Don't forget the leaf blower. Owning a leaf blower is essential to upholding middle class morality.

Marc

I agree wholeheartedly. True concern for humanity starts with the purchase of a decent leaf blower. Whether you have a lawn or not is not at all important. There are parks, streets, squares, plenty of public spaces where a decent citizen with a leaf blower can do something for the country and the world.
Let’s start a movement: The Leaf Blowers.

labeling

I always marvel at the expressions middle class or in Dutch gewone volk, since it implies that this larger group of people (think bell-curve) share some common identity. Wat is het ijkpunt? Opleiding, inkomen, aantal kinderen, merk auto?

Joanne

I don’t believe that “middle class” equals “gewone volk” in Dutch. I haven’t heard the expression “gewone volk” in ages, but that’s a different matter.
Please keep in mind: the denial of class differences is a form of class warfare.

Arnon

Important questions arise immediately. Should we, Leaf Blowers in the Service of Humanity, just start blowing leaves wherever and whenever we can? Or should we set up a proper organization first and think about goals, funding, membership requirements etc.?
A free leaf blower in every hotel room.. wouldn't that be wonderful?

I havent seen it yet, but Revolutionary Road is a wonderful novel, as well as The Easter Parade by Yates. I think he's a pretty underrated writer. If there is one master of the show don't tell principle, it's Yates.

Arnon

ps: I don't say showing is better than telling. Whats your view on this Arnon?

Anyway, Revolutionary Road is about the destruction of the illusion of Great Suburbia, I think, and that has got nothing to do with 'the common people'. In those days, I think it was too expensive for them to live in suburbia.

What`s the end of the film?

Marc

At true Leaf Blower has one philosophy: No Leaf Left Behind.
If you don’t follow this philosophy you are a Leaf Blower In Name Only.
Where do you live, Marc? We need to recruit people for this great endeavor.

Joep

I haven’t read the novel yet but I would say that suburbia is very much connected to the ideals, fears and obsessions of the middle class.
That some commenter on this site mistakenly thinks that middle class equals “common people” should not obscure the discussion.

Middle class and common peope are use to frovious here. I have to say Mr. Arnon is right, but he's a magician, he must be right.

I just saw J. Malcovic on television. He talked about The Story of my Baldness and his plans with it. This man speaks with a such vigour, it almost frightened me.

Leaf blowers make a horrible noise such as lawn mowers and dust collectors. But that noise of the hard working middleclass is reassuring.

@Arnon & Marc

I am volunteering to host the first annual lawn blower convention this fall. I have a huge lawn and the leaves on it have a disastrous effect on my local reputation. I invite you all to help save my reputation and clean my lawn.

Arnon, Ron

I live in suburbian Nijmegen, The Netherlands. There are many, many leaves to blow here. I suggest we adopt an ink spot strategy. We each start blowing in our own streets wearing a t-shirt that reads "No Leaf Left Behind". We then start to gradually approach our respective city centres. A handful of people will start to join us. We will be ridiculed at first, but so was Napoleon when he escaped from Elba and landed on the coast of France. Just wait until we reach our cities and capitals by the thousands..

@Marc

I hope for your sake not in Dukenburg?

Marc, Ron

As you know I'm not based in the Netherlands. I suggest we organize a conference in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg, yes.. (I was thinking of Canada first, but we may run into trouble there when we destroy all their national flags)
Let's convene in Pulvermühle. It has to be in a suburb, and I like the sound of this one.

Arnon, please read the novel. It's so damn good, I'm afraid the film will disappoint Judging from your summary of what elements in this filme would define morality, I sense the film is missing out on one important thing which is in the novel: "be a good example to your children" (he hits his son when the boy is trying to help him in the garden. And the daughter almost bites her thumb off that's how hard she's sucking it in a small scene (after they decided to go to France)) Have your read The Fountainheaud yet?

Dear Arnon,

I read the expression "gewone volk" in a popular Dutch paper and was shocked to find it there in that particular context more than once. Like you I thought it was totally outdated.
As for the quote: "always be a good example to our children": I think it truely is the only rule we need. If everyone (the ones without children surely can remember their own childhood or use their imagination) would stick to this one rule the world would be a much better place.
I ascribe to the leaf blowing conference on the condition that all the leaves assembled will be used to cover up all the warzones in the world. Can we manage that?

Joanne

Once again middle class is not ordinary people.
And many of the greatest criminals honestly believed that they were a shining example for their children.
If you honestly strive for a better world wouldn’t be the best solution: no children at all.

Marc

Do you mean Rue de Pulvermuehl in Luxembourg City?

Luxemburg is excellent for the occasion. I was there for one day this summer and felt at home immediately. People looked like they bought their clothes at V&D, drove Opel, had a row of conifers in their garden and would like Marco Borsato. Must be heaven for lawn blower dealers.

Members of the middle class

Joanne's mentioning of the expression "het gewone volk" - it sounds like satire to me - may have been off, but she did raise a relevant question: what defines middle class? Is it the middle of the bell curve? Commenters here seem to think it is an ideology. Which could be a strategy to distance yourself from it.

The statistics and census bureaus of this world have a more pragmatic approach: middle class is the middle 50% of all income groups, wedged in between the 25% with the lowest income and the 25% with the highest income. This would mean most commenters on this site are members of the middle class, according to the census. Perhaps even mr. Grunberg himself.

Here's what intrigues me: can you be a member of this group and at the same time keep your distance from middle class values? Speaking for myself: I find this very difficult. I'm not saying these values are wrong, but there is a sense of slave mentality about them that I 'm not sure how to relate to.

@Arnon
Yes, the Rue de Pulvermuehl is in Pulvermuehle from what I can see. It's suburban, it's leafy: it's perfect. And isn't Luxembourg itself Europe's suburb?

@Michel V.
Interesting point that you raise. Perhaps values are a better way of defining middle class than income. In my mind, middle class is connected to 'bourgeoisie'. This is different from Ron's description of Opel-driving, Borsato-loving people. What about: 'people who pursue status by means of creating an image of material success'?

Leaf blowers/Pressure washers

Arnon, Marc,

Can owners of pressure washers join this movement or would a separate movement be more appropriate? In my suburban neighborhood the leaf blower seems to be last season's gadget having been replaced by water based pressure washers as the new and improved must have -item.

Perhaps separate movements would be more interesting. I can already see the headlines: 'Scare in Luxembourg as well meaning leaf-blowers are brutally attacked by angry mob of pressure washer-owners in bitter rivalry'

Reinout

May I suggest we join forces? The communist had their hammer and sickle. Today, we replace them with the leaf blower and pressure washer.

Marc Colsen

You wrote: "What about: 'people who pursue status by means of creating an image of material success'?"

Are you a person that pursues status by means of creating an image of material succes? If yes, then this definition maybe useful. If not, it might be no more than a way to distance yourself from the middle class. If the concept of middle class only relates to people with Opels - or leaf blowers, for that matter - then it doesn't interest me much. I was rather hoping it might be a way to look in the mirror and being uncomfortable by what you see. But maybe that is just my masochism at work. (By the way, masochism is very middle class, I would argue.)

Michel V

I'm not sure I understand. Does the worth of a definition depend on whether or not it applies to me personally?
Earlier you said you weren't sure how to relate to these values. That goes for me too, although I'm pretty sure by now that they are not the road to bliss.

Marc Colsen

If it does not apply to yourself, then talking about middle class is just another way to talk about others and their presumably misguided ideologies. There is nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't interest me much. I'm more interested in my own misguided ideologies.

Addendum

By the way, I agree that these values are not the road to bliss. Of course, I've never heard anyone claim that they were. I think we internalize these values for other reasons than the hope that they would bring us happiness. What those reasons are, I'm not sure exactly.

Michel V

Could you provide a reference for your assertion that the interquartile range of all income groupes defines the middle class?

Michel

A true member of the middle class always believes he is better than that.
I recommend seeing “Glenngary Glen Ross” – Al Pacino has a beautiful monologue about middle class morality in that movie. (While obviously being part of the [lower] middle class himself.)

Oscar

Do you read Dutch? If so, here'are two links that discuss this issue.:
www.nicis.nl/binaries/webwinkel/bulk/pdfs/nicis_middenklasse.pdf
www.pauldebeer.nl/documenten/artikelen/De%20middenklasse%20onder%20druk.doc

I'm sure that with a little effort one could find more authoritative sources on the web, but I think these two provide a good starting point.

I mentioned quartiles and obviously there are different way to segment the different groups, but many of the ones that I have seen use income and split this up in three or four segments, the middle of which would make up the middle class.

Arnon

"A true member of the middle class always believes he is better than that."

That is fascinating. Is this specific to the middle class? Perhaps so.

I wonder what it means. It would be reasonable if we have defined the middle class in terms of values that we reject, so that few people want to self-identify as being middle class. But I don't think this is the case. As in your original post, many of us feel that there is merit in these values, notwithstanding the irony in your last sentence. Is it that we hope other people will conform to them, so that we don't have to? As I said before, there is a certain slave mentality present in these values. It might be reassuring to be surrounded by slaves, as long as you are not one of them.

Oscar

In case you don't read Dutch:
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RS22627_20070320.pdf

Michel

Have you ever read a personal ad saying: "Gorgeous middle clas woman, in her early thirties, looking for handsome middle class man"?
It varies from country to country but speaking about class touches on sensitivities that are very close to taboos.
Since 1986 I entertain the illusion that I'm a poor aristocrat.
By the way: is there still a working class in the Netherlands? Or elsewhere in Western-Europe?

@Joanne/Arnon - for the record "good example to... etc" wasn't a literal quote from the novel. I meant it as a quote-unquote, a: so to speak. I shouldn't have used quotation marks.
No children seems like a logical enough solution. Self-implosion of the race.
Pity Arnon won't respond to my questions. Now I need to see the film to know what part the children play in the lives on screen and from whose perspective the story is told. The novel shifts perspectives. I'd like to repeat: it is sublime.

I quite like being middle class.

Arnon

I always thought you entertained the illusion of being a poor, Jewish dropout.
I'll adjust my perception.

Mieke

Isn't it possible to entertain more illusions at the same time?
For you I will always be a poor, Jewish, dropout,

Teresa

I know Teresa and that's why you turn me on.

Thanks, Arnon - I'm blushing while I'm writing this.

Teresa

Don't blush. Just act upon the middle class morality and come to New York for a cup of coffee.

Arnon

That would be very nice - maybe in the spring.

Michel V

Thanks for the URL. When it comes to defining the middle class, I prefer quintiles over quartiles.

aliefka

You talk in your sleep, and there are indications that you forgot to brush your teeth.

Arnon

That's what turns me on. Thanks.

Arnon

I'm not sure the taboo around class is relevant. (BTW, I bet that these ads are littered with indirect indices of the class membership that the advertiser would like to project. You know, words like 'succesful' and 'rewarding' in combination with career or 'likes to travel' as an indication of material benefits that have been achieved.)

Even if it is a taboo, how would that explain the behavior of middle class members to see themselves as better than middle class? Do lower class members think they are better than the lower class? Do upper class members think they are rich but that they are not really upper class?

Come to think of it, I once met an example of the latter. A couple of Berkeley professors that vehemently denied being part of the upper class. I always assumed that their position embarrassed them because of their socialization during the sixties in circles where wealth was almost unequivocally wrong.

Oscar

What are you telling me? I'd appreciate an answer, oftentimes you address me but when I return the favour you keep me hanging. I don't think I brushed my teeth this morning, but ask any mother that at 11am and she'll tell you the same. You're close though - because I do also suffer from sleep deprivation. Anyway, please feel free to visit my blog, you'll find I was one step ahead of you in the analysis of my own state of being.

Michel

What exactly do you mean that the taboo on class is not relevant? (A couple who denies being part of the upper class is a shining example of this taboo.)
Money doesn’t equal class, although it sometimes ican be an indicator.
You teach don’t you? Why not ask your students to write down to which class they belong, and why exactly they think so.

Arnon

I meant that the taboo, which I agree exists, doesn't explain the kind of unease with that seems to come with membership of the middle class. Perhaps you can clarify the relationship for me.

Why are commenters here talking about Opel cars and leaf blowers? I have a sense they are externalizing their own discomfort with middle class values to which they subscribe. By exaggerating middle class symbols, one can create safe distance between oneself and such values. But as you said, jokes about leaf blowers is the essence of being middle class.

To avoid any misunderstandings: I considered myself very much middle class. I don't drive an Opel car or use of leaf blower, but much of my life can still be summed up by your phrase "Mow your lawn, work hard and don’t hit your wife." I suspect the same holds for some of the commenters. I think the discomfort of knowing that these are your ideals in life, generates the phenomenon you observed: that everyone in middle class thinks they are better than that. That they are more than these ideals and the suburban horror that has come to symbolize them. (Economist would call this revealed preferences versus stated preferences.) If you forgive me the cheap Nietzsche reference: it's the discomfort of knowing you live by a slave mentality and nothing in your life indicates you have the spine or perhaps even the desire to change that. As for me personally, pointing at other people's leaf blowers doesn't offer me much consolation.

All of this seems a somewhat different issue than the taboo on class.

Ah, Michel V. is back.
The Belgian Public Network (VRT/één) is broadcasting the series "Keeping up Appearances" again. I never really liked this series when I was young. Nowadays I look forward to this moment (around midnight). It's about the common people wanting to be part of middle class and I feel this is very much the case in my surroundings. Perhaps that's why I couldn't watch it when I was younger. One doesn't want to see the things around him when he doesn't like them. Maybe it's a sign of growth, maybe I'm feeling more comfortable in my class.

Who knows.

Michel V
You're not mocking my leaf blower, are you? My leaf blower guided me through troubled times.

Marc Colsen

I have no talent for mocking and certainly no desire to mock your leaf blower, assuming you really own one and have found comfort in its use. That would be a thing of beauty.
With Updike's death, we are all reminded of his character Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom. Perhaps if Rabbit would have had a leaf blower, his life would have been more bearable.

Michel

You managed to summarize the essence of middle class values: joking about leaf blowers and certain types of cars is exactly the essence of middle class, at least in the Netherlands.
To hit your wife and make a joke about it is crossing a border.
What is it you don’t understand? If the essence of the middle class is to distance oneself from that class, what’s mysterious about most of these comments here?
If you feel the need to hit your wife and you would like to discuss this, please feel free to do so.

Middle class

Isn't 'burgerlijk' the correct translation of middle class in this connection? If this is correct I fully agree with the statement that although nobody would like to admit it, most people are part of this middle class. and even share its values after having briefly tried to be outsiders (most students at university vow never to become 'burgerlijk' and never to accept a 9 to 5 job). Many people would like to be extraordinary but very few succeed in escaping the joys of an orderly regular life. Most people even enjoy this existence and who can blame them? Mowing your lawn, washing your car, watching your children grow up can all be very enjoyable. It is those that continue to feel that they were destined for greater things and who do not accpet the joys of middlle class life, that usually end up unhappy or even depressed.

This seems to be an important theme in Dutch literature, for instance in the work of W.F. Hermans . In my perception this is also one of the most beatiful elements in Tirza, but I may of course be mistaken.

I'm going to see Revolutionary Road with some friends on Wednesday. None of us is going to bring their partner. We booked couple seats, though, (or "cuddle seats"?, the German word is "Kuschelsitz") so the evening is bound to be nice.

Juliane B.

"Kuschelsitz" is a wonderful German word.

Juliane

Could you explain to me what's the fuction of "Kuschelsitz" when you go to the movies without your partner?
With whom are you going to cuddle?

Arnon

I like to cuddle with friends now and again. This means people for whom I have special feelings, not necessarily my oldest friends.

@Arnon

You'll probably be the only one reading this blogentry's reactions by now, so this means I can tell you this without sounding pompous: I saw Revolutionary Road, in the most paradoxical of settings -a sultry, empty cinema in the Caribbean- and would like to recommend you read the novel. The film is an excellent adaptation, but the novel adds so much more perspective. Besides, Frank Wheeler didn't cry in the novel, in fact he sent his kids off to an aunt (if I remember well) and continued with his life as if nothing happened. And April wrote a note to him, which she tore up, then she wrote another one. You'll enjoy the novel, honestly. I'd send it to you if I wasn't where I am now and where novels (except for yours) are nonexistent. I even mentioned the novel Revolutionary Road before on this site to Rutger, that's how impressive it is.
Kind Regards,

Aliefka

Glengarry Glen Ross

Arnon, I finally got a chance to see the movie. I had seen it a couple of years ago, but this time it made much more of an impression. Pacino's monologue is fantastic. Here's a middle class guy selling another middle class guy a dream to be better than middle class., all the while talking in blatantly ironic terms about the transaction. You have to admire capitalism for the ability to make a transaction seem more desirable by being ironic about it.