Ruled By Sitters

The attempt has been made, and wrongly, to make a class of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie is simply the contented portion of the people. The bourgeois is the man who now has time to sit down. A chair is not a caste. But through a desire to sit down too soon, one may arrest the very march of the human race. This has often been the fault of the bourgeoisie. One is not a class because one has committed a fault. Selfishness is not one of the divisions of the social order.

Victor Hugo - Les Misérables (1862)


There is much to be said for this idea and it isn’t entirely tongue-in-cheek. We are ruled by people who spend their working lives sitting down. It’s one of their strengths, this ability to organise everything and foresee everything from a seated position.

Net Zero is a policy with quite obvious links to a human predilection for sitting down. It is a complex policy where all the practical ramifications were obviously worked out from polished chairs round a polished table. HS2 costings were probably worked out in much the same way – from a seated position.

A great deal of modern journalism appears to be generated from a seated position, presumably in front of a computer screen where the mysteries of copy and paste are daily enacted. When we do gain glimpses of upright journalists, they seem uncomfortable and not at ease. As if they are already missing the chair where they spend so much of their working day.

Here in the UK, most GPs seem to spend their time in a seated position. Or so the increasingly rare sightings appear to suggest. Not something I have confirmed by personal observation though. GP sightings round here are too rare to draw up to date conclusions about general GP posture.

A chap is also also bound to wonder if the current rash of strikes by teachers has something to do with not spending enough of the working day in a seated position. It may not be a caste issue, but teachers may see it that way. Maybe it is no longer professionally dignified to work from a standing position.