Christopher Lasch: What Causes the Culture Gap? (2)

[@klowen7778]

Enjoying your series on Lasch, and yes, the absence of the aristocracy has seen the rise of an edu-macated class of 'new elites', that "have abandoned the working class and the middle class". And agreed re: all hypocrisy, but when was it ever *_not_* so... where aristocrats, the noblesse oblige, Robber Barons, and now 'Yuppies', etc. have ever really paid anything more than 'lip service' to any _other_ social class, let alone been _expected_ to?

[@Mark-fv8vt]

very interesting speech

[@coolconfuzer]

Love your channel.

[@myla6135]

Thank you for doing this series on Lasch. You have a lovely voice and you speak so well. I've only just come across Lasch but what he has to say resonates with how I feel and what I have been coming to realise these last few years. This particular episode is quite personal to me because I bought the whole meritocracy thing back in the 70s and did exactly as was expected of me: left my family ties, my community, my religion and went off to "do well". I was lucky being endowed academic talent and a work ethic like no other and felt exactly like a meritocrat should feel: that my "success" was all down to me and that everyone else just needed to stop whining and do the same. If I could do it (from a very ordinary background) so could everyone else. Thank goodness I stopped thinking like this about 10 years ago. But in many ways it's a bit too late. I shan't get back those family ties or ever get the chance to belong to any community. Still, on the bright side, I can listen to these amazing videos and read some fascinating books. I'm looking forward to exploring many more of your videos.

[@HolaYola99]

A recent book about this topic also covers the cultural divide. The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged by Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison.

[@the81kid]

"Elites marry other elites": does this explain why so many elites (perhaps hypocritically) support "equity" and "female empowerment"? It's just another tool to maintain economic inequality (I think this is something the "masses" have already largely noticed). By the way, I like your reading list. You keep away from all the trending talking heads around these days.

[@trorisk]

For a bourgeois woman to be able to work there must be a nanny, and therefore the exploitation of another woman in alienating work. And the bourgeois woman will also be able to exploit the husband of the nanny, it is on the extortion of the surplus value of the husband that the nanny will be paid. “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.”

[@madebyreuben3402]

Feminism is used by the elite to buffer the lower classes but not in the way you're thinking

[@platoscave911]

America has always in a sense been an meritocracy. In its beginnings it shunned Aristocracy and the church and previous cultural ties when it produced the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and basically instilled the values of Mercantilism and Individualism. Even today there's very little understanding of the Declaration and even in the halls of government and education you hear and are taught very little about it! From the very beginning Americas values have been in the business realm from large plantation farming and slavery to large factory textile mills and mass immigration to full fill the needs of business. Ive always said that the U.S. is not a country but a very large business where the President is the CEO and the congress represents the board of directors. The only thing in the end that really matters in the U.S. is financial gain, money and of course with those kind of values its taken a tremendous toll on culture, society, the family, communities etc. etc. The elites in the U.S. have no duty towards the masses at all, their only cause is to use the masses for their own gains good or bad. The masses are their to be used as they see fit in the creation of the world they envision for themselves, I mean we're getting closer and closer to the hunger games every day. Vanity and corruption is running amok!

[@trorisk]

Aristocracy (=the government of the best) and meritocracy are in theory connected. Political philosophy teaches us (Aristotle, Montesquieu etc.) that the election is by nature aristocratic and undemocracy. It is not the people who lead but the people choose their master, whom they hope to be the most qualiIt is not the people who rule but the people choose their master, whom they hope to be the most qualified. In reality both aristocracy and meritocracy have degenerate into nepotism (the government of friends, favoritism and cronyism). Whether from a political or economic point of view (the two are intertwined)

[@YellowCakeRadio]

In my generation they call it a "comfort zone" to care for your family and the well-being of your close friends that may not have progressed at the rate of our society.

[@brennangallgher3600]

Video started with an ad for Disney. LOL.

[@maurinacademy]

Oh no!

[@Jester123ish]

Gotta say, I think the goal is to integrate both the Left and Right in each individual, that does mean you have to become more like the Left, but also the Right perspective.

[@the81kid]

I've heard some people call themselves: Conservatives Against Capitalism. We should all be real conservatives, and actually believe in conserving things, the valuable things in life: community, the ecosystem, human dignity, real human connection, quality of life (as opposed to the standard of living). I'm amazed at how much in the last few years the so-called left have merged with the so-called right, but I don't mean this in a good way. The hippies and counterculture dropouts cut their hair, bought a suit and went to work in Silicon Valley making all the current tech corporations - this is one example which really sticks in my mind. Liberals, conservatives and socialists all believe in social engineering at the altar of unstoppable technology.

[@Rahshu]

Or maybe smoking bans are more about public health? You can't usually keep your smoking to yourself in public. Other people have to smell it whether they want to or not, and second hand smoke is very harmful to your health. I feel like characterizing that as a "sanitizing of society" is really very sound. It's one thing to rub out odd corners that are merely charming and interesting; it's quite another to sand down ones that actually do harm to people. I also think this dividing of society into elites and masses is way overssimplified, never mind their views on things, ignoring a lot of overlap. It also ignores that the left-right spectrum is an incomplete representation of political positions and values. While I see a lot of use in Lasch's descriptions about appearances mattering more than substance and the gap that large income inequality and access to opportunity can create between different classes being able to understand each other, I find his analysis (at least as presented in this video) a bit simplistic and overly preoccupied with stereotypes.

[@fire.smok3]

When the six richest people on the planet are wealthier than literally the one billion poorest people on the planet, I think it's safe to say there exists a class of elites and a class of the masses with very very very very little overlap between them

[@mescellaneous]

it is just an example. i dont like smoking either, but it made me reframe this prohibition in a new way.

[@blondthought5175]

Thanks for this. Just work on the common but annoying tic of verbal inflection that sounds like you're about to make an inquiry when you're not. It's okay to sound self-assured and confident, especially when you've got Christopher Lasch behind you.