Re: Violence in US and Britain/Europe
Quote:
Originally Posted by Banquo's Ghost
As you allude, I suspect it is quite difficult to equate the two. Class means something quite different in Europe and the UK.
American writers tend to use class as a differentiator of income bracket. In Europe, it is a differentiator of breeding, that is education and culture - which has a correlation with income, but that is not a main driver.
It has always been almost impossible to move within classes in Europe, except over several generations. It is both possible and a normal aspiration to move through the classes in the USA.
There are shared attributes in both systems of course, and the disenfranchised working class has similar characteristics in poverty/lack of choice, but on this side of the pond, the newly well-off will always be arriviste. Crikey, I know people that would describe any family ennobled post-Charles I as trade.
This is my experience as well. It's more than just culture and education though. You might shift up half a class bracket with that but if you don't have good family to begin with no matter how well they prepare you for society the fact that your grandfather wasn't class X will always hold you back.
