Quotes / Bourgeois Bohemian

A middle-class person embraces Socialism and perhaps even joins the Communist Party. How much real difference does it make? Obviously, living within the framework of capitalist society, he has got to go on earning his living, and one cannot blame him if he clings to his bourgeois economic status. But is there any change in his tastes, his habits, his manners, his imaginative background—his 'ideology', in Communist jargon? Is there any change in him except that he now votes Labour, or, when possible, Communist at the elections? It is noticeable that he still habitually associates with his own class; he is vastly more at home with a member of his own class, who thinks him a dangerous Bolshie, than with a member of the working class who supposedly agrees with him; his tastes in food, wine, clothes, books, pictures, music, ballet, are still recognizably bourgeois tastes; most significant of all, he invariably marries into his own class.

— George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier

Ray Asin recalled that two or three months before there had been a large party at 10050 Cielo, the guests arriving in "hippie garb." He got the impression, however, that they weren't actually hippies, as most arrived in Rolls-Royces and Cadillacs.

— Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry, Helter Skelter

In the summer of '68 most of these hippies were on vacation in the Lakes Region with their wealthy parents before returning to their colleges in September, where they were apparently studying up on Protest, Pot, and Pussy.

— Stephen King, Cujo

The novelty of the 1950s was that the upper-and middle-class young...began to accept the music, the clothes, even the language of the urban lower-classes, or what they took to be such, as their model...Young working class dandies in the past had sometimes taken their styles from high fashion in the upper social strata or from such middle-class subcultures as the artistic boheme; working-class girls even more so. Now a curious reversal seemed to take place. The fashion market for the plebeian young established its independence and began to set the tone for the patrician market...Young aristocrats began to shed the accents which, in Britain, had infallibly identified members of their class and began to talk an approximation to London working-class speech. Respectable young men, and increasingly, young women, began to copy what had once been a strictly unrespectable macho fashion among manual laborers, soldiers and the like, the casual use of obscenities in conversation. Literature kept pace: a brilliant theatrical critic brought the word "fuck" to the radio public. For the first time in the history of the fairy tale, Cinderella became the belle of the ball by not wearing splendid clothes.

— Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes

Robert Lees: Surely that confirms rather than contradicts what Mr. Marx has said: socialism is inevitable. Why, I myself am a testament to its increasing influence. I am undoubtedly a product of the middle classes, yet none espouse socialism more volubly than I.
Frederick Abberline: My point precisely, Mr. Lees. My point precisely.
Lees: What do you mean?
Abberline: I mean most socialists are middle class... Your late friend Mr. Hardie for one. Mr. Ramsay leader-of-His-Majesty's-bloomin'-opposition Macdonald, for another. Now, meself, I come from a working family. We vote Tory, always have done. The working class don't want a revolution, Mr. Lees. They just want more money.

— From Hell

These are well-brought-up young men and women from the Home Counties who like to consider themselves part of dance music's one love family despite having a trust fund and a father with an entry in Debrett's. They like dance acts with a woolly, Lonely Planet guide message of spiritual uplift, especially if they boast a) a bongo solo b) multiple vocalists who spend a lot of time grinning at each other or c) an opportunity for the crowd to throw up their hands and shout "peace." A bit of hip-hop too, but only if it has a "positive" attitude, i.e., it sounds a bit like De La Soul. And Groove Armada. Obviously.

They use "funky" as a blanket term of approbation. They have annoying euphemism for drugs, like "ganj." They return from far-flung places with starry-eyed tales of super-strength marijuana gifted them by a kindly old Tibetan, before taking up job in advertising and management consultancy, where, newly shorn of all that fucking hair, they vacuum up lines of cocaine as thick as railway tracks. They don't like talking about politics or anything that might imperil their "vibe," especially because they grew up in one of the safest Tory seats in England. They know what it's like to endure a comedown while on a Countryside Alliance march. They are in fact one of the few arguments in favour of hunting with dogs, but not in the way they intended.

— Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur, Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit?

Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.

— Don Henley, "The Boys of Summer"

"Apple roared into the TV game with The Morning Show, a superb drama. A superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing, made by a company that runs sweatshops in China. So, well, you say you're woke, but the companies you work for. I mean, unbelievable: Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service, you'd call your agent, wouldn't you? So if you do win an award tonight, please don't use it as a platform to make a political speech. You're in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your God and fuck off."

— Ricky Gervais, Golden Globe Awards 2020

I'll sign just about any petition
And I'll gladly accept your brochure.
I love Oprah, and Magic, and Foreman.
I wish blacks were all entrepreneurs.
Capitalism may need saving;
Revolution just isn't the cure.
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal.
I cheered when Obama was chosen,
My faith in the system restored.
And I'll never forgive Ralph Nader
For the race he stole from Al Gore.
And I love hardworking Latinos
As long as they don't move next door.
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal.
[...]
I vote for the Democratic Party.
They're strengthening NATO command.
I saw Bono at the Live Aid concert;
I buy everything he's endorsed with his brand.
We're gonna make poverty history—
I'm on Facebook taking a stand!
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal.

— Ben Grosscup, updating "Love Me, I'm a Liberal"

Nikita Khrushchev: The difference between the Soviet Union and China is that I rose to power from the peasant class, whereas you came from the privileged Mandarin class.

Zhou Enlai: True. But there is this similarity. Each of us is a traitor to his class.

— Attributed to a conversation during the Sino-Soviet split, possibly apocryphal

"So if you're wondering why homelessness continues to get worse in this country, one reason is that there are a lot of people — even liberals — who believe that homelessness is a personal failing, poverty can be avoided, and their own good fortune makes them not only better than the unhoused but more worthy of comfort. It's basically Reagan's attitude from a Whole Foods crowd."

— John Oliver, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

"In every American community, you have varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects. Ten degrees to the left of center in good times, ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. So here, then, is a lesson in safe logic."

— Phil Ochs, "Love Me, I'm a Liberal"

---