CLASS-CONSCIOUSNESS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 732, 24 July 1953, Page 5

CLASS-CONSCIOUSNESS

Sir-The provocative remarks introducing your recent article on Mr. Congalton’s survey are ill-founded and misdirected. One may assume, I hope, that the, writer does not favour marked class differences or class prejudices; but his observations may foster both by confusing attitudes towards occupations with class distinctions. There would be supreme irony in The Listener increasing our consciousness of class if class-consciousness is to be deplored; but "class-consciousness" is, of course, a misnomer, being now used almost invariably in a derogatory sense to mean class prejudice. Do our ratings of occupations betray class prejudice and reveal class distinctions in our midst? In a classless society would we rate every occupation on a par? If we think more highly of a skilled pro-' fessional man than of an_ unskilled worker, are we guilty of class prejudice? Would the contributor of your article accuse vocational guidance officers of gross class-consciousness in their advice to students on the respective merits of different occupations? "Social status," about which the investigators are seeking opinions, is an amorphous concept, even more difficult to define than "class." I suppose that

the social status of an occupation would be assessed by most of us in terms of prominence and influence in the community and the respect accorded by one’s fellows. But if there dare gradations in the social status of different occupations, is this any justification for declaring that class distinctions _ exist? Do news reporters form a different social class from carpenters? When an occupation implies training and individual achievement, responsibility,..and some self-sacrifice for the benefit of the community, it may surely catry a high "social status" without the "slightest implication of class distinction or class prejudice. Pr ae Be Anyone who suggests that there is as much social class-consciousness in New Zealand as in older countries must have travelled with eyes closed. What we have is part of a bad tradition, diminishing, I hope, and not an insidious local growth. We can certainly discriminate between occupations with@it adopting the view that a person's welfare in this world should principally "depend on what his father was. A questionnaire of the type being used could possibly make a good parlour game. But the invitation to place these occupations in order is itself a leading question, a highly suggestive formula, implying that each of them has a distinct place in a hierarchy, There is no justification for any assumption about the relative ease or difficulty experienced by those who attempted to answer. When 88 per cent failed to respond to a postal questionnaire there might even be grounds for suspicion that a few citizens feel they are being asked to attempt the impossible, If they knew that replies would be interpreted as evidence of class-consciousness in New Zealand they would have had ample reason for declining to undertake the forlorn task.

I. D.

CAMPBELL

(Wellington).

(Our correspondent asks: "If there are gtadations in the social status of different occupations, is this any justification for declaring that class distinctions exist?" It certainly is. Gradations in this context are degrees in rank or merit, and are therefore distinctions. And very few people are able to make class distinctions without prejudice,Ed.)