Well, here it is-- the blog you've all been waiting for. My introduction and use of blog sites over the past months has given me enough knowledge to now write a blog on a topic of my own choosing! This blog will highlight the American class system. I'll give a historical backdrop in which others will add their thoughts, add-ons, or conclusions in relation to this topic or subtopics i.e. education, class perception, etc. I want to focus on today's class system, and assimilate politics and education into the equation. Since different classes have historically voted in certain directions (suburban and fiscal Republicans, young and poor, or wealthy, very well educated Democrats), I want to see how you all feel about trends in political ideals and their relationship to class structure. Does one simply vote with his neighborhood? Are high school janitors really worth less to society than corporate CEO's? I want this blog to help redefine the meaning of social hierarchy.
Why is this important? This subject is of pressing importance to me because of the social motives and personal evaluations that go along with this topic. Though social class is undoubtedly framed upon the basis of economic status, contemporary society can benefit from "under-classes", their evaluation of the world, their work ethic, and disregard to fictional sociological facets, i.e. political awareness, citizenship, social function, etc. I believe that there is a lot to be learned, albeit not academic, from our uneducated mothers, store clerks, even the homeless. I am interested in incorporating an academic perspective to unacademic social system that is ubiquitous and sometimes undetectable. Indeed the bottom line of existence is what you pass on to others. It might as well not be idealistically exclusive.
So what do I expect to gain and distribute in this blog? Well, I want there to be a resurgence of an actual culture in America. Does anyone else find it ironic that the counterculture of the 1960s and '70s has the most affect on modern youth than any other time in the past 100 years? The formality in the '60s for people in finally break away from the grey suited, business rigidness of their father's generation eventually led to growth within American culture, almost exclusive in its context. We experienced a public, governmental accreditation of civil rights and equality that only now is being fully realized with a bi-racial president. Indeed I see the future of America not unlike an ideal or civic generation, but a generation of hopeful individual with a clear path for familial success and career prosperity. Isn't this what is really best? But I guess it all stems from a healthy, refreshing outlook on American culture and the cultivation of the seeds our parents once planted in their ambitious youth.
The use of the internet is probably the most vital tool in my hope for this acquisition to happen, however. Equal access of this blog and many others like it allows not only the well educated to weigh in on this topic, but also provides everyone else to add their opinion, and perhaps learn from those who have experienced greater enlightenment in this subject. Please help me in providing a clear focus, maybe even motivation, to those who have no other outlet. Lets recreate a democracy in text, not in a corporate meeting room or in Congress. Contribute your thoughts, be specific, and remember that nothing is off limits.
