The heroic nature of the middle class

‘The middle-class can only exist in a free society: they are the nation’s future hope’

The term “heroic” is usually reserved for achievements outside of the ordinary.

Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, is certainly classified a hero as is Sir Frederick Banting, the discoverer of insulin. Since any normal person cannot devote much time to exploration or research, the chances of achieving fame are slight indeed.

In a movie scene, actor George Clooney made this interesting point: Why, he asked, do young people admire sports stars? Answer: Because they have achieved their dreams.

We are surrounded by heroic endurance and values that go unnoticed by a culture ignorant of the cardinal virtues

There are those, for ideological reasons, who like to promote the idea that heroes have fallen out of fashion only to be replaced by the anti-hero. In reality, however, we are surrounded by heroic endurance and values that go unnoticed by a culture ignorant of the cardinal virtues.

It is generally known the middle-class constitutes the most productive sector of society. These are not the people responsible for creating industrial civilization — they are responsible for maintaining it. Without the legions of tradespeople, labourers, middle-management, nurses and teachers, modern society would grind to a halt.

The middle-class can only exist in a free society: they are the nation’s future hope.

The most pernicious phrase ever heard is: pride goes before a fall. Why should not the vast majority feel a certain pride in their hard work, independence and self-sufficiency?

Productive work calls upon the highest attributes of character; it does not mean the unfocussed performance and motions of some routine learned from others. The failure to identify the creative aspect of work is of course the fault of the intellectuals, who have never understood the functioning of a free economy.

The heroic nature of middleclass life extends beyond earning one’s bread. Consider the time and effort each couple must spent socializing their children to be productive members of society. Consider the heroic effort it takes to make a marriage work. Integrity, honesty and justice round out the virtues of the normal man whose work is only creative and rewarding if done by a thinking, rational mind.

There are those who say people do not need values or heroic examples: Such people often suffer from existential angst or conjure up demons like the “mid-life crisis.” Since ethics is a branch of philosophy, to reject the power of ideas is to give over one’s destiny to chance and accident. The purposeful pursuit of goals is what separates men from the beasts.

The heroic nature of middleclass life manifests itself in its stability and competence to do the work necessary to maintain our lifestyles. Work, marriage, children all augment our status as a society of free people pursuing our individual goals and creating a general welfare that is the envy of the world.

I often look out of my tenthfloor window and marvel at the well-ordered, free society we have created with its inviolate homes, factories, roads and bridges, power lines and trees everywhere.