AMERI-SNOB: In Britain, voting-patterns are fairly reliable indicators of ‘class’. Stateside, it ain’t necessarily so. Therefore, American is commonly billed as ‘the Classless Society’. Not true! Yanks are every bit as status-conscious as Brits. The difference is that, in America, class is not something you’re born with, but something you can achieve. It has less to do with heritage than impact. Americans think that Joan Collins has class.
They are also terrific snobs. ‘Class’ – as Brits understand it – is about your past. Snobbery is about now. To Yanks, it’s about places you don’t want to be seen in, cars you won’t drive, places you never shop, life-styles you don’t want to have. It’s about the right addresses, restaurants, clubs, hotels. Because Yank-society is so fluid, you can move to a new town – or even neighbourhood – and ‘create yourself in your own image’. You can constantly up-date, and if necessary, custom-design a New You. Yanks do this meticulously, in a thousand different ways. Personal development is an important key to social mobility. Choices you make must be the right ones. You must look good, live well, project successfulness if you want to pass muster. So Yanks think carefully about points of style. A Class Act in America is a triumph of form over content.
As in all things, Yanks are prepared to work much harder at class than Brits, whose place in the hierarchy is immutable, and guaranteed – removing all need to keep up appearances. Which is why many top Brits feel perfectly entitled – with a touch of reverse snobbery – to be perfect scruffs.
Yanks pay the price for unlimited social mobility. If British birthday is a trap, it is also secure, obviating the need to prove anything. One Just Is. Yanks, in their anxiety to define themselves, grasp at straws – Cartier tank watches, or Gucci reversible belts. Status-symbols are class. Money is class. Spending it stylishly is classiest of all. Yank-snob knows that suburban living in Connecticut is class, but New Jersey isn’t. Ownership of virtually any apartment in Manhattan is now class. Driving a Jag or a Mercedes is class, but an (equally expensive) flashy white Cadillac isn’t. A condo in Palm Beach is class, one down the coast at Lauderdale isn’t. Shopping for discount clothes at Loehmann’s can be class, J.C.Penney’s never. You can take the kids to McDonald’ for hamburgers and still have class - but if you eat there without them – you’ve blown it.
The Ameri-snob is also unforgiving. Because he is self-made, he demands the same initiative from others. Because his expectations are high, no time for shmos. Because in America anything is possible, he has no patience for failures. Including his own.
Yanks are terribly hard on themselves. If you can do it, it follows you should do it... no excuses allowed. And there’s very little room human frailty, few allowable shortcomings. If you’re fat, you must be stupid. At any rate, fat is not class. Increasingly, Yanks are perfectionists.
