Millenial Musings

  In a fascinating recent study, LSE Assistant Professor of Sociology Sam Friedman explores a curiously British phenomenon, middle-class professionals insisting they are working-class. In the most recent British Social Attitudes survey, 60% of people identified as working-class, whilst 47% of those in professional and managerial jobs consider themselves working-class, despite the actual estimate of the working-class to be around 25% of the population. What is going on here? Why are Britons, unlike their European and American counterparts, set on maintaining a fiction of humble origins? Upon reading Dr Friedman’s study my mind was immediately cast to a now-infamous Question Time segment in Bolton involving a certain Mr Rob Barber. Protesting Labour’s new tax policy (higher taxes on the top 5% of earners), Mr Barber claimed the policy won’t be affecting billionaires but people like himself, who ‘aren’t even in the top 50% of earners.’ His acrimonious speech didn't quite have the desi...

Since hearing about the tiffany problem, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. The problem, coined by writer Jo Walton, refers to the tension between historical fact and the popular perception of history. The example Walton uses is that of the name Tiffany. Whilst most people assume Tiffany is a modern name, conjuring up images of Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River, it actually has a long pedigree, found as far back as 12th century Britain and France as a variant of Theophania (Greek for God’s appearance, taking the name from the Feast day Epiphany celebrated by Christians, though having Greek origins).  Part of this of course is that Tiffany was a common baby name in the 80s at number 11 most popular in the U.S. Yet it also speaks to the ways in which most of us view history in concrete blocks with clear distinctions between different periods. We think of things that are still with us today as modern when there is a large amount of continuity between different eras. Jo Wal...