The West’s Dirty Secret: We’ve Created a New Caste System

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

There’s a moment in every society’s evolution when it becomes what it once fought against. For the West, that moment is now.

We abolished formal class systems. We declared all people equal. We built entire political philosophies around the idea that no one should be untouchable, that birth shouldn’t determine worth. Yet here we are in 2024, having quietly constructed a caste system more insidious than anything we officially dismantled — because this one pretends it doesn’t exist.

The New Untouchables

Watch the news coverage of any populist protest. Notice the barely concealed disgust on the interviewer’s face when speaking to working-class demonstrators. See how quickly legitimate concerns get labeled as “far-right.” Observe the verbal gymnastics used to avoid engaging with what ordinary people actually think.

Last week’s asylum hotel protests provided a perfect case study. A well-educated, middle-class journalist interviewed a working mother holding a sign that read: “Not far right, just a concerned mum.” The reporter’s body language — the subtle recoil, the tightened jaw, the careful distance maintained — mirrored exactly what you’d see when upper-caste Brahmins in South Asia encounter Dalits, the traditional “untouchables.”