Many have heard the phrase “declassified element, ” but few know what the term actually means. In addition to sociologists, this phrase will forever remain in the memory of admirers of Yegor Letov’s work, thanks to one of his famous songs, but let's figure out what it means from a scientific point of view.
Value
The declassified element, or, as such people are also called, lumpen is a foam that emerges during the crisis moments of revolutions. The main thing that is important for these people is, using confusion, to obtain social status, to become prosperous, but not through labor, but by parasitizing on society. This was believed even during the revolution in 1917.
Given the consideration of the third group of concepts, social policy is a type of social activity, the focus of which initially goes to potentially unsafe segments of the population, namely marginalized, disabled and declassed elements. This allows, using state aid and public charity, to provide them with the opportunity to reach the minimum level of acceptable satisfaction of their needs, protecting the classes better off from the possible manifestation of uncontrolled fury of the lower strata.
The manifestation of declassed elements in Germany
People of this class showed themselves during the reign of Hitler. When the difficult period came for the German people, many reactionary organizations arose that consisted of both the sons of the bourgeoisie and the declassed elements. It was believed that they occupy a special place between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. In other words, a marginal is a declassified element whose existence is on the verge of survival between the rich and middle layers of society.
It is believed that in society there are always a number of citizens who cannot be involved in the production process, because they do not have labor, or it is too low for the employer to become interested in it. Basically, these people lose hope of earning and forever lose the opportunity to be part of the system. Thanks to their qualifications, there may be an erroneous opinion that they still belong to the capitalist class, being in a constant search for work. But in fact, such a person is a declassified element, drawn closer to the lower class, along with patients in psychiatric hospitals and residents of nursing homes. That is, they continue to receive a part of social wealth and are lumpen of the highest society.
