Bourgeoisie is more than a word. It means something different depending on when and where it's being used.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What does bourgeoisie mean?
That's right, and that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about a word, bourgeois, B-O-U-R-G-E-O-I-S. Yeah. Not to be confused with bourgeoisie, correct? Correct.
Well, yeah, they're very closely related. Bourgeois can mean a it can be an adjective and a noun. Right. If it's a noun, you're talking about one person who is bourgeois. So that's their behavior or it's the one person bourgeoisie is all of the people who are bourgeois. It's a noun only. OK, everybody, there's going to be a quiz at the end of this episode.
Chapter 2: How is bourgeoisie perceived in America?
But if you talk to Americans, a lot of Americans probably hear bourgeois and they think, oh, fancy, fancy, fancy. And that is not the case because bourgeois refers to, like you called me, basics or sort of a middle class basic individual. Yes. Or group of individuals.
Right. But there's a there's a long road between the original version of bourgeois that we'll talk about and then the the American version that it has now. And right smack dab in the middle are the commies, specifically Karl Marx.
Chapter 3: Who is Karl Marx and what did he say about the bourgeoisie?
I don't understand why Joseph Engels never gets his due because he and Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, but it's always just Karl Marx, Karl Marx, you know, must drive Engels crazy. But in 1848, they published the Communist Manifesto. And in that, they adopted the word that had formerly been middle class people. It wasn't really much of a put down. It was just a useful word for a while.
he equated them with the people who owned the capital that the labor was produced on and decided that they were exploiting the proletariat, the working class, right?
That's right. And he was writing in German. So, of course, he did not say bourgeois. He said Bürgerliche Gesellschaft.
You make German sound beautiful, Chuck.
Chapter 4: What is the history of the term 'bushwa'?
Thank you. Danke. In America, they may translate that as civil society or maybe a bourgeois society. But either way you slice it, what he's saying is the bourgeoisie are the bad people.
They're exploitive. They're not actually doing anything. They just own the stuff that the people who are actually doing something are using to do the thing that they're doing. But really, the bourgeoisie are the ones who are making the money off the working class in their labor, right? So it was not – at this time, it was not viewed as a very popular – it wasn't praised. How about that?
No one ever used it for praise by this time. And when it finally crossed the Atlantic to America – around the early 20th century, the Wobblies, the industrial workers of the world, who were, I believe, we talked about them before, and they were split between communists and anarchists. And there was a big struggle, I think, between the two.
But regardless of whether you're a communist or an anarchist at the beginning of the 20th century, you were not a fan of the bourgeoisie. And yeah, so the Wobblies did not like the bourgeoisie either. And they, in fact, came up with a new slang term for them.
That's right. The slang word was bushwa, B-U-S-H-W-A. And what's weird, I think that was in a quote from a 1970 article. What's weird, though, is that that word bushwa eventually was sort of morphed into a slang for BS, like somebody's full of hot air or BS. Someone, you know, is full of bushwa.
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Chapter 5: How did the song Bougie Bougie reflect on social class?
Right. We have to thank our friends at the Grammophobia blog for digging that stuff up. That's right. And then so it also kind of morphed in a new way. Kind of the way that that we view it today. But but a little. Yeah, I guess it was pretty much the way we view it today. It first pops up in black culture where it kind of morphed thanks to Gladys Knight and the Pips.
They had a disco hit in 1980 called Bougie Bougie. And can we hear a snippet? No, we can't, unfortunately. But if you want to hear any of the song Bougie Bougie, you can find it on YouTube or just about anywhere where you can listen to it free and clear. But it's a great song and I strongly recommend people go listen to it.
Yeah, and that would be B-O-U-R-G-I-E comma B-O-U-R-G-I-E.
Right. And the whole point of the song is it's about somebody who comes from the working class or a poorer background, but started to make money and now they're flaunting it. They have like a new car with a sunroof. They have new clothes. And it was a commentary on them, but also kind of like a snide one, too. Like these people...
Chapter 6: What is the difference between new money and old money?
are being tacky in a way and forgetting who they are, where they come from, I guess.
Yeah, it is kind of like that new money, old money thing, which is just so bleh, you know?
Yeah. I say we take a break, Chuck.
Yes, I was about to say that. Nice work.
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