The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce

the very word “bourgeois” 77And never mind the large additional percentage who have never in factbeen self-employed and never actually will be, but have an unreasonablehope they will be self-employed in the future. The bourgeois thinks of himselfas entrepreneurial, and especially in America he admires such go-getting,even if he has had in fact a routine career as an employee in a great corporationor a big government office. Napoleon is supposed to have said thathis ordinary soldier carried the baton of a marshal of France in his kit bag.Thus a military career open to talents. The American middle managerthinks the same way, and has only a slightly larger chance of actually puttinghis baton to use. Jack Sparks of Whirlpool began on the line.Property, too, is admired and sought among the bourgeoisie, of course.Acceptance of property rights is shared with the aristocracy. No trespassing.This is mine. I get to use it up if I wish. It has been noted often, from Virgilin his Georgics to Thomas Jefferson in his letters, that having property lendsrespect, and even self-respect.“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuablecitizens,” wrote Jefferson. “They are the most vigorous, the most independent,the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country, and wedded toits liberty and interests, by the most lasting bonds.” 22 Owning is a goodthing. Thus Bush II and his “ownership society,” at least in its words.Great-souled gestures of consumption, giving to the church, a granitecountertop for the remodeled kitchen, a summer home in Wisconsin, thatthird car, the Republican Party, are shared with the aristocrats, too. Sincemost of the bourgeoisie do not actually know how the aristocrats spendtheir wealth, the symbolizing of prestige is imitated mainly from other,somewhat grander bourgeois. This is Pierre Bourdieu’s point in his explorationof class and consumption in France, Distinction: A Social Critique ofthe Judgment of Taste (1979). Spending property on hobbies and educationand status-affirming toys helps make bourgeois people who they are. Everyoneof means, they will say to themselves, has an elaborate gas grill under agreen cover for the rain. We must have one, too. Everyone of means gives tothe church. We must give, too.But bourgeois property is different from that of the aristocrat or peasant.It is neither the easy inheritance claimed by the aristocrat nor the overusedcommons claimed by the peasant. It is not a given, zero-sum lump, as thesetwo are. It is bound up, again, with a vision of freely chosen work. Bourgeoisproperty is at least in fable remade every generation, like the tools of aguildsman. “Human capital” is a modern bourgeois’ idea of skill. When