Bourgeois culture is bad because it limits the flexibility of the elites. When the middle class was ascendant, it had the power to force bourgeois norms on elites, and even many of the poor. This led to social goods that people miss now, but it was also experienced as confining by those so constrained. In America, remember, class war is disguised as culture war.At the moment we suffer the ascendancy of the ‘values’ of the poor which can be summarized as do whatever feels good now, and damn the eventual consequences. I certainly miss the “social goods” that flowed from our former bourgeois culture.
On the cruise we conclude tomorrow, we’ve talked to a number of older couples whose unmarried grown children are living with the other parent of the grandchildren. Studies have shown it’s unlikely this ends well for the grandkids.
