Knowing one's station in life

This is a very interesting read. I can see both sides of what you're saying and I agree very much with a comment you make and reply to someone else's comment, that I'm glad I'm retired and don't have to continually change jobs or move about in order to achieve what I managed by staying in one place. Both my grandfathers were injured in mining accidents and that was their lot, which I'm glad I didn't have to share. WWll made the various strata of Society have to pull together and I think out of that opportunities were given to young men and women that they could never have imagined if they'd stayed in their own 'class'. It is very common for my generation in the UK to say that we were the first ones to go to university: that was me as well. I am proud of my family history and of what my grandparents went through so that their children didn't have to.

Teaching kids to see manual work as something less did so much damage to so many of us when growing up and choosing school in my generation. Here, every parent wanted their kid to study at "gymnasium" which is a school that is supposed to provide broad theoretical knowledge about many subjects and prepare them for further studies at university. Because it was prestigious, because in past it was far harder to get to a college if someone studied at a trade school and because most kids couldn't pick their future career path at 15 and because it was a sort of a promise that it will lead to a much better paid job of some sort, as opposed to the expectation of kids who finish a trade school to become the work force right after high school without a need for any further education (but also with low pay). That was the lie sold to me when I was 15: a trade school is a dead end, a gymnasium gives you time to decide what you want to do in your life. So I picked a gymnasium but it just meant 4 years of studying with nothing real in hands, unemployable and the college was the only option. While people from a trade school had basically both an option to get employed and go to a college because all that mattered was if you passed the entrance exam.

Anyway, knowing myself better now, I often feel like I would do better if I just learned some useful craft really well quite soon in my life and followed that path. I ended up with a master's degree in fine arts but what for? I saw too late that this kind of environment isn't for me, I don't entirely understand the values of people in it. It's too abstract, too subjective and too self-centered for me. As you said, none of that is real work. Now I mean the abstract and theoretical part of it, not real craftmanship. The older I am the less I value bloviating in flowery speech and more I appreciate when people are straight to the point. And the more I'm annoyed by people trying to present their opinions as facts, sell something that isn't really important as the most important thing in the world just because their livelihood depends on it because they have nothing else to offer or refuse to acquire a skill useful to broader public because they only want to do something that is fun to them. Again, I don't mean artists as creators of an art piece who rely on the will of general public to spend their money on their art, I mean the theorists, critics and people in the academic field, often paid by the state, who often try to push their subjective opinions as the universal truth and think we should accept it just because they used a bunch of foreign-sounding words and quoted some Renaissance painter in their publication. I mean, come on, this is not natural science where you have undeniable facts, where you mix two substances and everyone sees the reaction the same way.


And of course, this isn't just about abstract stuff and theory. This happens with skills too and it annoys me to no end when some company decides to redesign some app or website just because someone needs a job. If it works well, leave it alone. But no..IT teams and graphic designers need to be paid for something so why shouldn't they redo something already existing instead of trying to invent something new?

Sorry, this was long. 😅

My ancestors in England were farmers, and my Great-Grandparents, who moved to the United States, were all farmers. What FreddieUK says about WWII is true. My father used his opportunities earned by his service in the war to educate himself. Eventually he received his doctrate, and in my family home, the emphasis was always on education.

My ex-husband was a man who worked in construction, and he became disabled with a very weird disease that caused his hands and feet to painfully swell up. He was at home for five years without attempting to change his circumstance. Eventually, I was able to talk him into re-training, and he learned to be an IT server support person.

You were very fortunate, that your body lasted throughout your working career. His did not.

My home town is a dire place now and has been for decades. But I'm so glad I grew up there when it was still a good place to live and was an almost classless place where concepts such as "Knowing one's place" were utterly foreign.

I didn't really appreciate it until I left to go to university and spoke to people from other parts of the country. And now i live in Norway where class really is a dirty word and I feel at home.

I think Blue collar guys are the best you did a great job and you have no debt that is something to be really proud of.
If I was younger and if I had it to do all over again I'd work for a while and then homestead.
Too old now and don't have a partner he died this summer.
And well, he was a city boy.
Still worked for a living,though.

I also grew up in a working-class family, but I see things a little differently. We need both, people who work with their muscles and people who work with their minds. In an ideal world, both would be equally valuable.

Everyone is different. And so I can't really say anyone's perspective is totally right.

Yet I do find it ironic, that the "I am better" attitude, is so prevalent throughout every society.

I firmly believe, that this attitude is promoted, throughout most societies, just so equality doesn't happen.

Certain types hate equality that much. 😔

ay i have no desire to enter the rat race either.. tho i wouldn't have mind moving up as i fancy fancier things but i am content now as i mad a move once and it didn't go well.. the guy basically put me back in my place and i haven't bothered to make a move since.. and i do value the hard work and labor of the working class as well that my father was from and raised us in.. my mom tho is another story a society person from another country with a tailor and a maid and what not and her grandfather was a land owner with fields and fishponds and her mother was raised in wealth tho lonely and wanted to be a nun because of it .. as did i when i was 13 lol (not anymore tho) i heard some nuns are mean

I believe that being free of ambition is an ideal state of mind and a great personal blessing. However, I wonder how practical it is in today's economy where even the most apparently essential blue collar professionals have to reinvent themselves 2-3 times in the span of their careers just to remain employable.

This.... was an interesting read. I always say that if I had to do it all again, I would instead choose a blue collar profession.

Maybe next time..

are you american, in uk there spride in class, and all classes respect each other inpublic