I have often wondered why we have come to associate ‘values’ primarily with middle-class. If one were to seriously gauge the extremes in class genre( i.e. high class & low class ), there does seem to exist a ‘relative’ lawlessness, absent in middle class. At least in terms of values. In fact, when it comes to values, middle class society has come to be widely regarded as the watchdog in any society .And, there should exist some plausible reason why this sandwiched class has continued to retain respectability in this regard.
Without exception, ‘Page 3’ of any newspapers and glam magazines tempt us with ample dosage of sizzlers on the excesses of high class society. Brushing aside the rich and famous, even when it comes to the 'accessible high class’ of the posh next-street neighborhoods, one is taken aback by the frivolity in values. Wife-swapping in high class circles, where they put all the car keys together and the ladies pick their car-partner! Well, I am not denouncing anything for the moment. That’s not my objective. But my point is, unlike excesses where females taking to drugs or heavy drinking, this is decadence. How does anyone justify it.
Now, looking the other side of the spectrum, the lower classes, you see the same lawlessness. Haven’t you come across your domestic help or house maid feeding your wife juicy stories….like someone left someone for someone else, husband settling off with wife’s sister or something equally wicked. No marriages nor divorces. The same lawlessness exist.
So how does it work for the middle masses. Or maybe, one should ask, why it does not work for the other two. It appears ( and I may be wrong here) values is something that is being ‘negotiated’ between the Society and the Individual. When the Society holds the upper hand and values are kept intact. Like the middle class. And where the Individual breaks free and wins its liberty to take liberty with values, we have chaos. Luckily in every society, high class and low class are in the minority.
The high class, free from financial worries naturally feels above the norms or rules of decency. To them, there is nothing money can’t buy. It frees them to give in to those vices the middle class refrains from. You see a rich man take on multiple wives only too often. Such transgressions rest light on our shoulders.
To them, anything goes! Sab chalta hai..
The low class? Well, they are at the bottom anyway. They don’t lose anything to slip further. Sans everything, they too give in to carnal instincts.
And to them, what difference does it make? Kya farak padta hai?..
It does not matter whether you belong to high or low class, for different reasons though, you no longer fear the society or its 'collective' values.
What one needs to realize is that ‘values’ are checks that the Societies developed to maintain sanity. To make us human beings from the animals we were. We have the institution of marriage and family values to rein in those animal instincts in each one of us.
So now the question becomes, why does society hold the upper hand in middle class alone? I frankly do not know an answer yet. Maybe it is the fear of losing ‘the only values’ that set them apart, giving them respect. Maybe they think it is way to fight off the envy. Or maybe it is the education and the conservatism that is still running strong.
In fact I am beginning to wonder if there any truth in these thoughts at all or am I just being a middle class chauvinist.
Without exception, ‘Page 3’ of any newspapers and glam magazines tempt us with ample dosage of sizzlers on the excesses of high class society. Brushing aside the rich and famous, even when it comes to the 'accessible high class’ of the posh next-street neighborhoods, one is taken aback by the frivolity in values. Wife-swapping in high class circles, where they put all the car keys together and the ladies pick their car-partner! Well, I am not denouncing anything for the moment. That’s not my objective. But my point is, unlike excesses where females taking to drugs or heavy drinking, this is decadence. How does anyone justify it.
Now, looking the other side of the spectrum, the lower classes, you see the same lawlessness. Haven’t you come across your domestic help or house maid feeding your wife juicy stories….like someone left someone for someone else, husband settling off with wife’s sister or something equally wicked. No marriages nor divorces. The same lawlessness exist.
So how does it work for the middle masses. Or maybe, one should ask, why it does not work for the other two. It appears ( and I may be wrong here) values is something that is being ‘negotiated’ between the Society and the Individual. When the Society holds the upper hand and values are kept intact. Like the middle class. And where the Individual breaks free and wins its liberty to take liberty with values, we have chaos. Luckily in every society, high class and low class are in the minority.
The high class, free from financial worries naturally feels above the norms or rules of decency. To them, there is nothing money can’t buy. It frees them to give in to those vices the middle class refrains from. You see a rich man take on multiple wives only too often. Such transgressions rest light on our shoulders.
To them, anything goes! Sab chalta hai..
The low class? Well, they are at the bottom anyway. They don’t lose anything to slip further. Sans everything, they too give in to carnal instincts.
And to them, what difference does it make? Kya farak padta hai?..
It does not matter whether you belong to high or low class, for different reasons though, you no longer fear the society or its 'collective' values.
What one needs to realize is that ‘values’ are checks that the Societies developed to maintain sanity. To make us human beings from the animals we were. We have the institution of marriage and family values to rein in those animal instincts in each one of us.
So now the question becomes, why does society hold the upper hand in middle class alone? I frankly do not know an answer yet. Maybe it is the fear of losing ‘the only values’ that set them apart, giving them respect. Maybe they think it is way to fight off the envy. Or maybe it is the education and the conservatism that is still running strong.
In fact I am beginning to wonder if there any truth in these thoughts at all or am I just being a middle class chauvinist.
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