Rising anger at ‘conspicuous loutishness’

In a recent article on LinkedIn an Indian corporate worker unloaded on the millionaires “with two BMWs in the garage” who give lectures on minimalisation; company vice presidents who refuse their workers stock options because “it’s your company anyway”.

Right-wing economists who complained about the cost of public transport having never set foot on a bus and celebrities that bully their way past queues into restaurants and night clubs claiming they would he hassled for selfies and autographs if they had to stand in line.

“All this is just to keep most of us poor, ugly and average – the world is full of hypocrites selling half-truths to protect their advantage,” the worker complained.

India is a country where the gap between rich and poor is often at its glaringly obvious and it is easy to see how resentment might grow, especially among the aspirational middle classes who find the way to further progress blocked by the rich and powerful.

However anger against the wealthy is on the rise around the world, exacerbated by what US researchers have termed “conspicuous loutishness”.

A video of a teenage Chinese girl burning bank notes lit up social media a couple of years ago. The researchers found that first-class passengers on airline flights where three times more likely to be rude to flight attendants than those in economy class and, in their top-of-the line motor vehicles were less likely to stop at zebra crossings for pedestrians.

Some observers believe that while some elements of the entitled classes have always thrown their weight around, social media and mobile phones mean their antics are much more likely to be publicised than in earlier times.

Also the wealthy of old often abided by unwritten rules of behaviour, keeping to the background often emerging only for philanthropic events that enhanced rather than degraded their image.

Now United States President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire Cabinet with the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, dancing about like a child at a Sunday School picnic, is there for all to see.

Whether culture wars, beloved of think tanks the world over, will metamorphose into conflicts specifically between the haves and the have-nots is still a moot point, but all the indications suggest the answer will come sooner rather than later.