Classlessness

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This article covers a simple paradox about class consciousness, and defines classlessness as the state of being in which one does not identify onself with any particular class as used in the vernacular. In other contexts, classlessness may also be used to refer to a type of society in which social classes have been objectively abolished.

The paradox of class consciousness

One of the curious results of certain class societies (or societies that are generally perceived to be based on class distinctions) is that people belonging to different social classes have different views on the class system as a whole. This is a major difficulty that arises when one tries to define social classes according to subjective factors. The paradox can be observed by asking people which class they see themselves as and how they view others. Typically, in English society, the results would be:

Upper Class people, e.g. aristocrats, traditionally refer merely to The Lower Classes, without making any distinction between people who are not aristocrats, i.e. they operate in a two-class model

Working Class people, similarly, traditionally refer merely to 'toffs', i.e. anyone who isn't working class, and also operate in a two-class system, but a different one from Upper Class people

Middle Class people, in contrast, recognise Upper Class and Working Class, perhaps on the same bases as people who claim to belong to each, but in addition, draw distinctions between the Upper Middle and Lower Middle classes (or even introduce the notion of Middle Middle Class, for anyone they feel doesn't fall into any of the other categories), i.e. they operate from a 4- or 5-class perspective.

From this observation one can argue that class consciousness in modern English society is quite blurred, and that a coherent view of social classes cannot be attained by merely asking people where they see themselves in a class hierarchy.

Most class models, however, draw class divisions according to certain objective criteria, which are not susceptible to interpretation. In Marxist thought, for example, contemporary society is divided in two social classes: the bourgeoisie (those who earn all or most of their income as a result of their ownership of various means of production) and the proletariat (those who earn all or most of their income by working as employees for a wage).

Embourgeoisement Thesis

Proponents of the idea of classlessness as a fact of modern society, which was debated as the embourgeoisement thesis in the 1950s, argue that as middle class values become more prevalent, marginalising the elitism of the upper classes and the inferiority complex of the working classes, there is a tendency for everyone to become middle class, or at least all of the same class, resulting effectively in a state of classlessness.

Proponents also claim that it is reactionary to cling to outmoded class concepts, and that social policy should pursue classlessness as a means of removing discrimination. Such policies also can be targeted to undermine those who aim to cause unrest or even revolution on class grounds.

Opponents of this theory argue that social class has nothing to do with the way people think or perceive themselves, since it is an objective distinction between people with different economic roles. A wage labourer with "bourgeois values" is still a wage labourer, thus still a proletarian.

Furthermore, opponents of the embourgeoisement thesis would throw the accusation of reactionaryism right back at the theory's proponents, arguing that no amount of wishful thinking will change hard social realities. To use an extreme example, the slave and his master do not become "equal" or "classless" if they simply decide to imagine themselves as such.

A position is also taken by some people that class struggle is over in liberal western democracies simply by virtue of them being democracies. Margaret Thatcher's observation that There is no such thing as society only individuals and their families. also caused certain people to question their own class identity. The emergence of the New Labour movement in Britain at the end of the 20th Century reflected politicians setting an agenda to appeal to people with no class consciousness.