Universal quiche and harmony?

In today's Observer Jason Burke puts up an idea for inspection:

The dinner party theory of conflict prevention runs like this: the world is getting richer, hundreds of millions of people are being borne up the social ladder by unprecedented global economic growth and as they get wealthier, these new planetary middle-class masses are inevitably going to become more like nice, educated, reasonable, middle-class people elsewhere - i.e. here. In short, they become the sort of people you'd invite to dinner.

Burke then proceeds to knock the idea down. His main point is that, even with additional wealth, people can remain fiercely attached to national and other communities, and this gives identity politics an enduring power over tendencies towards behaving rationally and harmoniously. In elaborating the point, he refers to cases where the middle class lines up behind what you might think of as not-so-nice values, and he concludes:

There are innumerable examples of people causing harm - to themselves as well as others - simply out of a bloody-minded desire to cling to what they believe defines them.

I have no quarrel with what Burke says. The comment I would like to add is only about the premise from which he begins. It is an extraordinary one: that middle-class people, as an entire social category, are politically 'nice' and 'reasonable'. The middle classes have certainly been responsible for much that is good in this world; however, as a generalized assumption, the political niceness one is a non-starter. It doesn't square with historical or recent experience. In significant numbers the middle classes have put themselves behind the politics of fascism (in 20th century Europe), the politics of military repression (Chile 1973), the politics of selfishness (Thatcherism) and the politics of apologia (this one far and wide, including here and now). If you move amongst the middle classes, you only have to use your eyes and ears to know that, just like any other kind of people, they are not invariably 'nice'. Or spend some time on the internet. I'm aware that it's not only the middle classes that inhabit it, but they do play a prominent part. And there seems to be enough anger, pride and envy there, as well as pettiness, abusiveness, stupidity, hatred and malice - not to extend the list any further - to go quite comfortably around. This is because the internet is part of the world; behind every electronic voice is a pair of hands attached to a body that walks amongst other human bodies.

The beginning of wisdom here is, in any case, an understanding that people sometimes behave badly (and - worse than badly - cruelly) just because they can. It's the ineradicable downside of human freedom.