Losing A Dream, Open Mouth Breathing

Society, by its very nature, is divided. This is why Communism has always failed. For those that are unaware, Communism is more than just "everyone getting the same wages" or "the government owning everything". These are just side-effects (or symptoms, or benefits, depending on which side of the Lefty fence you're on). The biggest ideal, the goal, and the Holy Grail of Communism is that of a classless society. Marx in the Communist Manifesto, the biggest load of literary tripe produced in the 19th century, wrote of the working classes rising into power, overtaking the bourgeois with all their property-owning, power-wielding, cigar-smoking evil. From there, the great bearded one proposed, the proletariat (the working-classes) would demolish the idea of class altogether, and presumably everyone would live happily ever after in a sea of harmonised equality.

But it never worked. Lenin came close, Stalin closer, the Chinese tried their best, and so did the Cubans. Not one of them succeeded in maintaining a fully Communist, classless regime. Why though?

Orwell put forward the most convincing answer, as Orwell tended to do. In 1984, he suggested the idea of a natural order in which society would always, no matter how hard it tried, swing back to. The order is simplicity itself: the High, the Middle, and the Low. The Middle, dissatisfied with its position of almost luxury, of nearly-but-not, would always appeal to the Low in order to take down the High. The Low, royally pissed off with its scheme in things and taking perpetual enjoyment in blaming the High for everything, would support the Middle in said uprising. Of course, the Middle would sometimes win, and become the High, and the Low would realise that they were in fact no different from anyone else, and would get even more royally pissed off. The whole cycle repeats ad nauseam.

This is why Communism doesn't work. Just as human beings, all of us, are diametrically different from one another, so varied as to be positively embarrassing when we attempt similarity, so then society emulates this fundamental difference by splitting us into the High, the Middle, and the Low (or whatever). It's just an inherent thing, like communication, or needing to urinate.

I'm talking about this now, because it struck me like a stone today just how much it surrounds us.

Walking home tonight, it became convenient to take a short-cut through a somewhat well-to-do estate. Not seriously wealthy, you understand, but reasonable; what Billy Connolly would deem "that fucking V-Neck pullover and Volvo crowd". Well, yes, yes, but as a shorter way home it served my purpose well, and without resorting to almost-snobbery.

Then I glanced at a window, and it struck me all at once.

Presumably the window I glanced in was that of a living room or something. The colours were all warm oranges and television-flashes, couches with slouched teenagers and parents just off work. I don't live in one of these places, but I know them well enough- comfortable, warm, not that much fun at times, but fine. Pleasant. Of course, these are the sorts of places that give rise to "emo" and "indie" and all that manufactured, cool-teen bollocks. Well, that's just fine as well. The Middle will be the Middle in any culture.

And then I walked into my estate and by ho did things change.

There were no warm oranges coming from the windows, no telly's with slouched teenagers and bored parents. No Volvos or Mercs. There were broken windows, lots of restless white and black colours, distant shouting, kids in the streets. Even the air itself seemed to get colder. As I walked, a car turned in beside me, and I instinctively felt that small frisson, not of fear but alertness, the one that will be all-too familiar to you if you've spent any time in an urban area. They probably aren't a threat, probably, but you're not going to make any definite assumptions until you've a)investigated further, or b) they're out of sight.

Then, and only then, have you entered the land of the Low.

My point is, this is everywhere. The street dividing my estate from the other one can't be more than a few yards across, but it might as well be the Berlin Wall. The difference is vast. Should this be? Is this a good way to live, with the polar-opposite and prejudiced beside your door? Of course, it takes rather woolly thinking to suggest we should be separated, but nonetheless. It makes one wonder. Actually, I speak in grossly general terms- it made me wonder. No doubt you don't give a shit, and proper order.

I've rambled enough.

Abyssinia,
S.xxx