Caste

This is a homework assignment for history that I wrote and I actually liked the topic enough to post it here.

What is the Third Estate?

Sieyes starts by the individual efforts for each class. The first class is consisted of those that provide agricultural labor, the second consists of those who perfect or supply the population with the product that the world can prosper with. The third class however, consists of those who sell the product and make a profit from the sales of the goods, they are those who bring demands and comparison to the market. The fourth and last class consists of those who bring all of three above classes together.

After stating the individual efforts of the population Sieyès asks “who puts them forth?” and answers the question with, “The third Estate.” Until now the third estate was not mentioned. Now that it has, it is still questioned as the title states, “What is the third Estate?”.  Abbe Sieyes then continues into the “Public Functions”, which is the four heads, or states of affairs known as “the sword, the robe, the church, and the administration. He then goes onto say that the third estate is buried under the abuse of the privledged classes. That the third estate is no more than the lower class.

The third estate according to Sieyes is not eligible for anything other then what is already a  given. "Whatever may be your services, whatever may be your abilities, you shall go thus far; you may not pass beyond!", this is like picking a “go to jail” in a game of monopoly, and in fine print is says do not collect the $200 that is given to every player when they pass “Go”. The game and his explanation of the third estate are similar in the way that the individual is limited to the rules and regulations set for them. The third estate follows them and if found to be cheating there are repercussions to be added to the deal. Where in the game the same repercussions are had and the individual is left ashamed and left out for a moment in time.

The game however is a game, where reality happens every day. “Who then shall dare to say that the Third Estate has not within itself all that is necessary for the formation of a complete nation?”  The estate does provide what it can for itself it is looked down upon and is in the shambles of the working class. So all in all the functionality of the third estate is all but normal but too low for the classes above them to accept as equality.

To answer the question asked, “What is the third estate?”, the third estate is the working class. The individuals that work every drop of blood and sweat to stay alive and move to the top of their caste level. They might even try to achieve the highest caste but only to fail in the attempt, simply because they weren’t born into the system of the privileged. They do however, make the best of it by claiming imperium in imperia, an empire within an empire. They have all the standing to become and empire of their own but are stopped and barricaded by society.

By: T. Aamir