Meme, Episode Four

 

The entire trajectory of modern economic history is encompassed by three generations of my family.  My grandparents were preindustrial: uneducated, rural, poor.  My parents were industrial: they completed high school, moved from village to city, and became working-class.  I am postindustrial: overeducated, city-born, and “beyond” class.

Correspondingly, each of our three generations were born into different systems of political organization.  When my grandfather performed his military service, he was charged with looking after the King’s horses.  My parents were small children under fascist occupation whose older brothers fought with the Partisans.  And me, well, I vote in elections that produce minor variations on the same liberal democratic theme, knowing better than most that it all gives way in the end.