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This paragraph really stood out as this: > “The late seventeenth-century invention of shops and shopping by an urban middle class who lived by trade was mirror
by wisty 6y ago
This paragraph really stood out as this:
> “The late seventeenth-century invention of shops and shopping by an urban middle class who lived by trade was mirrored by the growth of a new type of domestic space,” Worsley writes. “What might be termed the ‘middle-class’ living room was full of superfluous objects, chosen for ornament rather than use yet cheap and not truly beautiful: a barricade of possessions intended to stabilize a precarious position in the world.”
It kind of reminds me of a famous watch Youtuber who berates anyone who wastes their money on a watch that costs more than a Casio, but less than a Rolex.
- nicbou 6y agoThat reminds me of this SSC article: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/22/right-is-the-new-left/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/22/right-is-the-new-left/ Long story short, people want to distance themselves from the class below them, and mimic the class above them. The strategy that emerges is to appropriate the culture of people two classes below them, because people one class below them can't. If you're rich and do poor people things, you set yourself apart from middle class people, who doesn't want to be mistaken for poor people. No one will mistake you for a poor person anyway.