perceiving class is by judging other people based on their material possessions.

Imagine how people judge us in our cars, which are like a reliable ranking system in class-obsessed America. Notice how Mercedes is the apotheosis (ultimate) in perceived success. Notice how Rolex means “you’ve made it to the top, baby.” 

Notice the humility required to drive a Corolla as one works in the pizza delivery service. 

Imagine the embarrassment some might feel pulling up to the valet at Cheesecake Factory in their Corolla while they notice all the other cars are of a Teutonic origin and smack of unapologetic opulence and luxury. 

The Fearful Middle Class

According to Fussell, the class most inclined to get anxious, "testy or irascible" in the presence of a social class discussion is the middle class or the bourgeois. They feel most vulnerable because they are in a class that is most fluid: They can move up or down. 

In contrast, the upper class, often fueled by old money, feels secure in their class status and the proletariat or working class “know they can do little to alter their class identity" because we can infer from Fussell that being low class often results in learned helplessness and a sense of futility.

The two class extremes are more fatalistic while the middle class feels they have a choice in the matter. 

Further, we read that proletariats or lower classes have contempt for class aspirations. As Fussell writes, “Thus the whole class matter is likely to seem like a joke to them—the upper classes fatuous in their empty aristocratic pretentiousness, the middles loathsome in their anxious gentility. "The hell with the rich and the suburbanites. I'm happy with my low-class station in life." 

Two. How do the different classes define class differently? 

Proletariats, the working class, define class by how much money you make. Sheer materialism is the basis of their class ranking system. They could care less about your vocabulary, manner of speech, education level, taste in clothes and music. It's all about the money. 

The middle class says class is a combination of money, education, job type, and manners. The middle class wants to be part of "polite society." 

The upper class says class is a matter of refined tastes, aesthetics, insouciant style, and adhering to the rich’s secret codes of conduct (which Fussell will elaborate on later). But for now let us be content to say a truly rich person would never refer to a limousine as a “limo” or even a limousine. Rather, he would say, “The car is here.” 

Three. What forces in the digital age bridge the gap between the classes and made some of Fussell's points outdated? 

Anyone can have an opinion posted on a blog.

Anyone can post videos on a YouTube channel.

Anyone can engage in self-promotion with the various social media vehicles.

Anyone can “go viral,” which has become a universal metric in judging our relevance.

People of various economic stratums have top-tier smartphones.

In the digital age, job outsourcing has become so great that politicians and media people rarely use the term “middle class” anymore. Now they speak about “average Americans,” suggesting class divisions have changed to Us and The 1%. 

Four. Why is social class as an implicit ranking force so prevalent in America? 

Fussell writes that in America “we lack a convenient system of inherited titles, ranks, and honors, and each generation has to define the hierarchies all over again.” 

How many hits and likes your social media platforms receive could be today’s defined hierarchy of relevance and social esteem. 

We create these hierarchical systems, Fussell points out, because it is in our human nature to seek the esteem and admiration of others. 

Further, Fussell observes that hell is being neglected or held in contempt. Being seen as irrelevant, not being validated, these are the punishments for being at the bottom of the ranking system. These are the hells to be avoided at all costs. 

In a society that sees itself as democratic, we disappear. And by disappearing, we long to reappear by finding distinction. 

Distinction is the tool for ascending the class hierarchy.

But a lot of attempts at distinction come across as misguided, needy, even desperate. 

Too many selfies, too many Facebook posts, too much self-promotion, and we look desperate to use others to fill up our empty vessels. 

Five. What is the dark side of social class in America? 

As we see those laughing and gloating above us in their higher classes, those of us looking upward from our lower position, are afflicted with the curse of envy, the rancor and resentment that comes from perceiving others as enjoying life more than we do. They’ve had more than their fair share, and we’ve been short-changed.  

Bitterness and rancor ensue. 

This bitterness is intensified when we’ve been told that the American Dream affords us social mobility when in fact social mobility is too often the exception and not the rule. 

We now know that economics is the number-one factor in determining one’s body weight. Skinny people are conspicuously rich. The obese are conspicuously lower on the economic rung. 

The visible divide reinforces class envy. 

Another conspicuous class divide is the legal system. People with money go to rehab for drug crimes while the poor go straight to federal prison, and now degraded to felon status, they lose their privileges as American citizens. 

America likes to paint the myth of democracy and a “Classless” America, but we very much indeed tied up in the divisions of economic and social class. 

Six. How does Fussell define “class”? 

Class is a status system based on money, social prestige, and political power. 

The class lines are “rigid” and suggest a caste system, Fussell argues. 

There are different ways Fussell would divide the classes: “rich and poor; employer and employed, landlord and tenant, bourgeois and proletariat.” 

There are gentlemen and there are cads, he writes. 

You are either couth or uncouth (uncivilized, uncultured). 

There are homeowners and renters. 

Fussell explores the possibility of 3 classes: upper, middle, lower. 

However, he resolves that there are in fact 9 in the United States of America:

 

1. Top out-of-sight
2. Upper
3. Upper middle
4. Middle
5. High proletarian
6. Mid-proletarian
7. Low proletarian
8. Destitute
9. Bottom out-of-sight

 

These nine address the social differences more than the economic ones. 

Seven. For Fussell, being rich is no guarantee of being high class. Explain. 

Fussell shows more than implicit contempt for the rich when they engage in the following: 

People engage in vulgar displays of self-aggrandizement through their accumulation of things. 

People with no self-awareness conform to all the clichés of “having made it.” 

People rub your nose into their conspicuous consumption. 

People define themselves solely by their material wealth and possessions. Such people are called philistines, a very disparaging term. 

People rely on their wealth to define their “greatness” while they allow themselves to become humorless, mediocre, and complacent. 

Because of their wealth, some people feel entitled to control and bully others who are “less” than they are. 

Such people in Fussell’s view (and I agree) are petty, vulgar, narcissistic, small-souled, low-class philistines. 

Eight. Why do we know so little of the top class, the out-of-sight rich? 

They are literally out-of-sight. They live in stealth. They don’t want to be seen since their privileges are best maintained without rousing the lower classes. 

Because we rarely see them, we are unaware of their codes, language, clothing, travel, and even spending habits. Yes, we can generalize that their spending habits are extravagant, but we don’t know how specifically extravagant they are. 

Nine. What do the super rich and the super poor have in common? 

Both exist in invisible mode. We don’t see them.

Both receive money without working. The rich get rich from stock dividends, interest, and inheritance. The poor get handouts.

Since neither extreme works for their money, they are both rather unemployable. 

Ten. What are the distinguishing characteristics of the middle class? 

They are inclined to pay each other compliments as a way of reinforcing middle-class standards, values, and aesthetics. 

They are the most insecure of all the classes because they constantly fear they may fail in their middle-class performance and go down the social class elevator. 

They are obsessed with manners, modesty, and etiquette so as to be perceived as “classy” and “good role models for the community.” For example, a domestic argument wouldn’t hit high decibels; in contrast, a working-class or proletarian argument can escalate into an ear-piercing maelstrom or ruckus.  

They are eager to conform to society’s scripts for what constitutes a “decent family” and “achieving the American Dream.”

  

 

  

 

 

McMahon Grammar Lesson: Mixed Structure

Mixed construction is when the sentence parts do not fit in terms of grammar or logic.

Once you establish a grammatical unit or pattern, you have to be consistent.

Example 1: The prepositional phrase followed by a verb

Faulty

For most people who suffer from learned helplessness double their risk of unemployment and living below the poverty line.

Corrected

For most people who suffer from learned helplessness, they find they will be twice as likely to face unemployment and poverty.

Faulty

In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection renders the effects of learned helplessness.

Corrected

In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection, we see the effects of learned helplessness.

Faulty

Depending on our method of travel and our destination determines how many suitcases we are allowed to pack.

Corrected

The number of suitcases we can pack is determined by our method of travel and our destination.

Mixed Structure 2: Using a verb after a dependent clause

Faulty

When Jeff Henderson is promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting.

Corrected

Being promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting for Jeff Henderson.

Mixed Structure 3: Mixing a subordinate conjunction with a coordinating conjunction

 

Faulty

Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, but he misused his talents.

Corrected

Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, he misused his talents.

Faulty

Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, yet she could not write it.

Corrected

Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, she could not write it.

Mixed Structure 4: The construction is so confusing you must to throw it away and start all over

 

Faulty

In the prison no-snitch code Jeff Henderson learns to recognize variations of the code rather than by its real application in which he learns to arrive at a more realistic view of the snitch code’s true nature.

Corrected

In prison Jeff Henderson discovered that the no-snitch code doesn’t really exist.

Faulty

Recurring bouts of depression among the avalanche survivors set a record for number patients admitted into mental hospitals.

Corrected

Recurring bouts of depression among avalanche survivors resulted in a large number of them being admitted into mental hospitals.

Mixed Structure 5: Faulty Predication: The subject and the predicate should make sense together.

Faulty

We decided that Jeff Henderson’s best interests would not be well served staying in prison.

Corrected

We decided that Jeff Henderson would not be well served staying in prison.

Faulty

Using a gas mask is a precaution now worn by firemen.

Corrected

Firemen wear gas masks as a precaution against smoke inhalation.

Faulty

Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is often curable.

Corrected

Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is essential for successful treatment.

Mixed Structure 6: Faulty Apposition: The appositive and the noun to which it refers should be logically equivalent

 

Faulty

The gourmet chef, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.

Corrected

Gourmet cooking, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.

Mixed Structure 7: Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction

 

College instructors discourage “is when,” “is where,” and most commonly “is because” constructions because they violate logic.

Faulty

Bipolar disorder is when people suffer dangerous mood swings.

Corrected

Bipolar disorder is often recognized by dangerous mood swings.

Faulty

A torn rotator cuff is where you feel this intense pain in your shoulder that won’t go away.

Corrected

A torn rotator cuff will cause chronic pain in your shoulder.

Faulty

The reason I write so many comma splices is because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.

Corrected

I write so many comma splices because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.

Faulty

The reason I ate the whole pizza is because my family was a half hour late from coming home to the park and I couldn’t wait any longer.

Corrected

I ate the entire pizza because I’m a glutton.

In-class exercise: Write a sample of the seven mixed structure types and show a corrected version of it:

One. Verb after a prepositional phrase

Two. Verb after a dependent clause

Three. Mixing a subordinating conjunction (Whenever, when, although, though, to name some) with a coordinate conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

Four. The sentence is so confusing you have to start over.

Five. Faulty predication

Six: Faulty apposition

Seven. Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction

Types of Arguments 

(I've adapted these ideas from Chapter 3 of How to Write Anything by John J. Ruszkiewicz.)  

Know what kind of argument you are writing: 

Argument to advance a thesis: 

You argue for a thesis as you champion an idea or a cause. 

For example, you might argue for eating steamed vegetables three times a day and provide the many benefits of employing such a practice.  

Another example would be a writer who argues that the Paleo diet is the most effective way to maintain lean muscle mass.  

Another example would be for a writer to argue for water rationing and triple water bills for homeowners who go over their water threshold.  

Refutation argument: 

You refute an already existing argument or practice, showing point by point why the argument is weak, precarious, or even fallacious (fallacy-laden). 

For example, you might refute Civil War reenactments on the grounds that they are white male fantasies based on the infantile hunger for nostalgia, the toxic Kool-Aid of White Supremacy, and the denial of moral accountability for the evils of slavery. 

In your refutation, you paint Civil War reenactments as a grotesque pageantry akin to a racist Disneyworld where are all the actors are white and black history has been erased because "it would be too disturbing" to the bogus, idealized world inhabited by the emotionally-arrested aspirants of "the good old Confederate days" and their other shameless displays of morally-bankrupt tomfoolery.   

Once you decide on your argument or claim, you must consider finding compelling reasons to support your claim.  

Support Your Claim 

Without support consisting of data, statistics, reasoning, logic, and refutations to counterarguments, your opinion exists in an abyss or a vacuum. You must develop a considered or educated opinion, which is the result of fearlessly studying the pros and cons of your subject in which you try to minimize your prejudices, biases, and other emotional baggage that might blind you from the truth.  

Understand Opposing Claims and Points of View 

You don't have an educated or considered opinion until you have been tested by your opponents' strongest arguments. If you can refute those arguments, then you can continue with your claim.  

You will also gain credibility with your readers for showing your understanding of your opponents' views.  

You will gain even more credibility when you can refute your opponents with assured insouciance rather than infantile hostility. Also choose polite insouciance over hostility as the former is a sign of intellectual superiority; the latter is a sign of juvenile fear and inexperience.  

Give Appropriate Sartorial (Clothing Style) Splendor (Writing Style) to Your Arguments 

Your argument is the "body" of the essay. Your writing style is the fashion or sartorial choice you make in order to "dress up" your argument and give it power, moxie, and elan (passion). 

Here is the same claim dressed up differently in the following two thesis statements: 

Plain 

Civil War reenactments are racist gibberish that need to go once and for all. 

More Dressed Up 

Our moral offense to civil war reenactments rests on our understanding that the participants are engaging in nostalgia for the days when the toxic religion of white supremacy ruled the day, that the participants gleefully and childishly erase black history to the detriment of truth, and that on a larger scale, they engage in the mythical revisionism of the Confederacy narratives, hiding its barbaric practices by esteeming racist thugs as if they were innocent and venerable Disney heroes. Their sham is so morally egregious and spiritually bankrupt that to examine its folly in all its shameless variations compels us to abolish the sordid practice without equivocation.   

Plain 

We need to stop blaming the poor for their poverty. 

More Dressed Up 

The idea that the rich are wealthy because of their superior moral character and that the poor live in poverty because of their inferior moral character is a glaring absurdity rooted in willful ignorance, the blind worship of money, and an irrational fear of poverty as if it were some kind of contagious disease.  

Qualify Your Thesis to Make It More Persuasive and Reasonable 

Qualifiers such as the following will make your thesis more bullet-proof from your opponents: 

some 

most

a few 

often 

under certain conditions 

when necessary 

occasionally 

Example: 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Examine Your Core Assumptions 

Assumptions are the principles and values upon which we base our beliefs and actions.  

Claim 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Assumption 

Treating drug use as a medical problem that requires rehabilitation is morally superior to relying on incarceration. Some may disagree with this assumption, so the writer will have to defend her assumption at some point in her essay.  

Here's a link (with grammar errors) for writing counterarguments and refutations in your essay. 

Notice the link, which is from a community college, is riddled with grammar errors. We all make mistakes from time to time, especially on the Internet, but a pattern of errors is disturbing indeed.  

 

 

McMahon Grammar Exercise: Essential and Nonessential Clauses 

Birthdays that land on a Monday are a bummer.

Birthdays, which can be costly, are overrated.

Circle the relative clause and indicate if it’s essential with a capital E or nonessential with a capital N. Then use commas where necessary. 

One. I’m looking for a sugar substitute that doesn’t have dangerous side effects.  

Two. Sugar substitutes which often contain additives can wreak havoc on the digestive and nervous system. 

Three. The man who trains in the gym every day for five hours is setting himself up for a serious muscle injury.

Four. Cars that operate on small turbo engines don’t last as long as non-turbo automobiles. 

Five. Tuna which contains high amounts of mercury should only be eaten once or twice a week. 

Six. The store manager who took your order has been arrested for fraud.

Seven. The store manager Ron Cousins who is now seventy-five years old is contemplating retirement. 

Eight. Magnus Mills’ Restraint of Beasts which is my favorite novel was runner up for the Booker Prize. 

Nine. Parenthood which is a sort of priesthood for which there is no pay or appreciation raises stress and cortisol levels. 

Ten. I need to find a college that specializes in my actuarial math major. 

Eleven. UCLA which has a strong actuarial math program is my first choice. 

Twelve. My first choice of car is the Lexus which was awarded top overall quality honors from Consumer Reports. 

Thirteen. Mangoes which sometimes cause a rash on my lips and chin area are my favorite fruit. 

Fourteen. A strange man whom I’ve never known came up to me and offered to give me his brand new Mercedes. 

Fifteen. My girlfriend who was showing off her brand new red dress arrived two hours late to the birthday party.

Sixteen. Students who meticulously follow the MLA format rules have a greater chance at success. 

Seventeen. The student who tormented himself with the thesis lesson for six hours found himself more confused than before he started. 

Eighteen. There are several distinctions between an analytical and argumentative thesis which we need to familiarize ourselves with before we embark on the essay assignment. 

Nineteen. The peach that has a worm burrowing through its rotted skin should probably be tossed in the garbage.  

Twenty. Peaches, which I love to eat by the bucketful are on sale at the farmer’s market.  

Twenty-one. Baseball which used to be America’s pastime is declining in popularity.

In-Class

Work on your thesis statement and show me. 

Updated for 3-23-16 Social Class Anxieties Lesson One

 

 

 

  

Four Writing Options

One. In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.  

Alternative Option: 

Two. In a 4-page essay, defend, refute, or complicate Fussell’s assertion that class is not as mobile as the American Dream purports it to be; rather, social class is more fixed like a caste system. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources. 

Alternative Option:

Three. Using bell hooks' essay "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class" (Acting Out Culture, pages 287-295), develop a cause and effect analysis thesis that supports Fussell's contention that ascending the class ladder results in colossal psychological upheaval and speaks to the hyper-competition that defines the American Dream. 

Alternative Option:

Four. Develop an analytical thesis about the way class is perceived in the African American community or another ethnic group. How do race, culture, and history contribute to the unique attitudes minorities attach to the codes of social class? 

Introduction: Defining Class

When we talk about class, we're not really talking about earning power as a sign of upward class mobility. Earning power is part of class, but is actually only a small part of it. 

Another idea of class in America is the idea of mobility and ascent. When we climb the ladder, we use the term arriviste or upstart to describe someone who has gone from "rags to riches."

Part of the American Dream of upward class mobility is going to college and getting a bachelor's degree. Americans see college as a ticket to moving from a lower class to a higher class. We find, though, that less than 14% community college students transfer to college and get a bachelor's. Therefore, this American Dream is not as "easy pickings" as we'd often like to believe. The American Dream is hardly the low hanging fruit that's free for the taking like it was post World War II through the late 1970s for privileged white people. 

Getting to the Heart of Social Class: Perception and Identity

Aside from going up the economic ladder and defining class in sheer numbers, social class is more about identity and the way others perceive us in terms of our rank or status. 

So what we are really talking about is a particular type of American class status, the ranking system that exists uniquely in America. How people perceive us in the American ranking system, and how we perceive ourselves, defines our class. 

We are dependent on validation and often addicted to flattery, so we rely on status cues or status symbols to receive the validation and flattery we crave. 

Being able to afford first-class airline tickets is not just about luxury; it's about asserting one's privilege over the "common folk" sardined together in coach. 

Material possessions also often point to this flattery. For example, a "Platinum" or "Limited" edition car makes us feel special, better, and privileged. And we want others to see this special designation on our car's nameplate. 

Social Class and the Shame Factor

Mythology feeds a lot of our ideas about social class. For example, the rich, according to mythology, are rich because of their alleged superior character. They got rich because they were disciplined, hard-working, and willing to sacrifice.

Poor people are poor, the mythology goes, because of bad character such as laziness and bad choices.

In other words, we attribute virtue to the rich and exact shame on those who lack earning power. For example, some schools give "shame sandwiches" to students who are behind in their payments. 

To be judged as poor is equivalent to being consigned to the hell of ostracism, shame, and stigmatization. Poverty is not just a monetary state but a psychological state as well. 

Class Privilege, Whiteness, and the Uppity Factor

During times of slavery and Jim Crow, the United States was racially segregated. Therefore, for many years the idea of social class was based on "whiteness" or white privilege. Aspiring to "be white," that is molding oneself on stereotypes of "desirable white behaviors," for many decades was a sign of class. This thing we call whiteness has a certain pretentiousness, hauteur, grandiosity, superciliousness, privilege and entitlement in creating this aura of being "uppity" and "bourgie," a truncated version of the word bourgeoisie and pronounced boo-zhee. 

To be uppity and pretentious was to study the body language and linguistic codes of white privilege. 

To be uppity, a person of white privilege did not only disdain people of different ethnicities and races. The white uppity snob also scorned uneducated white people, who were deemed "peasants" or docile sheep or "trailer trash." 

Class Continues to Flourish Even in the Aftermath of Jim Crow 

Thankfully, there are huge swaths in America today where racism and Jim Crow are correctly deemed low class, ignorant and morally abominable. However, even in these forward thinking educated areas of America, class status not only persists but flourishes. 

Americans of all races are obsessed with the codes that make up social class, the hierarchy or ranking system by which we judge our fellow Americans. Knowingly or not, we use a set of codes to ascribe class rank on others and ourselves. 

The 6 Class Codes

The six major class codes that rank us in America's hierarchy system are the following:

One. Your zip code:

According to Paul Fussell, the higher the concentration of bowling alleys in a zip code, the lower the class ranking. Another sign of low social ranking is a zip code in which daycare centers are ten feet away from "gentleman's clubs." 

Two. Your education rank: 

Your education is evidenced by not only your diploma but your body language, speech cadence and inflection, vocabulary, your sphere of travel, and your grasp of irony. 

Education is also evidenced by speaking many languages, being well traveled, and showing exceptional talent in the arts such as music, painting, and writing. 

Three. Your professional designation:

Terms such as blue-collar ascribe working or lower class. White-collar ascribes upper or middle class. One of the highest classes is the creative class, a term popularized by writer Richard Florida. Creating software and computer apps or being a professor at a prestigious university are examples of the creative class. Working in the arts, media, and design are other examples.   

Four. Your tastes in art, music, entertainment, fashion, transportation, and leisure: 

Class is more than earning power. It is revealed in our tastes. Are our tastes cultivated, current, and educated, and nuanced? Or are they tacky? Tacky is a word associated with low class. Other similar words to describe low class taste are crass, gauche, gaudy, uncouth, unctuous, vulgar, tawdry, and if you want to show off your education, you can use the Russian word poshlost, which means vulgar banality or something that is produced with huge effort to show off but is grotesque and without imagination or humanity. Some people have used the word poshlost to describe vulgar people who define themselves only by their material possessions. Such people are also called philistines.  

Overdone plastic surgery is an example of poshlost or ugly vulgarity. 

Five. Your use of language:

Your vocabulary, cadence, inflection, intonation, lilt, and accent (not necessarily dependent on going to college; you could be autodidactic) are all part of linguistic code you use that determines your social class. Casually using words like interstitial, hauteur, verisimilitude, sycophantic, and synecdoche evidences someone of an educated and therefore higher class. 

Six. Your grasp of irony:

Irony is the wry, sly, and sometimes sarcastic orientation of the educated cosmopolitan, the person who is a connoisseur of life's absurdities, contradictions, and ironic reversals. As a connoisseur of irony, the high-class cosmopolitan is not shocked by life's absurdities, but greets them with an expected sly grin.  

Connoisseurs of irony are also experts at subtle self-deprecation, which gives the implicit message that they are too intelligent to take vanity and self-aggrandizement seriously even though their constant self-deprecation can often be an earnest attempt at being morally superior to those who don't efface themselves with equal rigor. 

Conclusion

Where you live, what degree of education you have, what kind of job you have, how you dress, and entertain yourself, and how you speak all are part of the class code by which our fellow Americans judge and rank us according to the hierarchy system. 

Let us be clear: Your class can even determine your happiness and life expectancy, as we read in "All Hollowed Out," an article that would make a good resource.

Also consult "America's self-destructive whites."

And consult "Why Are White Death Rates Rising?"

 

Study Questions from Paul Fussell's Class

One. Why is the subject of economic-social class so sensitive for Americans? 

We too often lack other ways to define ourselves. Our social class, a mix of income and tastes (personal interests, hobbies, and consumer goods), defines us more than anything.

We define ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, by our money, job, trophies, and other consumer goods that cumulatively create our image of class to others in society. 

How others perceive our social class affects how validated or esteemed we are, or not. It is human nature to seek validation, and we find this through social class. 

Class Insecurity in a Hyper-Competitive America

In the 1980s, America, it is agreed by all economists, became hyper-competitive. Real wages fell, and both parents had to work, creating "latchkey kids." Money started siphoning to the 1% and today the problem is worse than ever. 

The idea of class is made worse in an age where the number-one issue perhaps in politics and cultural life is class warfare between the 1 Percent and the Rest of Us.

The sensitivity is further reinforced by the manner in which class status speaks to America's hyper-competitive nature. Already, preschoolers are trying to get an edge for kindergarten. Elementary school students are cramming for SATs. High school students are already volunteering for outstanding citizen projects to put on their resume. 

Many parents micromanage their every child's movement in time to insure maximum productivity toward the goal of competing in the Darwinian marketplace. 

Millennials and Hyper-Competition

Millennials may provide a turning point in this hyper-competition. Unable to buy a house or even pay off their student loans, they may be creating new ways to define themselves based on empathy and cooperation. From this point of view, Fussell's book may be in part outdated.  

With a shrinking middle class and a war—both explicit and implicit—on the poor, the idea of class has never been more volatile. 

Need for Human Belonging and Being a Member of the Club

Our class standing is also sensitive because Americans use class standing as a primary way of judging others and deciding to accept people into "their pack." 

Social Class and American Myth of Equality

And yet another problem of discussing class is that the very idea of class clashes with the American mythology that we are all equal in a democracy that gives everyone "an even playing field."  

Looking at stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, a shrinking middle class, the health care crisis, the education crisis in the inner cities, mass incarceration of the poor, the cost of higher education, and the shrinking of desirable jobs and we have a very sensitive issue on our hands when it comes to talking about class. 

Social Class and Materialism

A very unsophisticated and low-class way of perceiving class is by judging other people based on their material possessions.

Imagine how people judge us in our cars, which are like a reliable ranking system in class-obsessed America. Notice how Mercedes is the apotheosis (ultimate) in perceived success. Notice how Rolex means “you’ve made it to the top, baby.” 

Notice the humility required to drive a Corolla as one works in the pizza delivery service. 

Imagine the embarrassment some might feel pulling up to the valet at Cheesecake Factory in their Corolla while they notice all the other cars are of a Teutonic origin and smack of unapologetic opulence and luxury. 

The Fearful Middle Class

According to Fussell, the class most inclined to get anxious, "testy or irascible" in the presence of a social class discussion is the middle class or the bourgeois. They feel most vulnerable because they are in a class that is most fluid: They can move up or down. 

In contrast, the upper class, often fueled by old money, feels secure in their class status and the proletariat or working class “know they can do little to alter their class identity" because we can infer from Fussell that being low class often results in learned helplessness and a sense of futility.

The two class extremes are more fatalistic while the middle class feels they have a choice in the matter. 

Further, we read that proletariats or lower classes have contempt for class aspirations. As Fussell writes, “Thus the whole class matter is likely to seem like a joke to them—the upper classes fatuous in their empty aristocratic pretentiousness, the middles loathsome in their anxious gentility. "The hell with the rich and the suburbanites. I'm happy with my low-class station in life." 

Two. How do the different classes define class differently? 

Proletariats, the working class, define class by how much money you make. Sheer materialism is the basis of their class ranking system. They could care less about your vocabulary, manner of speech, education level, taste in clothes and music. It's all about the money. 

The middle class says class is a combination of money, education, job type, and manners. The middle class wants to be part of "polite society." 

The upper class says class is a matter of refined tastes, aesthetics, insouciant style, and adhering to the rich’s secret codes of conduct (which Fussell will elaborate on later). But for now let us be content to say a truly rich person would never refer to a limousine as a “limo” or even a limousine. Rather, he would say, “The car is here.” 

Three. What forces in the digital age bridge the gap between the classes and made some of Fussell's points outdated? 

Anyone can have an opinion posted on a blog.

Anyone can post videos on a YouTube channel.

Anyone can engage in self-promotion with the various social media vehicles.

Anyone can “go viral,” which has become a universal metric in judging our relevance.

People of various economic stratums have top-tier smartphones.

In the digital age, job outsourcing has become so great that politicians and media people rarely use the term “middle class” anymore. Now they speak about “average Americans,” suggesting class divisions have changed to Us and The 1%. 

Four. Why is social class as an implicit ranking force so prevalent in America? 

Fussell writes that in America “we lack a convenient system of inherited titles, ranks, and honors, and each generation has to define the hierarchies all over again.” 

How many hits and likes your social media platforms receive could be today’s defined hierarchy of relevance and social esteem. 

We create these hierarchical systems, Fussell points out, because it is in our human nature to seek the esteem and admiration of others. 

Further, Fussell observes that hell is being neglected or held in contempt. Being seen as irrelevant, not being validated, these are the punishments for being at the bottom of the ranking system. These are the hells to be avoided at all costs. 

In a society that sees itself as democratic, we disappear. And by disappearing, we long to reappear by finding distinction. 

Distinction is the tool for ascending the class hierarchy.

But a lot of attempts at distinction come across as misguided, needy, even desperate. 

Too many selfies, too many Facebook posts, too much self-promotion, and we look desperate to use others to fill up our empty vessels. 

Five. What is the dark side of social class in America? 

As we see those laughing and gloating above us in their higher classes, those of us looking upward from our lower position, are afflicted with the curse of envy, the rancor and resentment that comes from perceiving others as enjoying life more than we do. They’ve had more than their fair share, and we’ve been short-changed.  

Bitterness and rancor ensue. 

This bitterness is intensified when we’ve been told that the American Dream affords us social mobility when in fact social mobility is too often the exception and not the rule. 

We now know that economics is the number-one factor in determining one’s body weight. Skinny people are conspicuously rich. The obese are conspicuously lower on the economic rung. 

The visible divide reinforces class envy. 

Another conspicuous class divide is the legal system. People with money go to rehab for drug crimes while the poor go straight to federal prison, and now degraded to felon status, they lose their privileges as American citizens. 

America likes to paint the myth of democracy and a “Classless” America, but we very much indeed tied up in the divisions of economic and social class. 

Six. How does Fussell define “class”? 

Class is a status system based on money, social prestige, and political power. 

The class lines are “rigid” and suggest a caste system, Fussell argues. 

There are different ways Fussell would divide the classes: “rich and poor; employer and employed, landlord and tenant, bourgeois and proletariat.” 

There are gentlemen and there are cads, he writes. 

You are either couth or uncouth (uncivilized, uncultured). 

There are homeowners and renters. 

Fussell explores the possibility of 3 classes: upper, middle, lower. 

However, he resolves that there are in fact 9 in the United States of America:

 

1. Top out-of-sight
2. Upper
3. Upper middle
4. Middle
5. High proletarian
6. Mid-proletarian
7. Low proletarian
8. Destitute
9. Bottom out-of-sight

 

These nine address the social differences more than the economic ones. 

Seven. For Fussell, being rich is no guarantee of being high class. Explain. 

Fussell shows more than implicit contempt for the rich when they engage in the following: 

People engage in vulgar displays of self-aggrandizement through their accumulation of things. 

People with no self-awareness conform to all the clichés of “having made it.” 

People rub your nose into their conspicuous consumption. 

People define themselves solely by their material wealth and possessions. Such people are called philistines, a very disparaging term. 

People rely on their wealth to define their “greatness” while they allow themselves to become humorless, mediocre, and complacent. 

Because of their wealth, some people feel entitled to control and bully others who are “less” than they are. 

Such people in Fussell’s view (and I agree) are petty, vulgar, narcissistic, small-souled, low-class philistines. 

Eight. Why do we know so little of the top class, the out-of-sight rich? 

They are literally out-of-sight. They live in stealth. They don’t want to be seen since their privileges are best maintained without rousing the lower classes. 

Because we rarely see them, we are unaware of their codes, language, clothing, travel, and even spending habits. Yes, we can generalize that their spending habits are extravagant, but we don’t know how specifically extravagant they are. 

Nine. What do the super rich and the super poor have in common? 

Both exist in invisible mode. We don’t see them.

Both receive money without working. The rich get rich from stock dividends, interest, and inheritance. The poor get handouts.

Since neither extreme works for their money, they are both rather unemployable. 

Ten. What are the distinguishing characteristics of the middle class? 

They are inclined to pay each other compliments as a way of reinforcing middle-class standards, values, and aesthetics. 

They are the most insecure of all the classes because they constantly fear they may fail in their middle-class performance and go down the social class elevator. 

They are obsessed with manners, modesty, and etiquette so as to be perceived as “classy” and “good role models for the community.” For example, a domestic argument wouldn’t hit high decibels; in contrast, a working-class or proletarian argument can escalate into an ear-piercing maelstrom or ruckus.  

They are eager to conform to society’s scripts for what constitutes a “decent family” and “achieving the American Dream.”

  

 

  

 

 

McMahon Grammar Lesson: Mixed Structure

Mixed construction is when the sentence parts do not fit in terms of grammar or logic.

Once you establish a grammatical unit or pattern, you have to be consistent.

Example 1: The prepositional phrase followed by a verb

Faulty

For most people who suffer from learned helplessness double their risk of unemployment and living below the poverty line.

Corrected

For most people who suffer from learned helplessness, they find they will be twice as likely to face unemployment and poverty.

Faulty

In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection renders the effects of learned helplessness.

Corrected

In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection, we see the effects of learned helplessness.

Faulty

Depending on our method of travel and our destination determines how many suitcases we are allowed to pack.

Corrected

The number of suitcases we can pack is determined by our method of travel and our destination.

Mixed Structure 2: Using a verb after a dependent clause

Faulty

When Jeff Henderson is promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting.

Corrected

Being promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting for Jeff Henderson.

Mixed Structure 3: Mixing a subordinate conjunction with a coordinating conjunction

 

Faulty

Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, but he misused his talents.

Corrected

Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, he misused his talents.

Faulty

Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, yet she could not write it.

Corrected

Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, she could not write it.

Mixed Structure 4: The construction is so confusing you must to throw it away and start all over

 

Faulty

In the prison no-snitch code Jeff Henderson learns to recognize variations of the code rather than by its real application in which he learns to arrive at a more realistic view of the snitch code’s true nature.

Corrected

In prison Jeff Henderson discovered that the no-snitch code doesn’t really exist.

Faulty

Recurring bouts of depression among the avalanche survivors set a record for number patients admitted into mental hospitals.

Corrected

Recurring bouts of depression among avalanche survivors resulted in a large number of them being admitted into mental hospitals.

Mixed Structure 5: Faulty Predication: The subject and the predicate should make sense together.

Faulty

We decided that Jeff Henderson’s best interests would not be well served staying in prison.

Corrected

We decided that Jeff Henderson would not be well served staying in prison.

Faulty

Using a gas mask is a precaution now worn by firemen.

Corrected

Firemen wear gas masks as a precaution against smoke inhalation.

Faulty

Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is often curable.

Corrected

Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is essential for successful treatment.

Mixed Structure 6: Faulty Apposition: The appositive and the noun to which it refers should be logically equivalent

 

Faulty

The gourmet chef, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.

Corrected

Gourmet cooking, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.

Mixed Structure 7: Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction

 

College instructors discourage “is when,” “is where,” and most commonly “is because” constructions because they violate logic.

Faulty

Bipolar disorder is when people suffer dangerous mood swings.

Corrected

Bipolar disorder is often recognized by dangerous mood swings.

Faulty

A torn rotator cuff is where you feel this intense pain in your shoulder that won’t go away.

Corrected

A torn rotator cuff will cause chronic pain in your shoulder.

Faulty

The reason I write so many comma splices is because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.

Corrected

I write so many comma splices because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.

Faulty

The reason I ate the whole pizza is because my family was a half hour late from coming home to the park and I couldn’t wait any longer.

Corrected

I ate the entire pizza because I’m a glutton.

In-class exercise: Write a sample of the seven mixed structure types and show a corrected version of it:

One. Verb after a prepositional phrase

Two. Verb after a dependent clause

Three. Mixing a subordinating conjunction (Whenever, when, although, though, to name some) with a coordinate conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

Four. The sentence is so confusing you have to start over.

Five. Faulty predication

Six: Faulty apposition

Seven. Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction

Types of Arguments 

(I've adapted these ideas from Chapter 3 of How to Write Anything by John J. Ruszkiewicz.)  

Know what kind of argument you are writing: 

Argument to advance a thesis: 

You argue for a thesis as you champion an idea or a cause. 

For example, you might argue for eating steamed vegetables three times a day and provide the many benefits of employing such a practice.  

Another example would be a writer who argues that the Paleo diet is the most effective way to maintain lean muscle mass.  

Another example would be for a writer to argue for water rationing and triple water bills for homeowners who go over their water threshold.  

Refutation argument: 

You refute an already existing argument or practice, showing point by point why the argument is weak, precarious, or even fallacious (fallacy-laden). 

For example, you might refute Civil War reenactments on the grounds that they are white male fantasies based on the infantile hunger for nostalgia, the toxic Kool-Aid of White Supremacy, and the denial of moral accountability for the evils of slavery. 

In your refutation, you paint Civil War reenactments as a grotesque pageantry akin to a racist Disneyworld where are all the actors are white and black history has been erased because "it would be too disturbing" to the bogus, idealized world inhabited by the emotionally-arrested aspirants of "the good old Confederate days" and their other shameless displays of morally-bankrupt tomfoolery.   

Once you decide on your argument or claim, you must consider finding compelling reasons to support your claim.  

Support Your Claim 

Without support consisting of data, statistics, reasoning, logic, and refutations to counterarguments, your opinion exists in an abyss or a vacuum. You must develop a considered or educated opinion, which is the result of fearlessly studying the pros and cons of your subject in which you try to minimize your prejudices, biases, and other emotional baggage that might blind you from the truth.  

Understand Opposing Claims and Points of View 

You don't have an educated or considered opinion until you have been tested by your opponents' strongest arguments. If you can refute those arguments, then you can continue with your claim.  

You will also gain credibility with your readers for showing your understanding of your opponents' views.  

You will gain even more credibility when you can refute your opponents with assured insouciance rather than infantile hostility. Also choose polite insouciance over hostility as the former is a sign of intellectual superiority; the latter is a sign of juvenile fear and inexperience.  

Give Appropriate Sartorial (Clothing Style) Splendor (Writing Style) to Your Arguments 

Your argument is the "body" of the essay. Your writing style is the fashion or sartorial choice you make in order to "dress up" your argument and give it power, moxie, and elan (passion). 

Here is the same claim dressed up differently in the following two thesis statements: 

Plain 

Civil War reenactments are racist gibberish that need to go once and for all. 

More Dressed Up 

Our moral offense to civil war reenactments rests on our understanding that the participants are engaging in nostalgia for the days when the toxic religion of white supremacy ruled the day, that the participants gleefully and childishly erase black history to the detriment of truth, and that on a larger scale, they engage in the mythical revisionism of the Confederacy narratives, hiding its barbaric practices by esteeming racist thugs as if they were innocent and venerable Disney heroes. Their sham is so morally egregious and spiritually bankrupt that to examine its folly in all its shameless variations compels us to abolish the sordid practice without equivocation.   

Plain 

We need to stop blaming the poor for their poverty. 

More Dressed Up 

The idea that the rich are wealthy because of their superior moral character and that the poor live in poverty because of their inferior moral character is a glaring absurdity rooted in willful ignorance, the blind worship of money, and an irrational fear of poverty as if it were some kind of contagious disease.  

Qualify Your Thesis to Make It More Persuasive and Reasonable 

Qualifiers such as the following will make your thesis more bullet-proof from your opponents: 

some 

most

a few 

often 

under certain conditions 

when necessary 

occasionally 

Example: 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Examine Your Core Assumptions 

Assumptions are the principles and values upon which we base our beliefs and actions.  

Claim 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Assumption 

Treating drug use as a medical problem that requires rehabilitation is morally superior to relying on incarceration. Some may disagree with this assumption, so the writer will have to defend her assumption at some point in her essay.  

Here's a link (with grammar errors) for writing counterarguments and refutations in your essay. 

Notice the link, which is from a community college, is riddled with grammar errors. We all make mistakes from time to time, especially on the Internet, but a pattern of errors is disturbing indeed.  

 

 

McMahon Grammar Exercise: Essential and Nonessential Clauses 

Birthdays that land on a Monday are a bummer.

Birthdays, which can be costly, are overrated.

Circle the relative clause and indicate if it’s essential with a capital E or nonessential with a capital N. Then use commas where necessary. 

One. I’m looking for a sugar substitute that doesn’t have dangerous side effects.  

Two. Sugar substitutes which often contain additives can wreak havoc on the digestive and nervous system. 

Three. The man who trains in the gym every day for five hours is setting himself up for a serious muscle injury.

Four. Cars that operate on small turbo engines don’t last as long as non-turbo automobiles. 

Five. Tuna which contains high amounts of mercury should only be eaten once or twice a week. 

Six. The store manager who took your order has been arrested for fraud.

Seven. The store manager Ron Cousins who is now seventy-five years old is contemplating retirement. 

Eight. Magnus Mills’ Restraint of Beasts which is my favorite novel was runner up for the Booker Prize. 

Nine. Parenthood which is a sort of priesthood for which there is no pay or appreciation raises stress and cortisol levels. 

Ten. I need to find a college that specializes in my actuarial math major. 

Eleven. UCLA which has a strong actuarial math program is my first choice. 

Twelve. My first choice of car is the Lexus which was awarded top overall quality honors from Consumer Reports. 

Thirteen. Mangoes which sometimes cause a rash on my lips and chin area are my favorite fruit. 

Fourteen. A strange man whom I’ve never known came up to me and offered to give me his brand new Mercedes. 

Fifteen. My girlfriend who was showing off her brand new red dress arrived two hours late to the birthday party.

Sixteen. Students who meticulously follow the MLA format rules have a greater chance at success. 

Seventeen. The student who tormented himself with the thesis lesson for six hours found himself more confused than before he started. 

Eighteen. There are several distinctions between an analytical and argumentative thesis which we need to familiarize ourselves with before we embark on the essay assignment. 

Nineteen. The peach that has a worm burrowing through its rotted skin should probably be tossed in the garbage.  

Twenty. Peaches, which I love to eat by the bucketful are on sale at the farmer’s market.  

Twenty-one. Baseball which used to be America’s pastime is declining in popularity.

In-Class

Work on your thesis statement and show me. 

Paul Fussell's Class Lesson Two

One. How does Fussell define “class”? 

Class is a status system based on money, social prestige, and political power. 

The class lines are “rigid” and suggest a caste system, Fussell argues. 

There are different ways Fussell would divide the classes: “rich and poor; employer and employed, landlord and tenant, bourgeois and proletariat.” 

There are gentlemen and there are cads, he writes. 

You are either couth or uncouth (uncivilized, uncultured). 

There are homeowners and renters. 

Fussell explores the possibility of 3 classes: upper, middle, lower. 

However, he resolves that there are in fact 9 in the United States of America:

 

1. Top out-of-sight
2. Upper
3. Upper middle
4. Middle
5. High proletarian
6. Mid-proletarian
7. Low proletarian
8. Destitute
9. Bottom out-of-sight

 

These nine address the social differences more than the economic ones. 

Two. For Fussell, being rich is no guarantee of being high class. Explain. 

Fussell shows more than implicit contempt for the rich when they engage in the following: 

People engage in vulgar displays of self-aggrandizement through their accumulation of things. 

People with no self-awareness conform to all the clichés of “having made it.” 

People rub your nose into their conspicuous consumption. 

People define themselves solely by their material wealth and possessions. Such people are called philistines, a very disparaging term. 

People rely on their wealth to define their “greatness” while they allow themselves to become humorless, mediocre, and complacent. 

Because of their wealth, some people feel entitled to control and bully others who are “less” than they are. 

Such people in Fussell’s view (and I agree) are petty, vulgar, narcissistic, small-souled, low-class philistines. 

Three. Why do we know so little of the top class, the out-of-sight rich? 

They are literally out-of-sight. They live in stealth. They don’t want to be seen since their privileges are best maintained without rousing the lower classes. 

Because we rarely see them, we are unaware of their codes, language, clothing, travel, and even spending habits. Yes, we can generalize that their spending habits are extravagant, but we don’t know how specifically extravagant they are. 

Four. What do the super rich and the super poor have in common? 

Both exist in invisible mode. We don’t see them.

Both receive money without working. The rich get rich from stock dividends, interest, and inheritance. The poor get handouts.

Since neither extreme works for their money, they are both rather unemployable. 

Five. What are the distinguishing characteristics of the middle class? 

They are inclined to pay each other compliments as a way of reinforcing middle-class standards, values, and aesthetics. 

They are the most insecure of all the classes because they constantly fear they may fail in their middle-class performance and go down the social class elevator. 

They are obsessed with manners, modesty, and etiquette so as to be perceived as “classy” and “good role models for the community.” For example, a domestic argument wouldn’t hit high decibels; in contrast, a working-class or proletarian argument can escalate into an ear-piercing maelstrom or ruckus.  

They are eager to conform to society’s scripts for what constitutes a “decent family” and “achieving the American Dream.”

  

 

  

 

 

Paul Fussell’s Class Anxieties Lesson 4: Language, Speech, and “The X Way Out”

 

Paul Fussell’s Class Anxieties Lesson 4: Language, Speech, and “The X Way Out”

Four Writing Options

One. In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.  

Alternative Option: 

Two. In a 4-page essay, defend, refute, or complicate Fussell’s assertion that class is not as mobile as the American Dream purports it to be; rather, social class is more fixed like a caste system. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources. 

Alternative Option:

Three. Using bell hooks' essay "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class" (Acting Out Culture, pages 287-295), develop a cause and effect analysis thesis that supports Fussell's contention that ascending the class ladder results in colossal psychological upheaval and speaks to the hyper-competition that defines the American Dream. 

Alternative Option:

Four. Develop an analytical thesis about the way class is perceived in the African American community or another ethnic group. How do race, culture, and history contribute to the unique attitudes minorities attach to the codes of social class? 

Class Definition Summarized

Where you live, what degree of education you have, what kind of job you have, how you dress, and entertain yourself, and how you speak all are part of the class code by which our fellow Americans judge and rank us according to the hierarchy system. 

Let us be clear: Your class can even determine your happiness and life expectancy, as we read in "All Hollowed Out," an article that would make a good resource.

Also consult "America's self-destructive whites."

And consult "Why Are White Death Rates Rising?"

 

Study Questions 151-187

One. What social class is most guilty, according to Fussell, of using pretentious, self-regarding language?

The middle class is fond of advertising how “educated” and “classy” they are by using elevated terms when a more plain term will do quite nicely.

They’ll use the following:

Cocktails instead of drinks

Individuals instead of people

Position instead of job

Albeit instead of although

Roadway instead of road

Purchase instead of buy

Affluent instead of rich

Subsequently instead of later

Proceed instead of go

At the local level instead of locally

Academia instead of college

Matriculating through college instead of going through college

Predicated on instead of based on

Utilize instead of use

Terminate instead of end

Tres chic instead of very chic or very cool

Mindful instead of thoughtful

My journey instead of my life

Élan or moxie instead of energy or spunk

Vis-a-vi instead of regarding

Montage instead of mix

Voila! instead of wow!

Gauche instead of tacky

Entrée instead of dinner or main dish

Fin de siècle instead of end of century

Sobriquet instead of nickname or pet name

Coquettish instead of flirtatious

C’est la vie instead of “it is what is is.”

Joie de vivre instead of lust for life

Denouement instead of conclusion

Chanteuse instead of singer

Circumferentially challenged instead of fat

I work as a garbologist instead of I work as a garbage man.

 

Two. Fussell is clearly disgusted with the vanity and pretentiousness of the middle class. He says the way out of this nonsense is to become an X person. What are the X person’s distinguishing characteristics? 

You belong more to a category than a class because you do not identify with a class. A class is a label that society tries to impose on you. It is a label that insecure people aspire to embrace because they lack the core identity to define themselves in ways that are beyond class status. 

You are born into a class, but you earn X status through hard work, curiosity, and rejection of society’s consumer scripts and clichés. 

Entering category X often results in ostracism from family, friends, and the “tribe” that dictates your class because your rejection of their “lifestyle” and values is implicit condemnation of them. 

Entering the creative class—through the pursuit of art, music, and writing—often makes one a member of category X. 

Being a member of category X requires artistic talent and originality. 

X people are independent and have arch disregard for the status yearned for by the middle class. In fact X people have contempt for middle-class aspirations. As a result, they are sometimes referred to as bohemians. 

X people avoid brand clothing because they prefer to dress comfortably and to “dress down.” 

A lot of X people clothing choices are explained in David Brooks’ masterpiece Bobos in Paradise. X people wear “earth shoes” and earth colors and coats made from the fur of alpaca and llamas. X People dress according to form and function more than to show. 

X people are drawn to Subaru cars, which evidence oneness with nature. 

X people’s priority for living location is based on proximity to delicious, cheap restaurants than social status or living in “the right place.” 

X people are not dependent on their job, job title, career choice, or income level for their self-identity. 

X people live in the present rather than waiting for some future where their lives will be “full of grand moments and riches.” 

They prefer old house to new tract home. And they never manicure their lawns. During drought, they are the first to let all the grass and shrubbery die. 

They keep their cars for over 15 years and rarely wash them. Nor do they touch up dents and scratches as these imperfections give their cars “character.” 

X people never eat turkey on Thanksgiving, but prefer more off-the-track dishes such as Thai Curry, Vindaloo, Spanish paella, Russian borscht, Ethiopian Doro Wat and Injera, and Nigerian fufu. 

X people avoid all chain restaurants like Appleybee’s, Olive Garden, TGI Fridays, and Cheesecake Factory as these restaurants are condemned as soulless and corporate owned, designed to make food based on focus groups and “market research.”  

X people are good cooks and can make delicious meals with a few good ingredients.  

X people are voracious readers. 

X people are masters of geography and can look at a blank globe and point to the city of Karachi, Nairobi, or Vallejo with great ease. 

X people are critical thinkers, and they never “drink the Kool-Aid” of one camp of thought as they prefer to balance one type of thinking with its counterpoints in order to have a better informed opinion. 

X people avoid euphemisms and other forms of phony, pretentious language. 

X people avoid ostentation at all times. 

X people never advertise that they are X people. Content with their identity, they feel no need to be evangelists for the X Way of Life. 

Unlike the rest of America, X people do not suffer from class anxieties.

Perhaps most importantly, X People value critical thinking, the craft of developing informed opinions, more than consumerism. If we had to boil down the difference between X People and the rest of Americans it would be this: A life of ideas or a life of buying things. 

Applying Paul Fussell's Chapter "The X Way Out" to Essay Prompt #1

In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.  

Sample Thesis Response

Paul Fussell convincingly shows that the idea of social class in America is a mental disease, either a lowly condition of learned helplessness in the lower classes, a neurotic and fearful need to conform in the middle or a lofty position of obnoxious pride in the upper. Our "only way out" is, to follow Fussell's pointing to the Exit Sign is to be a X Person. An X Person rejects the learned helplessness of the lower classes, the pathetic groveling of the middle classes, and the disgusting smugness of the uppers. The X Person is characterized by having a sense of irony, a sense of the cosmopolitan world traveler, a love for knowledge for its own sake, a curiosity for all things, a disdain for class status, a love of critical thinking that makes her reject society's soulless scripts for living, and an appreciation for culture and the arts. While I am too young to have fully fleshed out my X Person aspirations, my Aunt Ciara is a bona fide X Person, as defined by Fussell, evidenced by __________________, __________________, ____________________, and _____________________. 

 

Another Response

McMahon's championing of Paul Fussell's X Person Archetype is bogus. A close examination of the X Person reveals a vain human being, not all free from social status, but just as imprisoned by image as his upper- and middle-class counterparts. The X Person's imprisonment is evidenced by _________________, ________________, __________________, and ___________________. 

 

Another Response

While I will concede that X People can be vain, I am not claiming that X People are perfect. What's compelling in Fussell's book is that Americans tend to be enslaved by a social class category due to a lack of critical thinking skills that renders them consumer philistines. In contrast, X People demonstrate a more desirable existence evidenced by __________________, ______________________, _________________________, and ________________________. 

 

Another Response

While X People begin their critical thinking journey with noble motivations, their bohemian or hipster lifestyle eventually gets co-opted or appropriated by big industry so that the trappings of X People--clothes, cars, hairstyles, to name a few examples--become part of a consumer script that is just as lame and superficial as any other class designation. 

Another Response

Even if, for the sake of argument, my opponent is correct and that X People cultural mores become appropriated by Big Industry, that doesn't make the X Person lifestyle "lame" or superficial." One can embrace an authentic movement or one can simply want that movement's class status. It's a matter of depth of character, motivation, and having a deep knowledge of the X Person lifestyle. 

Types of Arguments 

(I've adapted these ideas from Chapter 3 of How to Write Anything by John J. Ruszkiewicz.)  

Know what kind of argument you are writing: 

Argument to advance a thesis: 

You argue for a thesis as you champion an idea or a cause. 

For example, you might argue for eating steamed vegetables three times a day and provide the many benefits of employing such a practice.  

Another example would be a writer who argues that the Paleo diet is the most effective way to maintain lean muscle mass.  

Another example would be for a writer to argue for water rationing and triple water bills for homeowners who go over their water threshold.  

Refutation argument: 

You refute an already existing argument or practice, showing point by point why the argument is weak, precarious, or even fallacious (fallacy-laden). 

For example, you might refute Civil War reenactments on the grounds that they are white male fantasies based on the infantile hunger for nostalgia, the toxic Kool-Aid of White Supremacy, and the denial of moral accountability for the evils of slavery. 

In your refutation, you paint Civil War reenactments as a grotesque pageantry akin to a racist Disneyworld where are all the actors are white and black history has been erased because "it would be too disturbing" to the bogus, idealized world inhabited by the emotionally-arrested aspirants of "the good old Confederate days" and their other shameless displays of morally-bankrupt tomfoolery.   

Once you decide on your argument or claim, you must consider finding compelling reasons to support your claim.  

Support Your Claim 

Without support consisting of data, statistics, reasoning, logic, and refutations to counterarguments, your opinion exists in an abyss or a vacuum. You must develop a considered or educated opinion, which is the result of fearlessly studying the pros and cons of your subject in which you try to minimize your prejudices, biases, and other emotional baggage that might blind you from the truth.  

Understand Opposing Claims and Points of View 

You don't have an educated or considered opinion until you have been tested by your opponents' strongest arguments. If you can refute those arguments, then you can continue with your claim.  

You will also gain credibility with your readers for showing your understanding of your opponents' views.  

You will gain even more credibility when you can refute your opponents with assured insouciance rather than infantile hostility. Also choose polite insouciance over hostility as the former is a sign of intellectual superiority; the latter is a sign of juvenile fear and inexperience.  

Give Appropriate Sartorial (Clothing Style) Splendor (Writing Style) to Your Arguments 

Your argument is the "body" of the essay. Your writing style is the fashion or sartorial choice you make in order to "dress up" your argument and give it power, moxie, and elan (passion). 

Here is the same claim dressed up differently in the following two thesis statements: 

Plain 

Civil War reenactments are racist gibberish that need to go once and for all. 

More Dressed Up 

Our moral offense to civil war reenactments rests on our understanding that the participants are engaging in nostalgia for the days when the toxic religion of white supremacy ruled the day, that the participants gleefully and childishly erase black history to the detriment of truth, and that on a larger scale, they engage in the mythical revisionism of the Confederacy narratives, hiding its barbaric practices by esteeming racist thugs as if they were innocent and venerable Disney heroes. Their sham is so morally egregious and spiritually bankrupt that to examine its folly in all its shameless variations compels us to abolish the sordid practice without equivocation.   

Plain 

We need to stop blaming the poor for their poverty. 

More Dressed Up 

The idea that the rich are wealthy because of their superior moral character and that the poor live in poverty because of their inferior moral character is a glaring absurdity rooted in willful ignorance, the blind worship of money, and an irrational fear of poverty as if it were some kind of contagious disease.  

Qualify Your Thesis to Make It More Persuasive and Reasonable 

Qualifiers such as the following will make your thesis more bullet-proof from your opponents: 

some 

most

a few 

often 

under certain conditions 

when necessary 

occasionally 

Example: 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Examine Your Core Assumptions 

Assumptions are the principles and values upon which we base our beliefs and actions.  

Claim 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Assumption 

Treating drug use as a medical problem that requires rehabilitation is morally superior to relying on incarceration. Some may disagree with this assumption, so the writer will have to defend her assumption at some point in her essay.  

Here's a link (with grammar errors) for writing counterarguments and refutations in your essay. 

Notice the link, which is from a community college, is riddled with grammar errors. We all make mistakes from time to time, especially on the Internet, but a pattern of errors is disturbing indeed.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Fussell’s Class Anxieties Lesson Three (34-75)

 

 

Two Writing Options

 

In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.  

 

Alternative Option: 

 

In a 4-page essay, defend, refute, or complicate Fussell’s assertion that class is not as mobile as the American Dream purports it to be; rather, social class is more fixed like a caste system. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.  

 

One. Why does the middle class aspire to be more upper-middle class than upper or top-out-of-sight?

Because it’s a “familiar and credible fantasy: its usages, while slightly grander than one’s own, are recognizable and compassable, whereas in the higher classes you might be embarrassed by not knowing how to eat caviar or use a finger bowl or discourse in French.”

We can’t aspire to something we can’t imagine even if as an abstraction we know there’s a higher tier of wealth.

Sometimes people can’t fall in love with someone who’s “too beautiful” for the same reason that this “too beautiful” person represents a sort of alien planet that lacks comfort and familiarity.

Another factor that compels the middle class to aspire to the upper-middle-class is that the UMC dress codes, car acquisitions (Mercedes), and timepiece choices (Rolex) are synonymous with Success.

Wanting to look UMC also compels the middle class to aspire to UMC body types and UMC gestures and body language.

The code for UMC body language is polite superciliousness, arch assuredness, confident mindfulness, and calm self-possession. Additionally, the UMC have “controlled precise movements.” They don’t swing their arms when they walk.

Two. How does one’s zip code or American location define one’s class?

Living in a UMC town compels one to find an elite part of the coast, especially in the North East.

Also an absence of fast food franchises, religious fundamentalist churches, and bowling alleys in one’s town evidences that one lives in an UMC zip code.

UMC people never live in towns where there are churches featuring people “speaking in tongues” or doing “healings” in which the afflicted stand up from their wheelchairs. Such “miracles” happen in lower class zip codes.

Miracle zones are places where there is desperation and a lack of education that compel their inhabitants to seek “miracles” rather than viable ways of achieving self-empowerment.

An UMC person will not see a “holy image” in one’s oatmeal or peanut butter toast and then try to sell such image on eBay.

Another sign of a UMC town is that you won’t be able to find copies of the National Enquirer and similar tabloids in the local markets.

Three. What is Fussell’s collective psychological analysis of the middle class?

He writes, “The middle class is distinguishable more by its earnestness and psychic insecurity than by its middle income.”

We can infer, then, that being middle class is more of a mentality than it is an economic level.

A digression: When we use middle class as a noun, there is no hyphen; however, when we use the term middle class as an adjective, that is to modify a noun, we hyphenate.

Examples

I am a member of the middle class.

She has middle-class aspirations.

Back to Fussell:

Fussell writes the middle class mentality can by characterized by the following:

They are terrified about how people will judge them, so they are very image conscious.

They are “obsessed with doing everything right.”

They are obsessed with table manners and general dining etiquette.

They are obsessed with “offending” others, thus are avid consumers of deodorants, mouthwashes, nose and ear hair clippers, dandruff shampoo, "plush" toilet paper, and pretentious toiletries such as balms, unguents, lotions, and salves, suggesting the use of an old-fashioned apothecary.

They suffer from “status anxieties” and become sycophantic whenever they are in the presence of “important people” with grand titles such as doctor.

Wanting the sycophantism of the middle class, many professionals seek the “doctor” designation, including those who are not physicians. Dentists, professors, chiropractors, and religious divinity commonly use “doctor” to elevate their status in the presence of the middle class.

The middle class suffer from “status panic,” an affliction that comes from the obsession that they are constantly being judged under a watchful eye of some collective middle class.

The middle class loves pretentiousness such as sending invitations with curly cues and rococo designs and writing that screams “Anglophile” aspirations: “In honour [using British spelling] of our daughter we are delighted to request the pleasure of your company for our daughter’s graduation . . .”

 

Because the middle class is eager to conform to corporate culture, they “grow passive, their humanity diminished as they perceive themselves mere parts of an infinitely larger structure.” They know deep down they are interchangeable parts of a machine.

 

Because the middle class is treated like an interchangeable slave and knows they are tiny in the big corporate scheme of things, they compensate their inner sense of smallness with grand displays. We read, “the middle class lusts for the illusion of weight and consequence. One sign is their quest for heraldic validation . . .” We see such examples as embossed certificates of excellence, monogrammed bathrobes and towels, slippers, personalized license plates, and other tawdry signs of “personal distinction.”

 

More than any class, the middle class has the strongest inclination to be snobs. We read, “Worried a lot about their own taste and about whether it’s working for or against them, members of the middle class try to arrest their natural tendency to sink downward by associating themselves, if ever so tenuously, with the imagined possessors of money, power, and taste. ‘Correctness’ and doing the right thing become obsessions, prompting middle-class people to write thank-you notes after the most ordinary dinner parties, give excessively expensive or correct presents, and never allude to any place . . . that lacks known class.”

 

Longing to be seen as an “elite,” the middle class are fond of memberships to clubs, guilds, associations, and other entities that require “special invitation” and “exclusive membership.” Of course, such longs contribute to their snobbery, the flip side of sycophantism.

 

Another way to enjoy membership to an exclusive club is to buy high status purchases like Mercedes and Rolex.

 

The middle class is fond of business clichés like “the bottom line” and “at the end of the day” and “think outside the box.”

Four. What pastime unites men in the United States regardless of their social class? 

Sports, games, and competitions of various sorts bring American men together. There is something about a defining manliness in the realm of sports that all men can agree upon. And there is something alluring to men about living vicariously through their sports heroes. 

 

Five. How do economics affect body weight?

 

The richer we are, the skinnier we tend to be. The poorer we are, the more obese we tend to be. Being poor creates stress, which creates a “fat hormone response.”

 

Six. Why do proletariats tend to wear clothes with trademarks?

 

Fussell writes, “By wearing a garment reading SPORTS ILLUSTRATED or GATORADE or LESTER LANIN, the prole associates himself with an enterprise the world judges successful, and thus, for a the moment, he achieves some importance.”

 

I would argue that the middle class engages in the same kind of “identity branding”:

 

A Mini Cooper is “hipster.”

 

An Apple computer is both “hipster” and “creative class.”

 

A keychain with Porsche or BMW means “player.”

 

Seven. What are the characteristics of upper class fashion?

 

They wear expensive clothes, but rarely buy new ones, preferring to wear old high quality clothing.

 

They avoid being too neat and almost appear to be in a state of “studied casualness.”

 

Muscular men don’t look good in suits so it’s hard for a muscular man to look high class. A muscular man in a suit looks like a retired athlete, bouncer, cop, military, tough guy, mobster, etc.

 

Being thin in a good suit is a sign of being high class.

 

There are many superficial cues that point to high or low class. We have become obsessed with making sure we have the “right cues.”

 

Is the Dream of Class Mobility a Myth?

Class mobility may be a mythology in America that results from "The More Factor."

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Fussell's Class Lesson One: Writing Options, Defining Social Class, Pages 1-33

 

  

 

Four Writing Options

One. In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.  

Alternative Option: 

Two. In a 4-page essay, defend, refute, or complicate Fussell’s assertion that class is not as mobile as the American Dream purports it to be; rather, social class is more fixed like a caste system. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources. 

Alternative Option:

Three. Using bell hooks' essay "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class" (Acting Out Culture, pages 287-295), develop a cause and effect analysis thesis that supports Fussell's contention that ascending the class ladder results in colossal psychological upheaval and speaks to the hyper-competition that defines the American Dream. 

Alternative Option:

Four. Develop an analytical thesis about the way class plays in the African American community or another ethnic group. How do race, culture, and history contribute to the unique attitudes minorities attach to the codes of social class? 

Introduction: Defining Class

When we talk about class, we're not really talking about earning power as a sign of upward class mobility. Earning power is part of class, but is actually only a small part of it. 

Another idea of class in America is the idea of mobility and ascent. When we climb the ladder, we use the term arriviste or upstart to describe someone who has gone from "rags to riches."

Part of the American Dream of upward class mobility is going to college and getting a bachelor's degree. Americans see college as a ticket to moving from a lower class to a higher class. We find, though, that less than 14% community college students transfer to college and get a bachelor's. Therefore, this American Dream is not as "easy pickings" as we'd often like to believe. The American Dream is hardly the low hanging fruit that's free for the taking like it was post World War II through the late 1970s for privileged white people. 

Getting to the Heart of Social Class: Perception and Identity

Aside from going up the economic ladder and defining class in sheer numbers, social class is more about identity and the way others perceive us in terms of our rank or status. 

So what we are really talking about is a particular type of American class status, the ranking system that exists uniquely in America. How people perceive us in the American ranking system, and how we perceive ourselves, defines our class. 

We are dependent on validation and often addicted to flattery, so we rely on status cues or status symbols to receive the validation and flattery we crave. 

Material possessions often point to this flattery. For example, a "Platinum" or "Limited" edition car makes us feel special, better, and privileged. And we want others to see this special designation on our car's nameplate. 

Social Class and the Shame Factor

Mythology feeds a lot of our ideas about social class. For example, the rich, according to mythology, are rich because of their superior character. They got rich because they were disciplined, hard-working, and willing to sacrifice.

Poor people are poor, the mythology goes, because of bad character such as laziness and bad choices.

In other words, we attribute virtue to the rich and exact shame on those who lack earning power. For example, some schools give "shame sandwiches" to students who are behind in their payments. 

To be judged as poor is equivalent to being consigned to the hell of ostracism, shame, and stigmatization. Poverty is not just a monetary state but a psychological state as well. 

Class Privilege, Whiteness, and the Uppity Factor

During times of slavery and Jim Crow, the United States was racially segregated. Therefore, for many years the idea of social class was based on "whiteness" or white privilege. Aspiring to "be white," that is molding oneself on stereotypes of "desirable white behaviors," for many decades was a sign of class. This thing we call whiteness has a certain pretentiousness, hauteur, grandiosity, superciliousness, privilege and entitlement in creating this aura of being "uppity" and "bourgie," a truncated version of the word bourgeoisie and pronounced boo-zhee. 

To be uppity and pretentious was to study the body language and linguistic codes of white privilege. 

To be uppity, a person of white privilege did not only disdain people of different ethnicities and races. The white uppity snob also scorned uneducated white people, who were deemed "peasants" or docile sheep or "trailer trash." 

Class Continues to Flourish Even in the Aftermath of Jim Crow 

Thankfully, there are huge swaths in America today where racism and Jim Crow are correctly deemed low class, ignorant and morally abominable. However, even in these forward thinking educated areas of America, class status not only persists but flourishes. 

Americans of all races are obsessed with the codes that make up social class, the hierarchy or ranking system by which we judge our fellow Americans. Knowingly or not, we use a set of codes to ascribe class rank on others and ourselves. 

The 6 Class Codes

The six major class codes that rank us in America's hierarchy system are the following:

One. Your zip code:

According to Fussell, the higher the concentration of bowling alleys in a zip code, the lower the class ranking. Another sign of low social ranking is a zip code in which daycare centers are ten feet away from "gentleman's clubs." 

Two. Your education rank: 

Your education is evidenced by not only your diploma but your body language, speech cadence and inflection, vocabulary, your sphere of travel, and your grasp of irony. 

Education is also evidenced by speaking many languages, being well traveled, and showing exceptional talent in the arts such as music, painting, and writing. 

Three. Your professional designation:

Terms such as blue-collar ascribe working or lower class. White-collar ascribes upper or middle class. One of the highest classes is the creative class, a term popularized by writer Richard Florida. Creating software and computer apps or being a professor at a prestigious university are examples of the creative class. Working in the arts, media, and design are other examples.   

Four. Your tastes in art, music, entertainment, fashion, transportation, and leisure: 

Class is more than earning power. It is revealed in our tastes. Are our tastes cultivated, current, and educated, and nuanced? Or are they tacky? Tacky is a word associated with low class. Other similar words to describe low class taste are crass, gauche, gaudy, uncouth, unctuous, vulgar, tawdry, and if you want to show off your education, you can use the Russian word poshlost, which means vulgar banality or something that is produced with huge effort to show off but is grotesque and without imagination or humanity. Some people have used the word poshlost to describe vulgar people who define themselves only by their material possessions. Such people are also called philistines.  

Five. Your use of language:

Your vocabulary, cadence, inflection, intonation, lilt, and accent (not necessarily dependent on going to college; you could be autodidactic) are all part of linguistic code you use that determines your social class. Casually using words like interstitial, hauteur, verisimilitude, sycophantic, and synecdoche evidences someone of an educated and therefore higher class. 

Six. Your grasp of irony:

Irony is the wry, sly, and sometimes sarcastic orientation of the educated cosmopolitan, the person who is a connoisseur of life's absurdities, contradictions, and ironic reversals. As a connoisseur of irony, the high-class cosmopolitan is not shocked by life's absurdities, but greets them with an expected sly grin.  

Connoisseurs of irony are also experts at subtle self-deprecation, which gives the implicit message that they are too intelligent to take vanity and self-aggrandizement seriously even though their constant self-deprecation can often be an earnest attempt at being morally superior to those who don't efface themselves with equal rigor. 

Conclusion

Where you live, what degree of education you have, what kind of job you have, how you dress, and entertain yourself, and how you speak all are part of the class code by which our fellow Americans judge and rank us according to the hierarchy system. 

Study Questions from Paul Fussell's Class

One. Why is the subject of economic-social class so sensitive for Americans? 

We too often lack other ways to define ourselves. Our social class, a mix of income and tastes (personal interests, hobbies, and consumer goods), defines us more than anything.

We define ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, by our money, job, trophies, and other consumer goods that cumulatively create our image of class to others in society. 

How others perceive our social class affects how validated or esteemed we are, or not. It is human nature to seek validation, and we find this through social class. 

Class Insecurity in a Hyper-Competitive America

In the 1980s, America, it is agreed by all economists, became hyper-competitive. Real wages fell, and both parents had to work, creating "latchkey kids." Money started siphoning to the 1% and today the problem is worse than ever. 

The idea of class is made worse in an age where the number-one issue perhaps in politics and cultural life is class warfare between the 1 Percent and the Rest of Us.

The sensitivity is further reinforced by the manner in which class status speaks to America's hyper-competitive nature. Already, preschoolers are trying to get an edge for kindergarten. Elementary school students are cramming for SATs. High school students are already volunteering for outstanding citizen projects to put on their resume. 

Many parents micromanage their every child's movement in time to insure maximum productivity toward the goal of competing in the Darwinian marketplace. 

Millennials and Hyper-Competition

Millennials may provide a turning point in this hyper-competition. Unable to buy a house or even pay off their student loans, they may be creating new ways to define themselves based on empathy and cooperation. From this point of view, Fussell's book may be in part outdated.  

With a shrinking middle class and a war—both explicit and implicit—on the poor, the idea of class has never been more volatile. 

Need for Human Belonging and Being a Member of the Club

Our class standing is also sensitive because Americans use class standing as a primary way of judging others and deciding to accept people into "their pack." 

Social Class and American Myth of Equality

And yet another problem of discussing class is that the very idea of class clashes with the American mythology that we are all equal in a democracy that gives everyone "an even playing field."  

Looking at stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, a shrinking middle class, the health care crisis, the education crisis in the inner cities, mass incarceration of the poor, the cost of higher education, and the shrinking of desirable jobs and we have a very sensitive issue on our hands when it comes to talking about class. 

Social Class and Materialism

A very unsophisticated and low-class way of perceiving class is by judging other people based on their material possessions.

Imagine how people judge us in our cars, which are like a reliable ranking system in class-obsessed America. Notice how Mercedes is the apotheosis (ultimate) in perceived success. Notice how Rolex means “you’ve made it to the top, baby.” 

Notice the humility required to drive a Corolla as one works in the pizza delivery service. 

Imagine the embarrassment some might feel pulling up to the valet at Cheesecake Factory in their Corolla while they notice all the other cars are of a Teutonic origin and smack of unapologetic opulence and luxury. 

The Fearful Middle Class

According to Fussell, the class most inclined to get anxious, "testy or irascible" in the presence of a social class discussion is the middle class or the bourgeois. They feel most vulnerable because they are in a class that is most fluid: They can move up or down. 

In contrast, the upper class, often fueled by old money, feels secure in their class status and the proletariat or working class “know they can do little to alter their class identity" because we can infer from Fussell that being low class often results in learned helplessness and a sense of futility.

The two class extremes are more fatalistic while the middle class feels they have a choice in the matter. 

Further, we read that proletariats or lower classes have contempt for class aspirations. As Fussell writes, “Thus the whole class matter is likely to seem like a joke to them—the upper classes fatuous in their empty aristocratic pretentiousness, the middles loathsome in their anxious gentility. "The hell with the rich and the suburbanites. I'm happy with my low-class station in life." 

Two. How do the different classes define class differently? 

Proletariats, the working class, define class by how much money you make. Sheer materialism is the basis of their class ranking system. They could care less about your vocabulary, manner of speech, education level, taste in clothes and music. It's all about the money. 

The middle class says class is a combination of money, education, job type, and manners. The middle class wants to be part of "polite society." 

The upper class says class is a matter of refined tastes, aesthetics, insouciant style, and adhering to the rich’s secret codes of conduct (which Fussell will elaborate on later). But for now let us be content to say a truly rich person would never refer to a limousine as a “limo” or even a limousine. Rather, he would say, “The car is here.” 

Three. What forces in the digital age bridge the gap between the classes and made some of Fussell's points outdated? 

Anyone can have an opinion posted on a blog.

Anyone can post videos on a YouTube channel.

Anyone can engage in self-promotion with the various social media vehicles.

Anyone can “go viral,” which has become a universal metric in judging our relevance.

People of various economic stratums have top-tier smartphones.

In the digital age, job outsourcing has become so great that politicians and media people rarely use the term “middle class” anymore. Now they speak about “average Americans,” suggesting class divisions have changed to Us and The 1%. 

Four. Why is social class as an implicit ranking force so prevalent in America? 

Fussell writes that in America “we lack a convenient system of inherited titles, ranks, and honors, and each generation has to define the hierarchies all over again.” 

How many hits and likes your social media platforms receive could be today’s defined hierarchy of relevance and social esteem. 

We create these hierarchical systems, Fussell points out, because it is in our human nature to seek the esteem and admiration of others. 

Further, Fussell observes that hell is being neglected or held in contempt. Being seen as irrelevant, not being validated, these are the punishments for being at the bottom of the ranking system. These are the hells to be avoided at all costs. 

In a society that sees itself as democratic, we disappear. And by disappearing, we long to reappear by finding distinction. 

Distinction is the tool for ascending the class hierarchy.

But a lot of attempts at distinction come across as misguided, needy, even desperate. 

Too many selfies, too many Facebook posts, too much self-promotion, and we look desperate to use others to fill up our empty vessels. 

Five. What is the dark side of social class in America? 

As we see those laughing and gloating above us in their higher classes, those of us looking upward from our lower position, are afflicted with the curse of envy, the rancor and resentment that comes from perceiving others as enjoying life more than we do. They’ve had more than their fair share, and we’ve been short-changed.  

Bitterness and rancor ensue. 

This bitterness is intensified when we’ve been told that the American Dream affords us social mobility when in fact social mobility is too often the exception and not the rule. 

We now know that economics is the number-one factor in determining one’s body weight. Skinny people are conspicuously rich. The obese are conspicuously lower on the economic rung. 

The visible divide reinforces class envy. 

Another conspicuous class divide is the legal system. People with money go to rehab for drug crimes while the poor go straight to federal prison, and now degraded to felon status, they lose their privileges as American citizens. 

America likes to paint the myth of democracy and a “Classless” America, but we very much indeed tied up in the divisions of economic and social class. 

Six. How does Fussell define “class”? 

Class is a status system based on money, social prestige, and political power. 

The class lines are “rigid” and suggest a caste system, Fussell argues. 

There are different ways Fussell would divide the classes: “rich and poor; employer and employed, landlord and tenant, bourgeois and proletariat.” 

There are gentlemen and there are cads, he writes. 

You are either couth or uncouth (uncivilized, uncultured). 

There are homeowners and renters. 

Fussell explores the possibility of 3 classes: upper, middle, lower. 

However, he resolves that there are in fact 9 in the United States of America:

 

1. Top out-of-sight
2. Upper
3. Upper middle
4. Middle
5. High proletarian
6. Mid-proletarian
7. Low proletarian
8. Destitute
9. Bottom out-of-sight

 

These nine address the social differences more than the economic ones. 

Seven. For Fussell, being rich is no guarantee of being high class. Explain. 

Fussell shows more than implicit contempt for the rich when they engage in the following: 

People engage in vulgar displays of self-aggrandizement through their accumulation of things. 

People with no self-awareness conform to all the clichés of “having made it.” 

People rub your nose into their conspicuous consumption. 

People define themselves solely by their material wealth and possessions. Such people are called philistines, a very disparaging term. 

People rely on their wealth to define their “greatness” while they allow themselves to become humorless, mediocre, and complacent. 

Because of their wealth, some people feel entitled to control and bully others who are “less” than they are. 

Such people in Fussell’s view (and I agree) are petty, vulgar, narcissistic, small-souled, low-class philistines. 

Eight. Why do we know so little of the top class, the out-of-sight rich? 

They are literally out-of-sight. They live in stealth. They don’t want to be seen since their privileges are best maintained without rousing the lower classes. 

Because we rarely see them, we are unaware of their codes, language, clothing, travel, and even spending habits. Yes, we can generalize that their spending habits are extravagant, but we don’t know how specifically extravagant they are. 

Nine. What do the super rich and the super poor have in common? 

Both exist in invisible mode. We don’t see them.

Both receive money without working. The rich get rich from stock dividends, interest, and inheritance. The poor get handouts.

Since neither extreme works for their money, they are both rather unemployable. 

Ten. What are the distinguishing characteristics of the middle class? 

They are inclined to pay each other compliments as a way of reinforcing middle-class standards, values, and aesthetics. 

They are the most insecure of all the classes because they constantly fear they may fail in their middle-class performance and go down the social class elevator. 

They are obsessed with manners, modesty, and etiquette so as to be perceived as “classy” and “good role models for the community.” For example, a domestic argument wouldn’t hit high decibels; in contrast, a working-class or proletarian argument can escalate into an ear-piercing maelstrom or ruckus.  

They are eager to conform to society’s scripts for what constitutes a “decent family” and “achieving the American Dream.”