I watched a video this morning that was a clip from the PBS documentary “People Like Us, Social Class in America”

I am feeling a mixture of disillusion and disgust. I’ve never been one to think I’m lower than anybody. I’ve never looked at the so-called “upper class” and wondered how I could become like them in terms of the way they act. It has always seemed obvious to me that certain behavior is learned and that anyone, even a cro-magnon can be trained in how to act out the behaviors associated with “high class” and practice this behavior until it becomes second nature.

There’s something about aspiring to mix and mingle with rich people that seems a little bit pathetic. What are rich people other than people with money? What makes them better or more interesting to mix and mingle with than the people you currently mix and mingle with? Will it really make you better or more worthy to be in the same room with rich people? Seriously, will it? Is a man with money really different from a man who has no money? Yes, he’ll act differently but is he really different?

I was embarrassed for the lady in the video when she went trying to rub shoulders with the rich people at the party to show that she’d learned the lessons Genie Polo Sayles had taught her. Genie Polo Sayles, by the way, is the author of “How to Marry The Rich”. Why try to change who you are in order to fit in with a group of people who will not accept you as you are, who think that you are beneath them and not worthy to breathe their air?