Even if he was, it’s not obvious that the actually existing acculturation people do to participate in the global cultural middle class is entirely composed of culturally universal middle-class traits, rather than accidental traits attributable to the particular areas where this culture emerged first.
Some such traits undoubtedly exist; for instance, people throughout the world learn English for no other reason than to take part in a successful culture where “middle class” traits are relatively common. But it’s not clear that there could be any alternative to English that would not be “attributable to [some] particular area”; for example, Esperanto is culturally European and perhaps even specifically Eastern-European; Lojban was indeed designed to be culturally and areally neutral but this doesn’t seem to help its popularity, since the Lojban-speaking community is in fact quite tiny.
Not necessarily; if anything, I was in fact agreeing with you that some portion of people’s ‘existing acculturation’ to middle-class culture is not, strictly speaking, neutral, due to historical path dependence if nothing else. But I still think it may be unproductive and even pointless for people to act overly “touchy” about such subjects. Should, e.g. Quebeckers, and perhaps Francophones in general, feel justified about their “touchy” attitude wrt. the cultural dominance of English?
Some such traits undoubtedly exist; for instance, people throughout the world learn English for no other reason than to take part in a successful culture where “middle class” traits are relatively common. But it’s not clear that there could be any alternative to English that would not be “attributable to [some] particular area”; for example, Esperanto is culturally European and perhaps even specifically Eastern-European; Lojban was indeed designed to be culturally and areally neutral but this doesn’t seem to help its popularity, since the Lojban-speaking community is in fact quite tiny.
I agree. Do you think there’s some other opinion I should hold differently because of this, either stated or implied?
Not necessarily; if anything, I was in fact agreeing with you that some portion of people’s ‘existing acculturation’ to middle-class culture is not, strictly speaking, neutral, due to historical path dependence if nothing else. But I still think it may be unproductive and even pointless for people to act overly “touchy” about such subjects. Should, e.g. Quebeckers, and perhaps Francophones in general, feel justified about their “touchy” attitude wrt. the cultural dominance of English?