Working Class

Why did Cicero hand things over to us? Why, in the first place, did she give us jobs? Why did she pluck us out of obscurity?

The fact that we were working class. The fact that we came from the crappier universities. The fact that we had no expectations. That we weren’t careerists. The fact that we weren’t academic mountaineers. We weren’t ascenders. The fact that we weren’t looking for careers in management.

We were low-born: that’s what she like. We saw things from a low point of view. From a rat’s point of view. We looked for corners to hide. For cracks in which to disappear. For strategic retreat.

We didn’t trust the world, that was the thing. We had a natural working class scepticism. We knew something of the enemy. Of ruses. Techniques. We understood something of evil. How evil operated. What evil wanted.