But the middle classes are in a constant state of anxiety and fear. They know what its like to be poor, either they have experienced it themselves, or their parents and grandparents did and their stories of struggle dominate family folklore. Their affluence does little to abate their sense of insecurity. They know the doors are flimsy, and the wolf is standing in the snow just outside. For them, only constant growth and progress–and admittance to the upper class elites
for either themselves or their children, are the only things that matter.

The poor may seek to “arrive”, and the wealthy just want to stay where they are, but the middle class feels it must keep moving all the time, because they fear the moment their forward movement is arrested, they will begin to slide back. Not only that, they feel threatened by class competition from below, and obstruction from above. And they are probably right.

They dare not question or criticize the values and ethos (or economic and power privilege) of the economic stratum they wish to enter, but it is clear that they fear the elites will ally themselves with the underclasses in a conspiracy to keep them, the abused and exploited middle class, “in their place”.

This contradiction manifests itself in an advanced and chronic insecurity, and the insecurity leads to an instability that cannot survive economic shocks and social and cultural change. Those threats may simply be the result of unforseeable historical events and trends, but they are increasingly seen as conspiracies, treachery and betrayal. The result is political demagoguery and scapegoating, and the deliberate setting of one class against another. It also leads the middle classes to increasingly vote against their own self interest in favor of those of the elites, and to abandon social and civic institutions that have served them well in the past in order to unconsciously curry favor with the economic and social elite they are so desperate to join.

To put it bluntly, the middle class no longer sees itself as a free and empowered worker, but as an oppressed and frustrated entrepreneur. They seek to adopt the motives and manners of the very class they envy, and they embrace their policies as well, by rejecting any solidarity with the poor. Its almost as if they feel the rich will graciously reward them with a seat at the banquet if they join them, respectfully. They reject the institutions that helped create and protect the middle class, such as public education, state-subsidized universities, the welfare safety net, trade unions, progressive taxation and safety, worker, consumer and environmental regulations. The ownership class, of course, will do nothing to discourage this trend, and will do whatever it takes to promote it.

Throughout the world, western democracies are finding themselves in similar straits, and are reacting in similar ways. Part of this is due to historical forces that affect us all, part due to human greed and rationalization, also general characteristics of our species. It is purely academic to speculate on how all this came about, it is probably a result of the fall of European colonialism and economic imperialism, and the final collapse of the system that exploited domestic labor to process expropriated raw materials. But today, imperialism exploits foreign labor, the domestic worker is just too expensive. He has become redundant, neglected and unnecessary.

But that’s neither here nor there. The fact you point out, and we now all face, is that these chickens have all come home to roost now, both in Europe, America, and the so-called Western Liberal Democracies. And that’s why we see the same story being played out in so many places.