One thing that clearly separates social classes is their devotion to reading. The higher classes has access to more books, better schools, and additional resources that promulgate habits of reading. “Rich get richer” type of thing. The poor are not given access and an appreciation for reading, and instead spend their free time–if they have any–consuming the waste from Hollywood.
Reading is one thing that separates humanity from all other created beings. Makes sense as God reveals Himself through words, and Jesus in fact is called the Word. Don’t believe the propaganda that the Bible is a backward text written by ignorant people and pushed on the populace as a means of social control and stability…what the Founding Fathers called Civil Religion. The Bible is a radical and revolutionary document if taken seriously, more liable to upset the applecart than steady it.
Reading and the development of critical thought and vocabulary, can be enlightening in the best sense of the word, so to speak. It helps broaden perspectives, inculcate in-depth exploration, and assign terms to what people experience. Reading can also exclude in the sense that words can also be used to keep others out of the circle of comprehension.
A career, for instance, that shows both sides of words is the legal profession. Attorneys will argue that they need an advanced nomenclature to describe their professional activities…words like Torts and the like. However, for those not trained in legalese, the words actually create confusion among the untrained because such terms are not used in every day life. And, understand, this confusion is sown intentionally to keep the ignorant in the dark.
I had a tangle with a credit card processing company that I ran my College Transition Group business through for several years. The terms of the contract were totally confusing to me…and pages and pages long. The company created an almost airtight system of auto-billing which made it almost impossible to escape its grip except for a small window each year.
When the head of the specific group of shysters got involved, he invoked all the terms of the contract to me and basically taunted me to take them to court, reminding me that “Dress warmly, Colorado is cold this time of year.” It was only until I fought back and demonstrated clearly that their supposed “airtight” contract, suffused with fancy sounding terms and sub-sections, actually had some major flaws and was very weak on enforceability and clarity. Then, I cancelled my bank account that they drafted from and that move forced them to contemplate taking me to court on my terms, not theirs.
He gave up the fight verbally and I sent him a certified letter stating the verbal concession. Over and done. Lesson learned.