The Working Class... Hero?

Trying to pinpoint the nature of unpopularity

Photo by ngelah on Unsplash

For 57 years, almost – at least during most of my life, and that has lasted so many years, so far – I have believed that I was a human being, and that people around me also were human beings.

Nowadays, of course, we see a lot of things done by machines and AI, but that’s not what this article is about. What I’m trying to say is that I thought we all believed like me, that people around us are mostly equally valued people.

Of course, there would be the occasional bragging person who felt that he or she was better than most others, and there would be the admirers of some idol who, in their eyes, was an almost devine being. But most people understood that we were all made of the same kind of atoms, making up a person that to 99% was identical to other persons, just with some tiny differences in height, hair color, etc., that we could then admire or not.

I believed that, really.

And in a way, I still believe that about the atoms and the 99% identical construction, but I have lost my faith – finally, after so many years of stubbornly insisting on people being of equal value – that anybody believes like me.

During the last few days I got some more real life exerience, saying that, effectively, I am not the same class of person as others. Somehow, I rank below. From a workers’ class background, from a small town, with a mediocre kind of education, being too fat, haven teeth that do not look like those in a toothpaste commercial, and many other things, differ me from the rest. If those factors are what does it.

I am still 99% like others, but they don’t see that. They see the differences – the 1%.

And somehow that strikes through in everything. Even such situations where people don’t know my background, or can’t see me, or aren’t directly influenced by whatever education I have.

When I write on social media, I connect with a few people only, and the number of expressions and views, whatever each platform call the spread of the post, is minimal. When applying for jobs, there is an aura over my applications that makes the recruiters think “workers’ class” or “not having perfect teeth”, regardless of which job it is or what I have written in the application. It actually goes all around in society: everywhere I am being looked at, read, even calculated with in statistics, as one of those who are not like the good ones in society – not one of the popular ones.

What I have noticed now, is that popularity really does stick to some people, and unpopularity to some others. There is something that shows your status, and it is being noticed immediately. So the popular guy at work, he will also be popular in article writing, should he decide to do that. And he will be successful in sports, because people will feel that they should cheer at him and help him all they can, as “he deserves to win”.

In politics, some people can lead wars and do injustice to the people, and yet, most people love them. People love their lies, they misbehavior, and their technically speaking being unfit for the role. They are automatically popular, while others are unpopular, no matter how many good things they do.

So, to that myth of the working class hero. Well, I’m sure such people exist, but I feel that there are much bigger chances for upper class people to be considered heroes – no matter who are doing the heroic things.

As for me, I have a strong sense of moral and justice, and human rights, etc. – which is all immensely unpopular, even with people who are being treated badly and could need someone to support them. But they like to stick to the bad people instead; those who have no moral, no sense of justice, and who do not care about the rights for anybody else than themselves. Their suppressors, perhaps, but also just whoever they can find who are in the popular group.

Basically, “everybody likes a winner”, and we are, as a species, equipped with skills to recognize a winner – and the opposite – so there is not a lot to do for a presumed winner to win, other than simply exist and be as they are. And the loser, similarly, will lose with or without any effort done.

I can’t fly. Or that is, I could, once. But not anymore. That thing about flying is such a thing nobody will ever care about with me, but which they would be fascinated about with one of the popular people. Think about a popular person you know, and then add “flying” to the list of merits you contribute to them. Now, suddenly, they are even more amazing, aren’t they? But then try to add it to the list for a presumed loser – your thought will then be something like “who does he think he is”, or even “that’s a lie”.

You don’t want to see losers be good at anything. you want to see only bad things in them. And winners, they are all good, no matter what they do.

About flying: you know, people talk about so many things, and where one person has climbed a mountain, another has eaten his bicycle (according to Guiness’ Book of World Records), and everybody can tell about something that makes them special. But for whatever weird reasons, nobody ever wanted to hear that I once did hang-gliding. Or maybe they just consider it a lie. But I did. Not a lot, but I did. So, back then, I could fly.

To be completely honest: most of the popular people I have met are good at something. Usually not many things, but something. Offten just one thing. And most of the unpopular people I know could write a book full of things they are good at, or at least have spent a significant amount of time studying.

So there’s a possible factor. But let’s not put the wagon in front of the horse. If a popular one would learn something more, others would be fascinated about it and see the one as a real star. But the popular people just don’t tend to do that. Maybe because they don’t need to, as they are already known to be good at one thing, and that must be enough. Maybe. I have often heard from such people how it is important to stick to one thing, and it seems to me that they genuinely mean it – that they even consider it somewhat ridiculous, or perhaps even an act of desperation, when an unpopular person works on learning something more.

Well, the end of this line of thoughts is that it mostly sticks to people, all the way through life. We may get 15 minutes of fame, or we may not, but we, the unpopular ones, will never rank among the popular. It will never happen. And the popular ones grow up like such and will always be that.

So all that good advice on how to get thousands of followers on social media, including Substack, or how to get a job, or how to become successful in any other way – it works, but only for those who would become popular no matter what they did. And the rest of us will not benefit from this kind of advice, because we will remain unpopular no matter what we do.

Everything with slight variations, of course, and you can be relatively more popular than the other unpopular people, while still being less popular than anyone from the upper group. Maybe that’s the idea behind the working class hero? Slightly better than the other losers.

In a similar way, a popular one can fall down a bit in the ranking, now being at the botton of the upper group, but still more popular than anyone from the losers group. We see that at times, when a politician is ousted for a short while, then brought back for a new but slightly lower role than before, or (rarely) when a royal becomes unroyal due to serious misconduct, but still has money, many honorable societal positions, and an ability to some day inherit the crown.

The universe is not as dynamic as I always wanted to see it. People are not as open and inclusive, not treating each other as much as equals, as I always wanted to believe. This way, each of us has our path in life more or less cut in stone, or written in the book of destiny, without any chance to do more than merely adjust it a little bit.

I have no solutions. I can’t remodel the universe. It is as it is.