>But Hitch is of middle-class origins, so some of that class-based
>resentment would be of the arriviste variety, an anxiety about
>falling.
Indeed, that's probably one of the most terrifying things for anyone in the British middle class, the fear that you'll wind up below where you are now. That would include acting like, or being seen with, someone below your rank, it would make a fall seem that much closer. And the worst insult you could toss at someone would be that they're acting below their (newly acquired) status.
The anxiety is worse for the middle class because they can see the bottom from where they are, hence the vehement reaction from people like Hitchens about Clinton's sex with a prole.
Every so often I watch 'Keeping Up Appearances', it's like a documentary of my family.
PC
N P Childs
'I'm Mister Bad Example, the stranger in the dirt, I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt'.
-Mr. Bad Example, W Zevon