In the UK, there’s an enormous distance between the working class and the wealthiest members of society – this is even more true now than when this book was written in 2011, but everything Owen Jones wrote over a decade ago is still very insightful and valid to this day.
This book helped me to realise something that I had never considered before – demonisation and prejudice against the working class is considered much more acceptable than any other form of discrimination. It provides countless examples of politicians and public figures saying some pretty hateful things about the least fortunate members of society, and highlights that if similar remarks had been made against women, or people of minority ethnic backgrounds, they’d likely have received at least some negative backlash (though increasingly less so these days), but when it’s aimed at poorer people, they essentially get a free pass.
This problem extends into the media at large and the book is filled with examples of lies or misrepresented truths which have been used to make working class people look bad or to feed into the myth that they deserve to be poor. Then when this narrative becomes accepted by ordinary people, they end up voting for political parties which act against their interest and want to cut support for initiatives that support the working class. People end up thinking that there are other, bad working class people who are different from them, ignoring the fact that they are all unified by the fact that they are suffering from the austerity measures put in place by governments who are afraid to properly tax the wealthiest 1% of society.
Even as somebody who is relatively will informed about this subject already, I found it very insightful. I, for instance, had never really thought too much about the cultural ramifications of characters like Vicky Pollard and Lauren Cooper in Little Britain and The Catherine Tate Show respectively – to me they’ve always just been ridiculous characters that are far removed from reality. However, Owen Jones rightly points out that they are rooted in the “chav” stereotype and ultimately feed into to this widespread demonisation of working class people.
What was especially eye-opening was that it showed how politicians, even Labour politicians who are supposed to be aligned with the working class, have come out with some really horrible remarks and faced no consequence. It’s quite depressing stuff, but I think it’s something that everybody should read, because it’s important that everyone is aware of this problem.
Rating: 8.2/10
