So anyway, we had a short dialogue, the shopkeep and I, but to be honest, the phrase, “It sounds great in principle, but it would never work” is a bit of a conversation stopper.
So back I returned home, on a beautiful sunny day, and began reading the book in my second-hand rocking chair in the back garden. I had not “been on the internet” (that great distraction) for the past couple of days, and resolved to read the book – the bulk of it being just 40 pages – to its completion, again without going on the computer.
I have often thought that the internet, which is of course global, where each user is essentially equal, and where so much is free is quite analogous with communism. Nonetheless, it‟s also very habit-forming, which is not good!
As the sun was slowly sinking behind a tree, having read the first 10 pages or so – yes, there are only 40 pages, but it‟s quite a strong concentration of text! – I came in, turned on the telly, and found a 70s sitcom called George & Mildred. References to the working class and an opposing middle class perpetuated the programme (perhaps one irony being that the lead roles playing the working class George and Mildred probably earned a substantially higher wage than the 2 people cast as their middle class neighbours). It occurred to me that specific references to people of a certain class are not made all that often these days. The classic sketch with John Cleese and Ronnie Corbett featuring the upper class looking down on the working class and vice versa would be out of place on 21st century TV I think.
That doesn‟t of course mean that there are not still class divisions and tensions, but perhaps they‟re just not spoken about as much. But it‟s not exactly the first thing you‟d think of to put on your facebook profile (your class), and it is not an option on any of the networking sites (like political views, religion, etc.), but maybe that‟s because the sites are all too “bourgeois”.
Perhaps the IT-type jobs, or call centre work, where graduates and school leavers work alongside each other that a lot of people now put up with, give so many the impression that everyone is about middling, when the reality is that any wage below £20,000 will mean you will struggle even to pay rent or a mortgage. Of course it‟s true that still a very small section of society have a massive sum of wealth, and own vast amounts of property. The Queen after all owns 6,600 million acres of land, or one sixth of the World‟s land mass.
But are people really that bothered? Mobile phones – once only owned by yuppies are now affordable for all – and for many it seems, as long as they‟ve got 1500 minutes, unlimited texts and enough money for beer at the end of the week, they‟re happy.
At the same time of course, a lot of people aren’t happy – just like Marx in his time. The Communist Manifesto was published during a hotbed of political activity in the middle 19th century, and so was very much “of its time.” But there is still a lot to make it relevant today. Marx does strike me as being very much an angry young man, perhaps like those protestors in London smashing up banks, etc. The guiding principle of the CM, as Marx states is “Abolition of private property.” To me though, attacking a few banks
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