Abstract: In The Uses of Literacy , published in 1957, Richard Hoggart describes the ‘us vs. them’ mentality as an important component of a collective working-class identity based on dissociation of its members from those of higher social classes, especially the ‘bosses’. This article proposes that the dichotomy of ‘us’ and ‘them’ has shifted referents in the twenty-first century: while the notion of ‘them’ today refers to the top 0.1 per cent, i.e. ultra-high net worth individuals, the notion of ‘us’ designates the rest of British society, including mainly the lower and middle classes. To illustrate this claim, the article proceeds in three steps: drawing on the conceptual frameworks of conjuncture and articulation central to Cultural Studies, it first contends that the ever-growing political influence of a wealthy elite has caused Britain to return to neo-feudalistic ruling patterns, transforming contemporary (above all English) society into what sociologist Colin Crouch has termed “post-democracy”. In a second step, analysing journalism and social media on the Brexit referendum (as the most crucial post-democratic moment), the COVID pandemic, and climate change, the essay argues that this conjuncture is articulated through a divisive rhetoric underlying public discourse on wealth – more specifically, that altero-representations of the super-rich in contemporary British media lean towards criticism and “negative activism” (Crouch). Ordinary people constantly complain about the superrich, whereas the latter’s self-representation draws on strategies of selfglorification which help them to masquerade as philanthropists. Thirdly, the paper illustrates how politicians are caught in the middle, attempting to serve as mediators between these diverging perspectives.

Keywords: ‘us vs. them’ mentality (Hoggart), (self-)representation, super- rich, British media, post-democracy