It's quite sad really when you think that our world today is divided into many different classes. You've got the upper class who feels like they're everything in the world and then, there's the lower class where people is struggling everyday for their survival. If everyone can be like children and never have to think about the importance of race, creed, culture, class and religion, the world would be a much better place. When I was at the University of Hertfordshire, I attended a class called Human Space and Society. For the syllabus, we had to write a paper on the concept of class and its importance in today's society. The paragraphs that follow are my thoughts.
Mahatma Gandhi once said that “there is enough in this world for everyone’s need, but not for anyone’s greed.” This statement would have been true if not for the fact that the concept of class in today’s society has always been considered the utmost importance. People all over the world feel the need to be categorised in groups that share the same qualities. When social classification is in place, the upper class of any society in the world will not want to have anything to do with the middle and lower class of the society. Eventually, this will only lead to inequalities and discrimination among the citizens of a society. Revulsion and hatred will be considered a norm in society that feels the need to have such magnitude towards the concept of class.
In today’s world, the concept of class is a comprehensive perception that has a number of related dimensions and it can still be considered a useful categorisation in the following Marxist sense: “the history of capitalism is a history of the creation and reproduction of a social order.” Presently, the concept of class has three significant dimensions – economic, political and cultural. These dimensions can be measured in terms of indicators such as the wealth, income, status, power, lifestyle and levels of education of a particular individual. Matter-of-factly, the economic dimension is seen to be the most socially and sociologically important of the three. Throughout this article, the importance and the need for the concept of class in today’s world will be discussed. More importantly, the very basic division of sex and its consequences will also be presented in this paper.
The world has always perceived that in today’s modern age, men and women all over the world are equal in every aspect and the demeaning of women are a thing of the past. Nevertheless, in some societies all across the world, the inequalities between men and women are still very apparent. When men and women are treated differently and unequally on the basis of their sex, this produces a form of social stratification – the very basic concept of a two class model. For centuries, men have always been considered to be at the top of society while women belong to the other end of the spectrum. Many people all over the world believed the fact that developed countries are open-minded societies but the selection of their leaders are still very much limited to the much-believed stronger sex.
The presidents and prime ministers of many developed countries are men and this is evident in countries such as United States of America, Japan, Russia and France, just to name a few. The citizens of these countries still believe that men are leaders and women are followers. This social inequality occurs when ideology and power are combine to make men superior and women inferior. Eventually, this has led to the reflection of the importance of the concept of class in today’s society. In contrast, some developing countries that are considered to be ancient have championed the rights of women. Although this cannot be said of the majority of these countries, the people of Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka have made bold steps by choosing women to lead their countries. President Megawati Sukarnoputri and President Gloria Arroyo have showed the world that inequalities have not stopped them from success.
The need for the world to classify everyone and everything into specific groups and classifications has shut out the possibilities for women to be in the same level as men. For example, majority of children today will take quite awhile to answer this particular question – “A doctor and a nurse are trapped in a deserted island. A year later, a baby was born. Neither the doctor is the father nor is the nurse the mother of the baby. Why?” In schools all over the world, children are taught to believe that only men can be doctors and nurses are always women. This has resulted in confused children when told that the doctor is the mother of the baby and the nurse is the father. It is a simple and harmless question and answer but because of the concept of class, it has turned out to be a complicated matter for children.
Many people have speculated the relevance of two classes in today’s society but truthfully, the society today still feels the need for three classes even though it is already the 21st century. Nevertheless, according to Wright in 1997, the world today can be seen as a society of two main opposing classes – “the ruling class which controls all the power and wealth, and the working class which the rulers exploit to maintain this.” The upper or ruling class of the world are considered to be the people who are of power and status. Kings, presidents, prime ministers, politicians and directors of companies are among the groups of people that fall within this frameset. Essentially, the upper class of today’s society is no different than the upper class of the society of the past. These people who are in the so-called upper class are those that imposed work and instructions on the rest of the communities that are from the middle and lower class.
As mentioned earlier, wealth and levels of education are also taken into consideration for social stratification. Ultimately, only power, status and wealth plays vital importance. This is due to the fact that a well-learned individual is not always a person of power, stature or wealth. The majority of the world’s population belongs to the middle class of the social stratification. Many poor countries have most of their citizens belonging to the lower class. The communities from these countries usually have to suffer for the rest of their lives and there will be no chances for advancement and even if it exists, the possibilities are limited. Nonetheless, the communities from developing countries have a brighter future and the opportunities for betterment are always attainable.
The concept of class in today’s society is still as important as oxygen is to the survival of the human race. Without the existence of middle and lower class, the upper class will never survive because with every single person belonging to the same group, there will be no one wanting to be the follower. The competition to the top among the upper class communities are always in existence and the concept of the survival of the fittest are a norm in these societies. The race to be the best can be considered the indispensable part of the concept of class in today’s society. Wealth, power, stature and education are the four utmost weapons in attaining the membership of the upper class. With none of these available, citizens from poor countries can only hope for enough money to buy food to live for another day.
By looking at the countries of the world, the world’s population can also be classified according to their countries of origins. Developed nations can be considered to be the upper class, developing and poor countries are the middle and lower class respectively. It is very obvious that developed nations used their power and wealth to exploit the communities from developing and poor nations with the promise of a better life. Major companies from countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom and Russia set up huge factories and plants in developing countries like India, China and Malaysia because the citizens in these countries need the work and money. Discriminations and exploitations are common due to the fact that most of these workers have very low level of education as compared to their Western neighbours.
One good example is the disaster that happened in Bhopal, India more than a decade ago. Until today, the chief executive officer of the company responsible for this calamity never went back to India where he is charged for first degree murder. The company knew the defects and problems that the plant in Bhopal had after the annual maintenance. Nevertheless, the parent company in the United States of America decided to ignore the problem and the warnings from engineers. With the belief that the problem will go away in due time, the company also deemed that even though a catastrophe is about to strike, it will not be life threatening. Not only did a catastrophe happen, it left behind a lifetime of suffering for the workers of the plant and the people of Bhopal.
Since decades ago, the concept of class has always been seen as a way of self-identification for people across the globe. The upper class identified themselves as the powerful and the rich, the middle class knew themselves as the working force of the communities while the lower class thrived to be a part of the world. Being in the middle and lower class has encouraged people to liberate themselves for advancement and betterment into the future. People from the middle and lower class have worked hard to ensure a better life for generations to come. The middle and lower class communities have the opportunities to move from one class to another. This concept of self-identification have made these people to be more independent and determined in their common struggle towards success.
With more people getting better education by the day, the number of people categorised as those that belong to the lower class will also reduce. Many people believed that in the future, the lower class of society will be totally wiped out. This may be possible but it is completely wrong to consider that the world’s population will only be made up of those that belong to the upper and middle class. The lower class of society will always be present even with the increase of levels of education. This is because the acceptable standard of the world will also rise. Moreover, levels of education are not considered to be essential in the classification of society as compared to wealth, power and stature. If the world is only made up of citizens from upper and middle class, then it has to depend on robots to do works that used to be done by people from the lower class. It is still a long way to go before the world can assume such status of technological advancement.
Ultimately, the concept of class is still very important in today’s world. However, no matter how important it is, this concept is not essential and should be demolished from the mindset of the people of the world. It should be killed and this concept can only die with the capitalism of which it is a part. Discriminations and exploitations have always been the result from the enforcement of the concept of class in today’s society. Throughout this paper, it has been shown that women are considered to be weak and passive because of the age-old concept of class that men are leaders and strong. Besides that, the middle and lower class have also been used extensively by the people from the upper class for various purposes. Conclusively, the upper class can not survive without the middle and lower class and the middle and lower class can not survive without the upper class.
No matter how open-minded the society today is, this concept of class will always exist to recognise the general situation that draws the attention of the world. However, it can be seen as a perception that allows the citizens of the world to liberate themselves from the obligatory commonality of the collective life sentence to hard labour. More importantly, this concept of class should be seen as a guiding principle of diversity within which the people of the world can realise their potential in so many different ways. Lara Dutta, Miss Universe 2000 once said – “every man dies, but very few really live.” Every human being should live life to the fullest and social stratification should never be a deterrent for anyone to succeed. It may be an important concept in today’s society but it should not be a way of life.
The new Miss Universe 2008 will be crowned this coming July 13th in Nha Thrang, Vietnam. Who will take the coveted crown and step into the shoes of the wonderfully gorgeous and sinfully sexy Riyo Mori? Will it be another Asian? Or will a Latina fight until the end? Currently, there are a few beauties who I'd like to see walk away with the crown. Venezuela's Dayana Mendoza, Colombia's Taliana Vargas, India's Simran Kaur Mundi, Korea's Sun Lee, USA's Crystle Stewart and if the judges are being kind this year, not saying that she's not deserving but it's quite impossible (never been done before) for a country to win the Miss Universe crown back to back, Japan's Hiroko Mima.
