On the Irresistibility of the Petty Bourgeoisie

The fact that you are reading this is already itself proof that you're one of them. Sorry, dear reader, for addressing you so directly. (And perhaps “proof is too strong a word.) I concede that in what follows I intend to state more than I can prove—e.g., that there is such a thing as the petty bourgeoisie — and without batting an eyelash. After all, petty bourgeoisie is a word like any other, though it may sound a little archaic (like dear reader), and it is not my fault that it is usually pronounced in an irritated tone—in fact, almost spit out. This was always so, ever since about 1830, when Ludwig Börne, himself a petty bourgeois, introduced it into the political vocabulary of Germans

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