A Class Society?

Every society is organized by class: distinct groupings with specific tasks, rewards, powers, prerogatives and status.

Church, Heaven, Hell 

The Church, the "perfect society" is a good example. We have the hierarchy in its distinct ranks; religious including monks, mendicants, missionaries, cloistered sisters, consecrated virgins; secular institutes, exorcists, catechists, hermits, theologians, sacristans and so forth.

We don't know much about the angelic realm but we know there are different orders; archangels, guardian angels, choirs, dominions, and so forth. The demonic kingdom would of course mirror this. All of created being is hierarchical in nature.

I will stretch it and even suggest that, analogically understood, God the Trinity is composed of three persons who could also be understood as three hyper-classes, equal in dignity but distinct in identity, relationships and tasks.

Feudal Order

Medieval Christendom is the best example: knights, monks, bishops, serfs, merchants, craftsmen. Each had specific duties and privileges. Of course some tasks are so important, difficult or dangerous that they merit reward and status. For example, the knight risked his life to protect the community so he received prestige. There are, however, rewards and challenges for each class so it is not evident that one or other is over or under the other in the manner of power and oppression. Each, especially the most humble, is a blessing, a charism, a mission.

Marxist Class Warfare

Marx, of course, observing a sinful world without the lens of faith, borrowed the Hegelian dialectic to develop a narrative of continual class warfare: one class oppressing another until the revolution when  a new oppressor/oppressed dyad emerges. His is a dystopian view of relentless power, coercion, violence and oppression. But this "class war" narrative is not intrinsic to the reality of class society.

Class Deniers

There are those who deny class and aspire to a classless society. The hippy who is doing too much weed may imagine himself in a classless, utopian commune. This is a kind of psychosis.

Mao tried to destroy class and implemented possibly the most draconian, devastating,  totalitarian oppression in human history.

But closer to home, the American middle class imagines itself as a classless society. The narrative: we are a nation of immigrants who left European class societies; to find freedom; in a spirit of initiative; with equality for all; and a meritocratic system that rewards the industrious, competent, entrepreneurial. This is, of course, a myth of the bourgeoisie. Not entirely false. But not the entire picture.

Class in USA: 1945-65

 The class identity of my family was crystal clear in my early years: my father as a union organizer identified entirely with the worker, the union movement, the Democratic Party, and the social teaching of the Catholic Church. The Republican Party was the other: rich, privileged, WASP, indifferent to the poor. The fundamental class structure was simple: capital vs. labor. But the economy was expanding so exponentially that there was a huge pie to share and and class peace that mirrored the international Pax Americana. Of course there were all kinds of classes within that primary binary: blacks in the South and those moving into the cities, Southern Democrats, secular Jews who were liberal culturally and politically, Orthodox Jews, Puerto Ricans, all the Asian ethnicities, a smaller cohort of Catholic Republicans (National Review), rural evangelicals and fundamentalists, and many more.

The New Class Structure 

An entirely new class structure emerged out of the cultural revolution and the accompanying economic, technological changes. It is a rich, complicated and dense universe of multiple classes, interacting, competing and intermingling in fluid, creative, and sometimes violent dramas. It is far more fascinating than the tired categories of race and gender.

I am going to suggest something like five classes in USA 2022. Of course within each there is a multitude of more specific classes. 

At the bottom, there is undeniably a culture and class of almost invincible poverty. While some outliers arise out of it due to opportunity and talent, the mass are stuck in a toxic network: poor education, housing, medical care and all the necessities of life but above all a broken family structure without a father in the home and weak connection with Church. This is the poor poor. It is colorblind but has a disproportionate number of blacks as a result of a history of slavery but not a current system of racism.

Second is the working poor. Some of these were in the prosperous working class of the 1945-65. They continue to work but with non-union jobs, poor benefits, and low levels of education. This class has been hard hit by the sexual revolution and has fallen away from Church, tend to cohabitate and divorce, and have single mothers without fathers like the bottom class.  This is the working poor.

Third is the middle working class, those who have adequate income, education, health benefits, and housing. They don't have a lot of capital or access to power and wealth. They include: tradesmen (plumbers, carpenters), small business owners, teachers, police, firemen, civil service employees, nurses, lower level management in large firms. They are the equivalent of the large, prospering working-becoming-middle class of the post-war era. But they are a smaller contingent.

Fourth is the prosperous, comfortable professional, managerial class. These have college degrees with the exception of some successful business men. They have easy access to the best medical care, education, housing and networking. These often come from the families of the middle working class but have climbed the ladder of success higher: perhaps due to ambition, competence, opportunity of come combination thereof. They earn enough to invest and know how to increase their wealth.

Lastly is the affluent. This is far more than the famous 1 %. Perhaps it is 2-4 %. These have wealth and invest it and so are on a constant upward climb in assets. They have access to all the best things in life. They hang out together.

Meritocratic and Fluid

Our class structure is stable: it stays in place and does not change much. But it is meritocratic, to a degree, so that the competent and ambitious from lower classes are able to climb into higher brackets. Likewise, those higher up do with regularity fall down the ladder of success. So it is fluid as there is a constant movement of individuals up and down the ladder. This can, of course, inspire many. But it can also induce guilt and self-blame in those who do not climb up as well as anxiety in many who are higher up.

Life of Holiness in Class Society

The life of holiness, of intimacy with God in Jesus Christ, does not lead one to deny or resist the class society. Rather, holiness leads to a "linimal" or "luminous" zone of freedom within a class but unbound by restrictions and limitations. So, the poor man is not poor but rich in spiritual, social, moral capital. The rich man freely disposes of his wealth to those in need. Living in the world, but not of the world, the life of holiness is above all one of freedom. Able to move spontaneously, into other worlds, with fluency and serenity. It is transcendence of the oppressions and limitations of class society, in the liberty of the Holy Spirit.