destability of a society where evryone's equal

[poorva]

"they would sooner or later realise that the priviledged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a heirarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance."
- excerpt from chapter 9 of part 2 of 1984.
i m unable to xtract the real meaning of how the upliftment of the poor and illiterate could destabilize the society in a long run. If anyone could elaborate with a little lay man example it will be a real help. I'm a beginner reader but liked the book a lot n m half past it, but stuck at this.

The excerpt lies somwhere aftr Winston finishes reading ch-3 from emanuel goldstein's book. Please reply asap as i m unable to move ahead.

[kev67]

Orwell might be thinking of the class system in Britain and other countries before the 19th century. The majority of the population were uneducated or not very well educated. This allowed the better educated upper classes to hold onto all the high prestige jobs, such as doctors, lawyers, clergymen, stockbrokers, army and navy officers. The upper classes could afford to send their children to private school, where they learned manners and accents that differentiated them from the rest of the population. Without education it is difficult to organise an opposition movement. Without education and the proper manners and contacts, it is difficult to gain access to well paying positions. Without money, it is difficult to mount an opposition movement. The moneyed elite can pay people to crush anyone who opposes them. For example, if a landlord's tenants refuse to pay rents, the landlord can pay a lawyer to gain an eviction notice, and pay baliffs to evict his tenants. To instruct a lawyer in those days, you needed money and a certain amount of education. To be a lawyer, you needed to have had a good education, and probably contacts from family or school friends. If you were poor and ignorant, you would probably see it as natural that those who had had an education would take on those powerful, knowledge based jobs. You might not even question the upper classes' rights to charge you rent and to pass on their property to their heirs. Once you had a decent education yourself, and had become middle class, you might start to want to enter one of those powerful, well-paid, prestigious professions yourself. Once educated and middle class, you would probably not be quite so dependent on your overlord's good will. You might not depend on him for employment or permission to live in your home any more. Therefore, you might be more prepared to confront the ruling elite on the way that society distributes wealth.

[headers]

Nice title. It is true but it is almost hard to implement in real world. It is true that we are all equal but no one in the ruling part of the society thins as they may think that their royalty will be damaged( ROYALTY ). Start with the education. We can easily notice that how some nations have managed to create best of the best way to attract the top brains around the world and some nations are even trying to manage their bread and butter for the day. Irony indeed.