South end snob

THE HALIFAX CLASS SYSTEM EXPLAINED

“This isn’t the first time this has happened, and let’s get one thing straight” you can’t stop me.” Ragin’ Runner

While on the surface this bitch is about the right to run on a south-end street, the real story relates to the Halifax class system. The south end of Halifax is, of course, the home of the upper class, those who have made a success of life while Ragin’ Runner, clearly, is not from the south end. He is from somewhere else. He has not made a success of his life. His resentment in respect to his class affiliation is clearly shown in his bitch. The question then is not so much class distinctions in Halifax – these are obvious and require no defense – but rather the question relates to account for them. How did such distinctions come into effect? What is their explanation?

The question raises a fundamental problem: Is class superiority the result of cultural or genetic factors? While the members of the upper class might have inherited both economic advantage – they were born into the affluent Halifax upper class – as well as that relating to “social capital” – that enriched family and educational environment to which their status entitled them and in which they were raised- it is not clear that such cultural conditions trump the genetic input. An argument might be advanced that the Halifax upper class is so simply by virtue of its superior natural endowments. In other words they are just a better sort of person.

What are the distinguishing marks of this better sort of person? At the physical level he (and of course she) is just more attractive. One thinks of the blond, long-legged and athletically accomplished south-end Amazon, skin bronzed to perfection, as she leans back provocatively in her recliner by the private pool. While one might be aroused one must also remember that her charms are reserved for her own kind, the successful clean-cut Adonis who relaxes by her side. But the distinguishing features of the members of the Halifax upper class are not so much physical as mental. They are to be distinguished by their native intelligence. “But what is intelligence?” you ask. A good question.

I have previously and elsewhere maintained that intelligence resides in the ability to make distinctions and this ability is made manifest in the sustained and structured quality of thought itself. Given any particular topic, it consists of the ability to grasp the essential issue underlying what might appear to be a superficial and uninteresting subject – one thinks of a low-class jogger in the south end – then the ability to deconstruct that issue into its component parts and, finally, to give an in-depth consideration, a sustained reflection if you like, on each of those constituent parts much, as a matter of fact, as the present consideration of the class structure of Halifax itself. In brief, it is the possession of a mind. It is that which sets the upper class of Halifax apart from the lower orders.

So there we are. Ragin’ Runner is clearly getting above his station, his boring insistence on his civic rights to run where he wants notwithstanding. All we can say is, “Get the hell out of the south end!”

A pleasure as always.

Cheerio!

RSVPS

: Kirk P. Kirkpatrick (04/18, 12:05PM)

Um, I’m afraid you missed my point but now it’s too late to ask. What is it like going through life missing the point?

: eats_crayons (12:31PM)

“No offense (sic) bro but this is all I bothered to read.”

When you read it, did you move your lips? And yes, at parties the others are dazzled by my mind. I suppose you could call that a “hoot”.

: heather_ann01 (12:42PM)

Yes heather, don’t forget your Valium. Acquiring a mind is never pain-free.

: The Dribbler (1:51PM)

It may be a “tower of text” to you Dribbles, but to others it is a fine example of structured and sustained thought. Like Old Man River, the Dribbler just keeps dribbling along.

A pleasure as always.

Cheerio!