I'm officially middle class

is getting a weekly organic veggie box delivered worse?

I watched the rugby instead of the football yesterday and I made my own pasta.

i had a flash of smugness about being vegetarian when all that horsemeat shit went down

xslavearcx

i had a flash of smugness about being vegetarian when all that horsemeat shit went down

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/horse-meat-for-revolutionaries.html

I'm going to see The Great Gatsby as a ballet in a few weeks. Might take some home made hummus.

We all need to hand in our badges and guns. The revolution is not for us.

Ive been to university. They call me 'Mr. University' when I go back to my home town. Well the knackers in the pubs where I drink.

I have more baths than showers. Now I dunno if that's middle class, but it's certainly DECADENT!

I have baths whilst watching Brian Cox...

I'm not sure if I do it for the science any more.

Entdinglichung

xslavearcx

i had a flash of smugness about being vegetarian when all that horsemeat shit went down

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/horse-meat-for-revolutionaries.html

Heard Northern Voices writers covered in Mayonnaise are de rigueur amongst revolutionaries these days.

Went to a talk where someone was banging on about people with flatscreen televisions. All I could think of was either getting a bigger one or going back to Europe for another holiday.

Mr. Jolly

Ive been to university. They call me 'Mr. University' when I go back to my home town. Well the knackers in the pubs where I drink.

I must confess, that I do work at a university ... but the working class will re-educate me after revolution

i own a 56" television.
and, i thoroughly enjoy watching it.

i always thought boasting about the size of ones telly was in the domain of working class-ness??

oh - excellent!

get off the thread then prole!!!

For all my middle class friends just in case you don't know the latest on who to boycott...

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/boycotts/currentboycottslist.aspx

Max_Anarchies

I have baths whilst watching Brian Cox...

I'm not sure if I do it for the science any more.

Pah - brian cox - the mondeo man of science!!

I don't have enough money to survive. Now, I keep hearing about the "middle-class squeeze", soo.. I guess that puts us in the same boat? :roll:

I buy Elderflower cordial

Like the elderflower cordial myself.
[youtube]rOm1QoPKdO8[/youtube]

I baked my own bread yesterday, which was pretty bad but a few weeks ago while I was in the supermarket I was talking about olive oil and managed to use the phrase 'everyday olive oil'.

I am constantly wearing jeans ... which is according to Lutte Ouvrière petty-bourgeois

I piss in the sink, which is like having your very own personal urinal, aspirational rather than actual though.

xslavearcx

i always thought boasting about the size of ones telly was in the domain of working class-ness??

exactly, it's only poncey middle class people who don't have an "idiot box"

Back to the OP: I now buy dessert wine…

Choccy

I have more baths than showers. Now I dunno if that's middle class, but it's certainly DECADENT!

baths are more working class, unless you use bath oils (bubble bath can be proletarian, however) or candles.

I'm desperate to know what Martha Stewart's tip was in the OP.

I refuse to drink instant coffee. Fresh brewed or death!

Konsequent

I'm desperate to know what Martha Stewart's tip was in the OP.

haha i was thinking that last night when i was making curry and the garlic was taking ages to peel...

Harrison

I buy Elderflower cordial

If you know of a better thing to drizzle on fresh fruit for dessert in a snap when you have unexpected dinner guests, I'd like to hear it.

Chilli Sauce

I buy the ginger!

Lumpen

If you know of a better thing to drizzle on fresh fruit for dessert in a snap when you have unexpected dinner guests, I'd like to hear it.

I can suggest middle class tea: simmering for 10 minutes a cinnamon stick and freshly sliced root ginger, and adding the cordial at the end. Its yum

Have You become a LIBCOM admin :)

Lumpen

All I could think of was either getting a bigger one or going back to Europe for another holiday.

Taking my sabbatical next month and heading to the med. Top that y'all.

P.S.: Oh, dropping by oxford too. PM me if you ritz.

Tim Finnegan

I refuse to drink instant coffee. Fresh brewed or death!

real working class people only drink tea. With loads of milk and at least four sugars.

Chilli Sauce

Also, I use a cafetierre.

this is me:

[youtube]EyEEodLocKo[/youtube]

Steven.

real working class people only drink tea. With loads of milk and at least four sugars.

Not where I'm from! Poncey middle class lefty hippies and posh ladies drink tea, proper proles drink coffee. In the factories I used to work it was always "boiled" coffee which according to wikipedia was common up til the thirties. I guess trends take a while to make it up north ;)

And Steven I've said it before, italian coffee is for losers. Filter brew of not-roasted-to-death (ie not italian) coffee is the correct path.

Oh I get it...classism.

I used to carry about this huge baggage related to class, I grew up in a working class family and thanks to the assisted places scheme, one of Thatcher's dozier ideas, I went to a private secondary school. It was a real fish out of water experience, from the start everyone, including the teachers, took the piss out of the way I talked (so I developed a really boring middle england sort of accent) and there was just so much petty, pointless snobbery and other kids would say stupid things like "Oh, what do you mean, you've never been to New York?" (I'd never been to old York, let alone America) or "But you haven't lived unless you've eaten sushi!" I'd go round to people's houses for tea, which they called dinner and have no idea what to do with all this seemingly superfluous cutlery. The whole experience had a way of making me feel really thick. Looking back they were just kids parroting the sort of shit their parents came out with, but I left at 16 felling really pissed off with the whole experience and extremely wary of anything which might be considered middle class - it took me at least a decade to try sushi.
Having been away from it for over a decade, I think there's something especially nasty about the english class system but having excepted a definition of class now which doesn't include whether or not you own fish knives, trying to work out where I fit in this system isn't something that that bothers me, or so I thought. Then I was looking around this house and had a moment of clarity. I am a complete and total middle class tosser. Nearly everything in it is second hand - except the beds, I draw the line there. Half of it's been scavenged from dumpsters, stuff left at kerbsides. All of my bookshelves come from Ikea originally, but I got them because someone put them out with the garbage. I've just got a new washing machine, which someone up the road put out for garbage collection and was in much better nick than mine. It occurred to me that everyone in my working class roots would have rather gone without rather than drag home other peoples' cast-off crap, clean it up and say "that's a fine bit of furniture." Right now, I'm sitting here and thinking that I ought to go off and join Crimethinc. I do, on the other hand, have a big, badass flat screen TV to make up for all this thrift store chic, so maybe I'm not entirely lost.
Btw, I knew about the garlic thing already, so a few more prole points lost today.

my mums family are pretty middle class and had a big thing about table manners some of which through my mum have been passed onto me. Honestly, if i hear someone smacking their lips whilst eating or eating with their mouth open i feel absolute rage..

xslavearcx

my mums family are pretty middle class and had a big thing about table manners some of which through my mum have been passed onto me. Honestly, if i hear someone smacking their lips whilst eating or eating with their mouth open i feel absolute rage..

it starts with little things like this ... and than, you want to ban the workers from having sex

Chilli Sauce

I've started drying various fruits every Sunday so I can have healthy snacks throughout the week.

first you want to cleanse your body by living healthy, than you embark on a mission to purify society ... WE ARE ALL GUILTY!!!

xslavearcx

if i hear someone ... eating with their mouth open i feel absolute rage..

my office mate does this. i have felt absolute rage. i've made it clear to my supervisors that we will not be in the same office next year.

Good call on the coffee man. Fuck Nescafe.... Also I say café instead of 'caf'. Mum hates that. Forgot my roots apparently.

Cooked

Steven.

real working class people only drink tea. With loads of milk and at least four sugars.

Not where I'm from! Poncey middle class lefty hippies and posh ladies drink tea, proper proles drink coffee. In the factories I used to work it was always "boiled" coffee which according to wikipedia was common up til the thirties. I guess trends take a while to make it up north ;)

And Steven I've said it before, italian coffee is for losers. Filter brew of not-roasted-to-death (ie not italian) coffee is the correct path.

aren't you Scandinavian? Scandinavians are all middle class, apart from loggers.

I'm not a fan of Italian coffee particularly (actually back to the OP yesterday I just stocked up on coffee at Fortnum & Mason), but I do prefer espresso machine made coffee to filter brew on the whole.

Steven.

aren't you Scandinavian? Scandinavians are all middle class, apart from loggers.

True dat, our egalitarian societies have made everyone middle class but without the neurosis of the UK middle class. The class struggle is over.

@Chilli Sauce
Watching Martha Stewart doesn't make you middle class but having those kinds of bowls that make the tip possible certainly does! I was really disappointed as I hoped I'd be able to use the tip, peeling garlic is so frustrating.

Chilli Sauce

No you don't my friend!

You know what I've been using? A flat bottomed pasta pot with a strainer held over top of it! And you know what? It works! (True story--I can even take a picture if it'd be useful ;) )

Ohhh, now we're talking!

in her living room the mother has a glass bowl with christmas ornaments in it, left out year round as a decoration. she said she got the idea from martha stewart. i was appalled, of course.

I bought organic risotto rice a couple of days ago ... now I hope, that the working class will punish me

Oh yeah, well I got bad teeth and was on free school meals... no wait, wrong thread.. how about this, I listen to Radio 4 and I'm a principal ballerina .

Chilli Sauce

(And I listen to NPR, too. :oops: )

how do you stand it?
you truly must be middle class.

What's NPR? is there a K missing?

instead of some decent working class music (e.g. Cock Sparrer, Tone Loc, Tom Jones), our three months old daughter has to listen to Radio 3 all the time

I also already knew the garlic tip, but those bowls aren't fancy, I bought some like it in the pound shop.
I also make my own sauerkraut. Apparently that's no longer working class because it's pro-biotic.
I also haven't had a TV for years (well actually my sister gave me her old one and I watched about 3 DVDs on it in a year and then got rid of it.)
And I have started to listen to Radio 4 now that I have a smartphone.

Most importantly, I post on libcom :)

Chilli Sauce

On Sundays, my wife and I do the crossword... :oops:

depends which one

Chilli Sauce

On Sundays, my wife and I do the crossword... :oops:

we watch antiques roadshow

Chilli Sauce

They had an episode of that in the town where I went to high school! Shit was like Christmas!

Antiques Roadshow in the US must be fucking hilarious: "Look at this, a happy meal toy from 1992!" "Wow, in such good condition!"

yes, it's just like that :roll:
(english wanker)

petey

yes, it's just like that :roll:
(english wanker)

Sorry Petey but you are older than most things in America.

(very old in-joke removed, but i've got a long memory steven :x )

I painted all the windows on my minivan flat black so my children won't be exposed to the coarse manners of the mobility while we're driving through the city on our way to the art museum.

I enjoy cooking Indian and cooking in general. I even used to watch cooking shows. I also drink imported beer while i'm taking a bath. That has to be pretty decadent and middle class.

I tell students off for things that I do myself, only worse. Their biggest crime, and my frustration, is that they get caught. An example? I supported the Pebble watch through Kickstarter so I can check my messages during class while it looks like I'm checking the time.

I've gone from solid prole stock to being a JAILER OF THE MIND who supports venture capitalism to aid my hypocrisy. It's as bad as eating pine nuts, avocado and rocket at once.

petey

(very old in-joke removed, but i've got a long memory steven :x )

I missed it! What did you say?

I have just returned from a hotel where all the staff called me 'sir'*. The shopping I picked up on the way back was mostly organic, except the Whiskey, which was a fine single malt.

(*although in my defence, I had never seen a mechanical shoe-buffer before and turned it on to have a play with it, panicking when the button wouldn't turn it off again, prompting a passing employee to remark discreetly 'It turns itself off automatically, sir'. Also, I was wearing trainers, which he clocked, discreetly).

I'm about to kick your barely middle class asses:

On Friday I spent well over a minute deciding what local good cause I should give my little green token to in Waitrose.

Now beat that plebs!

At least seven people have asked me if I was british because of my voice.

I live in florida. I have never stepped foot outside a 50 mile radius in my life. What the hell does this even mean?

NannerNannerNannerNannerNanner

At least seven people have asked me if I was british because of my voice.

I live in florida. I have never stepped foot outside a 50 mile radius in my life. What the hell does this even mean?

I've already clearly demonstrated my middle class credentials but there is more to reveal here. I am currently running 2 mobile phones which makes me a chav but I have a pain in my big toe which I suspect is gout, no doubt caused by my daily breakfast of venison and old crusted port which makes me distinctly upper class.
I reckon though that they all cancel each out which makes me a one man revolution!
I've abolished class in three easy steps! So quit the Libcom waffling, buy 2 phones, and get yourself down to Waitrose for some opulent victuals and job's a good un.
The only downside is that you'll walk with a slight limp.

My middle class symptoms:
1. I stopped using the public baths
2. months pass without using public transport
3. when visiting a library I look at the exhibitions
4. most friends now say “Pardon me” not “Good arse thought you were dead”
5. the clincher – most of my underpants come from Marks & Sparks

Auld-bod

My middle class symptoms:
1. I stopped using the public baths

isn't that more a symptom of "not living in Roman times"?

I don't smoke or drink.

I only just now escaped the Gulag

My middle class symptoms:
1. Have avoided all the vomitoriums
2. Stopped going to the Colloseum
3. Hobknobbed in this Senator's house
4. Have protested a gladitorial match
5. My asshole dad has bought a Lexus

the last time i tried to demonstrate my middleclassness i only proved what a prole i was, so again:
we have a home-carbinator to make soda water.
also a purebred dog of a type rare in the states.

Auld-bod

4. most friends now say “Pardon me” not “Good arse thought you were dead”

:D

Chilli Sauce

I buy Taste the Difference smoked salmon.

it's still Sainsbury's you peasant

Steven #87

Roman times indeed! :lol: Twice a week Govan Baths (now demolished) used to resound to my shrieks of delight amid the roar of dozens of kids creating absolute bedlam.

People loved their baths - this about Govanhill Baths from a BBC item 2001:

‘Five police officers have been injured during overnight clashes with campaigners protesting about the closure of a public swimming pool in Glasgow.

Strathclyde Police blamed a "violent minority" for the scenes outside the Govanhill pool which saw officers pelted with pineapples, stones and socks filled with nuts and bolts.

One policewoman suffered a chest injury, another was taken to hospital with broken ribs and a male police officer sustained a broken nose in the clashes, which flared up on Tuesday evening.
A police spokesman said two other officers were treated for minor injuries at the scene.

The pool, which has been occupied for five months by people protesting against its closure, was evacuated by sheriff's officers earlier in the day.

The evacuation sparked some minor scuffles between police and protesters, but the clashes reached a peak when the angry crowd swelled to more than 200 late in the evening.
Five men were arrested in connection with the incidents and at least one protester, a woman, was hurt.

The police spokesman said the flashpoint of violence came as shutters were being put up over the pool's doors and windows.
He said: "A decision was taken by a senior police officer to force the crowd back at this stage and it was over within a matter of minutes.
"It went back to the peaceful protest which the demonstration had been prior to being hijacked by a fringe element wholly intent on violence towards the police."

Glasgow City Council said it had evicted all the protesters from inside the pool in the early hours of Tuesday morning, despite claims from the protest group that some were still hidden inside.
On Tuesday morning, more than 70 protesters had gathered at the pool and vowed to continue their fight to save the facility, which was closed earlier this year.

Campaigners said the council has closed a much-needed leisure facility in an area with a poor health record and the pool also gave Muslim women the opportunity to bathe in privacy.’

Sorry, I didn’t mean to de-rail the thread. :oops:

Why do cops ALWAYS say its a "violent [group, minority, club whatever] when they're doing something objectively bad? Why can't they just get the balls to say "yes we are helping the government close down this thing you like because fuck you".

That would help clear up a lot of illusions!

petey

we have a home-carbinator to make soda water.

Surely that just demonstrates how gullible you are.
[youtube]oFeV0CbvHG8[/youtube]

fleurnoire-et-rouge

Nearly everything in it is second hand - except the beds, I draw the line there. Half of it's been scavenged from dumpsters, stuff left at kerbsides. All of my bookshelves come from Ikea originally, but I got them because someone put them out with the garbage. I've just got a new washing machine, which someone up the road put out for garbage collection and was in much better nick than mine. It occurred to me that everyone in my working class roots would have rather gone without rather than drag home other peoples' cast-off crap, clean it up and say "that's a fine bit of furniture." Right now, I'm sitting here and thinking that I ought to go off and join Crimethinc. I do, on the other hand, have a big, badass flat screen TV to make up for all this thrift store chic, so maybe I'm not entirely lost.
Btw, I knew about the garlic thing already, so a few more prole points lost today.

Even my beds are second hand and my tv isn't flat screen. I probably am entirely lost.

Just thought I'd let you all know I'm moving house next week. Now where did I put those Farrow and Ball colour charts...

Oh Christ, I just put my National Trust sticker in the windscreen of my highly predictable eco-efficient 'Waitrose Ranger' estate car. Will somebody shoot me please? If nobody does expect me back on the thread soon to let you know how many miles to the gallon I've been getting lately.
Right, off to the veggie garden now to cut some salad to go with my dinner. Quinoa tonight methinks!

Most cab drivers are owner operators. You can't get much more middle class than that.

Devrim

Uber is taking us back to the times when you just pulled a poor person off the street when you had something needing doing. Mind you anyone who's been to any kind of building supplies shop knows that that is getting more and more common.

Devrim

Most cab drivers are owner operators. You can't get much more middle class than that.

Devrim

it depends how you define it. Of course by the standard UK cultural definition it wouldn't. And even in Marxist terminology they could be defined as petit bourgeois, but as Chilli Sauce says, this is not really accurate.

People like black cab drivers are one thing, but minicab drivers and Uber drivers (who basically just minicab drivers) are really employees for firms, who just don't get a wage. So the risk of the ups and downs in the business are borne solely by the employees: much like wage less restaurant work in US (where payment is by tips), or the nominally "self-employed" call centre workers who have to rent their workstation.

jef costello

Uber is taking us back to the times when you just pulled a poor person off the street when you had something needing doing. Mind you anyone who's been to any kind of building supplies shop knows that that is getting more and more common.

I hear this sentiment a lot, but I don't agree with it. Massively exploitative minicab firms have been around for decades. My dad was a minicab driver for about 25 years, and the conditions are awful. It's dangerous, as you have a high risk of both robbery, assault and traffic accidents. There are no benefits, and there is no security, as you are dependent on there being customers.

On top of that, you have to pay rent to your firm, for the privilege of working for them, as well as pay them a commission on each job. And often you have to bribe the controller who allocates jobs as well (they may also be discriminatory). And your expenses are huge: petrol, insurance, new cars, repairs, etc, so you have to work ridiculous hours to make ends meet (my dad did 12 hours a day, 350 days a year)

Now Uber is no different, it's just a massive minicab firm: whereas before they were all mostly very small competing firms (although a couple of big ones like Addison Lee have now emerged). And if anything, conditions at Uber are better in a lot of ways: they just take a commission, there is no rent, you can choose your own hours, you don't have to bribe controllers, you get more work (as minicab drivers have to do a job, then often drive back to the base before doing another job, leaving a lot of dead time), customers can't run off without paying, and they are less likely to rob you as it's not cash-based. For some people the flexible hours in particular can be really important. One Uber driver I spoke to for example said he got sacked from his job for having a bad back and. Basically it leaves him unable to do much for more than two hours at a time. So he can drive the cab for a couple of hours, then go home for a lie down, then get back out again. Of course the work isn't great but there aren't many jobs which can be that flexible, which is really important for people with some disabilities.

Of course they are a bad multinational company, like all, but there is no qualitative difference between them and any minicab firm.

When someone living in London talks about a 'cab driver', I'd understand black taxi, and yes, they are petite-bourgeois, i.e. part of the middle class.

I don't know anything about Uber. It's a name I've heard a couple of times, but we don't have it where I live, and I don't really know what it is.

Devrim

Mini cabbing isn't the same as being a black taxi driver. The black taxis are a kind of specialised and somewhat protected subsection of the industry. Mini cab drivers, who are the majority, are in general working long hours for low pay and in bad conditions as Steven says. One of my family was also a mini cab driver actually, I'm shocked to realise I have something in common simultaneously with both Steven and Aaron Bastani.
I don't know much about Uber but it's an online app to book a minicab and people talk about it a lot as one of the many ways access to work and control over work are changing because of online technology.

Chilli Sauce

So, I might suggest that folks want to continue this conversation, we should move it to another thread. Uber will definitely come up again and it might be worth having a thread focused on it as opposed to having some really worthwhile posts on the subject being tacked on to the back of what's basically a joke thread.

Yet more proof of your middle class credentials - sidestepping a difficult topic!

Seriously though, this is a bit of academic bullshit being proposed here. In the real world black cab drivers do the knowledge, buy and maintain their own car, employ nobody, give people a lift and get recompensed for it. That's it. I couldn't give a flying fuck what label Marx would put on them.
Fucking hell, it's like pulling teeth around here sometimes.

I wouldn't mention pulling teeth or anything brutal around the middle class. We know what they got up to in Germany and Cambodia when they were given free reign.

Webby

Chilli Sauce

So, I might suggest that folks want to continue this conversation, we should move it to another thread. Uber will definitely come up again and it might be worth having a thread focused on it as opposed to having some really worthwhile posts on the subject being tacked on to the back of what's basically a joke thread.

Yet more proof of your middle class credentials - sidestepping a difficult topic!

Seriously though, this is a bit of academic bullshit being proposed here. In the real world black cab drivers do the knowledge, buy and maintain their own car, employ nobody, give people a lift and get recompensed for it. That's it. I couldn't give a flying fuck what label Marx would put on them.
Fucking hell, it's like pulling teeth around here sometimes.

I was accused of having a degree from a fancy university.

admin: discussion about Uber split to here: http://libcom.org/forums/general/what-do-you-think-about-uber-30122015
Please don't continue to discuss Uber on this thread. Future posts will be deleted.

i listen to bbc radio 4

oh... and i read chekhov. there really is no hope for me...

elraval2

i listen to bbc radio 4

I think all the UK libcommers do! Ever heard Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show?

Webby #116

Santa brought me 'Ed Reardon's Week Season 5' this Christmas. Now that's middle class not some dribbling old aristo.

Webby

elraval2

i listen to bbc radio 4

I think all the UK libcommers do!

you really fucking are middle class

radicalgraffiti, it gets worse... i am also partial to a bit of classical music on radio 3

I have a Nespresso machine.

I take it we are to understand 'middle class' in the English sense of the word (a sociological classification of no interest except to sociologists and snobs) not the continental (a category of political economy)?