Matthew Arnold on Class Valuation
on Friday, October 17, 2014Matthew Arnold Money Quotation saying we create the unequal classes by valuing only one of them, cheapening one and abusing the least of them. Matthew Arnold said:
“Our inequality materializes our upper class, vulgarizes our middle class, brutalizes our lower class” — Matthew Arnold
In this quote, author and social critic Matthew Arnold seems to be commenting on the negative effects of socioeconomic inequality in Victorian England. He argues that inequality “materializes” or makes overly materialistic the upper/wealthy class, “vulgarizes” or degrades the culture and values of the middle class, and “brutalizes” or treats cruelly the lower/working class.
Arnold appears to believe that large disparities in wealth and status can corrupt the upper class by making them excessively focused on wealth and possessions, can undermine the middle class by encouraging crass or tasteless behavior, and can damage the lower class by subjecting them to difficult living conditions.
The quote conveys Arnold’s view that severe inequality has the potential to diminish society as a whole by changing behaviors and mindsets in deleterious ways across all classes.
Birthday: December 24, 1822 – April 15, 1888