Alotta Hooey

I love the internet headlines...

"Working class 'has lower IQ'"

That was the first one that got me reeling this morning (which doesn't take much some days).

It continues...

"Bruce Charlton, reader in evolutionary psychiatry at Newcastle University, suggested that the low numbers of working-class students at elite universities was the "natural outcome" of IQ differences between classes."

Ho boy... right... soapbox please... *cough-cough*

If you were to ask any Briton if there was a class system still in place, you could tell their class by their answer.

The upper echelon would say, "No, no— of course not. Long gone fa fa fa wot? Everyone is free to blah blah blah blah as they please wot wot...." I start zoning out once the first "blah-blahs" start— normally at the beginning.

If you tried to ask the people in the middle (affectionately our version of the Yuppies), you wouldn't get an answer. They're forever trying to get into the higher stratosphere that they forget to breath. They drop like flies eventually. Like the ol' cliche, "Hamsters on the perpetual wheel." Unfortunately, they never get any higher to the Queen's classification than you or me (or her son for that matter), but— hell— don't tell them that. They're forever lost in public (private) schools and petrol-guzzling thingamejig whatnots, they won't hear you.

But they seem happy.

On the other hand if you were to ask any ol' bloke— a laborer— a farmer— a mechanic— hands dirty, obviously from some engine or field, he'd unequivocally say that there was an almost ironclad classification system. Ironically, its also the dirty hand class that are the most prosperous and educated at the moment. Makes me kick m'self for not being a farmer.

But I'ma lurnin'!

I say bugger this working class stigma. At least in the States you can achieve wealth, position, and honors if you wanted to despite your background. Hell, it makes for better copy if you were from the lower classes, preferably starving, couldn't read, or on the streets living in your car before you made your first million, then lost it, then made it again threefold. Success by any means (preferably, honestly) is what counts— and says something for your status— you earned it. And it makes for a nice jingle in your pockets too.

So to conclude m'lawd, I can safely say that the class system is alive and well in the United Kingdom. Of course, that my friends, is the good ol' Yankee Doodle Dandy know-how coming out. We are still free in these (those?) United States.

Then again, soon I will be in a position to help vote out any idiot MP who'll agree with statements like these in the first place. Then we'll see who's who in which what class thinking blah blah.

Wot wot. Hrmph wot.