Opus 2018-314: Dream Class

I am starting through a series of Victorian murder mysteries.  They tell good stories but being written by a woman they tend to get into a lot of feelings and introspection.  One of the things I like about good historical fiction is that it teaches me about other times and places.  This one does a good job of getting into a mind set that is alien to modern America.

One thing we just do not understand is the rock solid class consciousness.  You were born in a class and you died in the class.  You knew your place and accepted it.  The person of the king or queen was inviolate.  Nobility were your superiors.  You might be rich but you could never be accepted in polite society.

Historically certain lines of work were looked down on.  They were accepted but definitely lower class.  Gentlemen did not dirty their hands in such work.  Some seem to have stood the test of time.  Policemen, reporters and enlisted soldiers were assumed to be little better than prostitutes in social status.  Only people of quality used the front door.  If you were a policeman coming to ask a few questions you would be directed around to the back so you would remember your place. 

Much of the world is still that way.  You are not able to rise above your social class.  If you are connected to the right people it is accepted that you can get away with things that would put others in jail.  You may have noticed that this attitude is becoming common in our ruling classes.  Us common people sit here and see Michael Flynn facing jail time for nothing and James Comey who lied to congress on national television is still running free.  This is not the American way.  When the Founding Fathers set up the American experiment they knew that some people were better than others but it was based on who they were and what they did, not on their blood lines.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to go back.  I want the rule of law where murder is punished the same no matter what political party you belong to.  I want rioters treated like criminals not artists.  A familiar quotation that is being more and more ignored is from Martin Luther King, Jr.  He talked about living in a country where his children would be judged on the content of their character not the color of their skin.  It was in his “I Have a Dream” speech.

I think all conservatives have that same dream.

homo unius libri