Is Our Culture Ready for the Trashcan?

[Paulclem]

It might be wiser to restrain one's comments on 'toffs' given that a number of public figures either went to Eton or were members of the Bullingdon club.
They look like the kind of people who would cut up rough and it would be most undignified to have members of Litnet debagged. That blond guy in the front row looks decidedly dangerous.




Andrew Gimson, biographer of Boris Johnson, reported about the club in the 1980s: "I don't think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men."

They are posing as if they were in Duran Duran. They don't look so tough.

[Emil Miller]

They are posing as if they were in Duran Duran. They don't look so tough.

Nevertheless, I would hang on to the trousers just in case. People who go around trashing restaurants are usually quite capable of debagging their opponents. I'm wouldn't mind betting that Dave and George are just waiting to jump young Miliband in one of those darkened corridors of the House of Commons.

[Paulclem]

Nevertheless, I would hang on to the trousers just in case. People who go around trashing restaurants are usually quite capable of debagging their opponents. I'm wouldn't mind betting that Dave and George are just waiting to jump young Miliband in one of those darkened corridors of the House of Commons.

Yes, my money's on the Bulls for that one.

Perhaps Milliband would get all nostalgic for it.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I hear our friend (second top from the left) is surprised and outraged that not many "blacks" (i.e. one) have gone to Eton in the last 100 odd years. I mean, as if he's really shocked at this?

Boris really is such a clown, just had to say that - he's a big daft bear (but at least he defended "Northern folk" in the outburst with that scum chap.

I think you raise an interested point Paul regarding class prejudice. I think the UK has made great strides in terms of attitudes to homosexual and ethnic minorities over the last 20 years or so, but for me at least, there still seems to be plenty of class prejudice about.

I look forward to the day when a person is really judged (if people have to be "judged" by others) by the "content of their characters" and not by the intonation of their accents...we can hope.

[ralfyman]

Much of the "vulgarity" involves commercialized mass entertainment. One should consider, though, that such entertainment requires increasing levels of industrialization and mechanized agriculture, which in turn requires an abundance of oil and other resources.

The U.S. military, Lloyd's of London, the IEA, Morgan Stanley, and other organizations have reported that we may experience a permanent drop in global oil production by 2015, likely 2013. Since much of what we have requires a lot of oil (esp. petrochemicals) then that drop will lead to the destruction of a middle class lifestyle, which includes commercialized mass entertainment, and in the long term, problems ranging from food shortage to lack of medicine. Since other sources of energy cannot provide petrochemicals or have low energy returns, then we will experience much difficulty attempting to use these to replace oil. According to the IEA, at best, we will only be able to raise global energy production by around 9 percent during the next three decades. Meanwhile, demand may rise by around 2 percent each year.

Worse, this problem is accompanied by two others: debt-driven economies and the effects of pollution, including environmental damage and climate change.

Given that, we can probably argue that we may see a return to earlier forms of entertainment in the near future and in the long term.

[Emil Miller]

I hear our friend (second top from the left) is surprised and outraged that not many "blacks" (i.e. one) have gone to Eton in the last 100 odd years. I mean, as if he's really shocked at this?
I look forward to the day when a person is really judged (if people have to be "judged" by others) by the "content of their characters" and not by the intonation of their accents...we can hope.

Given that it costs £26,400 a year to send a boy to Eton, it's unlikely that things will change radically in respect of its intake. The occasional token black
pupil may be there for window-dressing but this extract from a Daily Telegraph
article highlights the kind of people who actually go there.


..... the sheer number of Old Etonians prominent in all areas of life is a new phenomenon. Boris Johnson, David Cameron, Johnny Boden, Hugh Laurie, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Zac Goldsmith, Damian Lewis, James Palumbo … the list goes on.

And last summer, a smattering of reports drew attention to the fact that no fewer than 14 Tory front-bench spokesmen were educated at Eton.

The headmaster of my prep school, a man of royalist leanings, was fond of a story, dating from the mid-1960s, about a young boy who was stopped by an American tourist on Eton High Street: "Tell me, son," said the Texan, "is it true that you have to be a lord to go to Eton?"
The boy considered this strange question: "Well," he replied, "you don't have to be. But we all are."

[Paulclem]

Brilliant.

What annoys me is the blindingly obvious outcome from a priviledged and well supported education, with all the positive reinforcement and the connections that are nurtured, is that they turn out to be well educated people in well paid jobs running the country. Anyone given those kinds of priviledges would be hard pressed not to do well. Yet you can smell the attitude some of them have to those of us who didn't have all that. And then there are those who have a positively debilitating upbringing and education, not just a so-so one. Such inequalities have ever been there. It does make the achievements of those who didn't have all that all the more impressive.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Given that it costs £26,400 a year to send a boy to Eton, it's unlikely that things will change radically in respect of its intake.

Absolutely, good point, though the costs have gone up a little (for some reason I looked last week?) now it costs a few pounds shy of £30,000 a year - not that money is an object for the top classes.

(Again, I don't hate those who have it, rather, I feel sorry for those millions who are good enough but never get the opportunity.)

Brilliant.

What annoys me is the blindingly obvious outcome from a priviledged and well supported education, with all the positive reinforcement and the connections that are nurtured, is that they turn out to be well educated people in well paid jobs running the country. Anyone given those kinds of priviledges would be hard pressed not to do well. Yet you can smell the attitude some of them have to those of us who didn't have all that. And then there are those who have a positively debilitating upbringing and education, not just a so-so one. Such inequalities have ever been there. It does make the achievements of those who didn't have all that all the more impressive.

Yes, true. It is all about those contacts if you ask me. It's like the local pub team trying to beat Man Utd on a 70 degree uphill pitch with a bias linesman. When someone does succeed in spite of all the odds, it is great and all of that, however it doesn't help in the long-term because they then become the exception to the rule and glorified, selling the system as truly socially mobile (think John Prescott if you must). The reality though is pretty obvious.