[lbo-talk] What is social class? (was:Boycotting the unorganized?)

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Carrol:
> An analysis of this situation that endlessly invokes a mythical "middle
> class" is simply not serious.
> 
> We are talking about a huge working class differntiated into innumerable
> fragments, and leftists just can't bring themselves to escape their
> slavery to what is perhaps the chief cultural/ideological weapon of
> capital, the really weird belief in a middle class.

A kettle calling a pot black.  "Middle class" is as real as "huge working
class differentiated into innumerable fragments."  The only material reality
out there is the great number of people - everything else are cognitive
constructs that group them differently.  Middle class or working class are
simply different organizing concepts.  We can debate the usefulness of these
concepts for a particular analytical task - but it is disingenuous to call
one real and the other not.

Obviously, the concept of the "middle class" obfuscates differences to
achieve a political end (legitimation of the status quo), but so does the
concept of the "working class" albeit for a different political end
(delegitimation of the status quo).  Again we can accept one and reject the
other for its political expediency, but it is disingenuous to call one real
and the other non-existing.

Wojtek