Pity he's not in touch with anyone young!
Following on from what
@____no5 was discussing in Now Playing....
Yes, social class is still a big deal, even if a lot of people aren't aware and think it doesn't exist. I think it's gradually dying out, though. People in their 20s say they don't see such rigid barriers, at least not among their own age group.
It's definitely still a thing among my age group, though. Lennon's Working Class Hero I think was more about Americans who consider themselves part of a fluid or classless society when in fact there are still major social barriers (even without considering race issues).
The same sentiment applies here too now. People who own a house and a car can be heard saying they're middle class, but British middle-class is traditionally is more about a particular upbringing and culture, and usually a private education, as well as wealth. Plus we still have upper class, which is hereditary gentry, not wealthy business owners.
The retired oil worker with the niceish large house on a very expensive new development and a big car still won't be considered refined enough to be admitted to the golf club.
It follows that traditional middle class people aspire to rub shoulders with gentry. Working class people either aspire to be wealthy or try to copy the manners and refinement of the traditional middle class.
The thing with the class barriers is you don't know about it until you run into one. I got it a lot where I used to live, which was a mix of old school middle class and wannabe social climbers. But because I don't own a house or car, I'm considered very lower class even where I am now.
You can be turned down for a good many jobs, even quite poorly paid ones, because you're 'not the right sort of person'.
I actually think that's the case in some ways most places (think the US and 'trailer park trash'), but it's more acute here.
Interestingly, foreigners can either universally be considered socially inferior, or given the benefit of the doubt because nobody can work out where they'd fit in British class culture.
Adrian Smith did comment in an interview a few years ago about Maiden being working class blokes. Culturally, for their generation, they are.
I'll make an exception for Bruce. Of course he did go to a an old fashioned private school, even he was thrown out, and that rubbed off on him. His parents were also attempted social climbers.
), but that is also the case with public Universities elsewhere in Europe, although in other places they are much more heavily subsidised by the taxpayer.
