Working class hero

I went to a friend’s party recently. Most of the people there I already knew from before: work mates, friends, and so on. It was a pretty normal party, some people talking about the latest office gossip, others complaining how they still hadn’t manage to finish their theses, and the rest just getting happily intoxicated.

"As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be"

At some point in the course of the evening I bumped into a girl I hadn’t met before and we got talking. She had quite recently moved into town. Ah, so another student I figured. But no, she had come here for a job. Ok. So, what field is she in then? Cleaning. Cleaning? Yes, cleaning. To fund her studies, right? No, that’s just what she does. Yes, quite, well, another drink then?

"They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be"

I haven’t felt that stupid in a good while (and this is coming from someone who feels more or less stupid most of the time). I had completely frozen. I just did not know what to say to a cleaner at party. But why? I couldn’t pass for a snob if I tried, it’s not about an attitude. And also, I meet cleaners every day at work, this is not supposed to be a big thing.

"When they've tortured and scared you for 20 odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be"

It may seem like I’m the smallest person on the planet here for having a problem like this. But what I figured afterwards (yes I actually had to think this through) was that what had failed me was the context. I can have a perfectly nice conversation with our office cleaner when she comes round to our end of the office. The thing is just that I have never met a cleaner in a party before.

"Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be"

Now, before you go and think that I’m some posh twit who only goes to champagne parties and caviar restaurants, I’ll set the record straight: that’s not it! I go to normal parties at normal peoples houses. The thing is just that the way the society works also pretty much determines who we meet and socialise with. After you finish compulsory education comes the first divide: some go to study more and make new friends, others go to work and also make new friends. These groups don’t necessarily mix as much as might think. Then later on at work, you are much more likely to go out for a drink with your colleague than anyone else.

"There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be"

That’s just how it goes. During the years of this division, you somehow forget that the division is there at all. That’s until the perfect image falls apart and you have to face the fact that you are in fact very much the product of what your work, colour of skin, education, religion, and society has turned you into. So much for being so bloody classless and free and all that jazz.

(Quotes from Working class hero by John Lennon)