ABSTRACT
Equality for the working classes, like freedom for the middle classes, is a worrisome, partially rejected, by-product of the demand for more specific measures. Like a large number of social beliefs, attitudes towards equality take their direction from beliefs about the self, the status of the self, and one's self-esteem or lack thereof. Equality must be treated within classes, not between them, to be meaningful—and in this way the problem of placing oneself becomes tolerable, or sometimes rather gratifying. The psychic defenses against subordination available in stressing moral equality or superiority were used—but only rarely. Equality would pose problems of social adjustments, of manners, of how to behave. Consider the possibility of social equality including genuine fraternization, without economic equality. The fears, while plausible and all too human on the face of it, emerged unexpectedly from the interview material designed to capture ideas and emotions on other aspects of class status.
