A young British writer, Owen Jones, has just published a book that makes observatins that have become largely off-limits there and here since the Thatcher-Reagan era. It\u2019s called \u201cChavs: The Demonization of the Working Class.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word \u201cchavs\u201d refers to working-class people, as in the dinner-table observation: \u201cIt\u2019s sad that Woolworth\u2019s is closing. Where will all the chavs buy their Christmas presents?\u201d The New York Times\u2019s review of the book on July 12 further defines the word as \u201c’ugly prole’: loutish, tacky, probably drunken and possibly violent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones is dismayed by how blatantly the well-off display their disdain for working-class people \u2013 who before being systematically trashed in recent decades were honored as salt of the earth; heart and soul of society; a group who made our countries great.<\/p>\n
He attributes this to a number of factors, including attacks on unions and the separation elites have put between themselves and the rest of society. He points out that Prime Minister Cameron had such a pampered upbringing that \u201cat the precocious age of 11 he traveled by Concorde to the U.S. with four classmates to celebrate the birthday of Peter Getty, the grandson of oil billionaire John Paul Getty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can they provide the empathy of inspired leadership?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A young British writer, Owen Jones, has just published a book that makes observatins that have become largely off-limits there and here since the Thatcher-Reagan era. It\u2019s called \u201cChavs: The Demonization of the Working Class.\u201d The word \u201cchavs\u201d refers to … Continue reading