Bourgeoisism

The mental characteristics of the petty bourgeoisie, extended to the whole of modern society irrespective of social class.

Bourgeoisism designates the negative traits of the bourgeois spirit, minus the entrepreneurial mentality of the great bourgeoisie, which today is in decline. Opposing the popular spirit, like it opposes the aristocratic spirit, bourgeoisism dominates our market society, with its morality of self-interest, its individualist pursuit of security and immediate well-being, its susceptibility to ephemeral fashions, its refusal of risks, its passive and conspicuous consumption, its conformity to the reigning doctrines, its concern with maintaining politically correct appearances, its total lack of patriotism and ethnic consciousness, its cultural snobbery, its spirit of calculation, its compromising conception of human relations, its narcissism, the preponderance of money in its scale of values, its indifference to communal solidarity, its superficial humanitarianism, its insensibility to the sacred and poetic sentiments, and its aesthetic inaptitude, etc. Bourgeoisism has even abandoned its earlier familial spirit, with its sense of generational continuity.

The modern petty bourgeoisie or middle class dominating present-day society tries to be ‘trendy’, but betrays an extraordinary conformity. It’s both the target and the principal actor in the ideological/intellectual establishment of the reigning soft totalitarianism.

(see economism)