As an item of discussion, the working class has completely disappeared. It so happened that Marxism which had been the vehicle that most established it as a political term fell out of fashion. This became especially the case after the Soviet Union collapsed, but even if it had cultivated the image of itself as a Communist power, the USSR hardly appeared as an attractive beacon of Marxist dynamism.

Meanwhile, always in political terms, assessments that attach importance to the middle class became dominant. Today, the political achievements of a party are measured according to whether it has gotten the blessing of the “middle class”. Only on that basis, so we are told, can elections be swung in one’s favour.

At the same time, one is also told that the working class does not exist and that it’s a Marxist invention. The idea that society can be split into classes is a divisive tactic, meant only to create division within society. But then how do we come to openly discuss the middle class?

The ways how people work (and where and in what) obviously have changed radically since two hundred years ago. Still that a substantial number of citizens still depend on what they earn from the job they hold  is still a reality.

It’s the reality of the working class.

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LIBERALISM

Today, holding liberal beliefs is considered as the hallmark of flexible, democratic, modern, tolerant attitudes. They’re characterised by policies which ensure that all benefit from the exercise of personal liberties in the way they choose – by an economic management that through the development of a free market, allows everybody to select from a wide and good range of  products and services delivered by competition – by a scale of values that beyond any classist consideration, equates the basis of social equality with free access to educational and work opportunities.

Initially, liberalism was seen as a heartless and soulless doctrine, designed to destroy the traditional world and its longheld, sterling values.

Today on many fronts, without being liable to defamation, one can accuse liberalism of having served and still serving as a screen for the rich to get richer uninterrurptedy, while for the rest of society life gets slightly better when things are doing well, and when the contrary happens, the quality of life stagnates and worse.  

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THE EUROPEAN IDEAL

The ideal of unity in Europe among the nations of that continent is a worthy objective that deserves full support. Over centuries these nations developed their specific national way of life, different from that of others. Yet they all carried similar features in their thought, speech, beliefs and behaviour patterns.

Over the same centuries, European nations battled each other with the loss of millions of lives in the midst of widespread destruction and tremendous atrocities. The ideal of unity builds on their common roots and seeks to keep wars away for ever.

Even so, the European genius was also formed out of the national differences that it carried. Not everybody can be dragged into a union that obliges one and all to adopt the same shape and behaviour. That however is what happened and is happening.

European unity can as a result end up subject to disruptions that could damage it greatly and stall further progress.