Trenton Oldfiled - While I'm more awake
Okay, I made a bit of a mistake. I've now learned never to blog while I'm tired, so that's an up I suppose. Anyway. I blogged a few days back about Trenton Oldfiled, the man who jumped in front of the boat race.
Oh no! How will these poor Oxbridge students cope! Maybe when they tuck into their pheasant and swan blood matron can spank them a little harder to cheer them up.
Why are they all calling the protester a wanker? He is making a valid point, we have, in Oxford and Cambridge, a symbol of a horrible, incestuous, crumbling and anachronistic system that just seams unfair and out of date now. We need a meritocracy, that is the key to any sort of democracy. We still remain in the grips of a dying aristocracy. And its the dying nature of it that is the dangerous bit. These people on mass don’t feel the recession. Now not everyone who goes to those universities are millionaires, and to those I say well done for getting there on your own merit! However, a lot of them are the one percent. some aren’t, but some are. specifically the bullingdon club, who’s mere existence of it today makes me feel fucking sick.
See any logical person would have told me to 'SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GO TO BED YOU STUPID BOY!' but the logical person wasn't there and I blogged anyway like a silly bitch. Now there have been a few replies by people on facebook and on Tumblr and I want to set the record straight. Now, I'm not going to re edit the last one as I think that would seem a bit cowardly... instead I hope you are happy with a longwinded grovelling explanation. Explanation mind, not excuse.
Now then. I should have written the post when I was more awake as I tend to get less high and mighty and less... Stalinist. Alertness = The rational James! So where did I go wrong?
Oxbridge. I should have thought over this more, and I have been talking to someone who goes to one of the unis and they have put me in my place in some areas. Not everyone who goes to Oxford or Cambridge is filthy stinking rich, that's just a lie. Not everyone who goes to Oxford or Cambridge went to a private school, around 50% did (I'd like to say that I actually mentioned this point in my original post and to to state the fact that private schools only make up 7% of the educational system... but my mouth is too full of humble pie... best to swallow it) and that's a decreasing number. There is more of an emphasis on grades over wealth now spurred on by the tutors.
This is off of my facebook page and sums up what I mean by elitism (which again I should have elaborated on):
"I suppose the elitism I see is mainly concentrated in what the card of oxbridge can do for people. There are plenty of people who's expert education is just that, an expert education that can only better your knowlage, and fair enough, these people have usually worked hard for it. There are however people where this becomes a membership card, more doors are open to them to someone who went to Hull or somewhere like that (I'm sure Hull uni is perfectly respectable). These people then form political elites and industrial elites. I know its said a lot but look at most political front benches in Britain. As someone interested in comedy and drama I look at a lot of the new sparkly comedians and, while some may be funny, a disproportional amount went to Oxford or Cambridge. Is the problem with the uni? No. It is modernising and I'm sure that the students and tutors are brilliant. Its the fact that this has remained a membership card for a lot of people and I don't think that's fair."
Bit of a cop out I know writing something I've already written but its better thought out then how I had previously said it. I also know that not everyone who goes to those universities has a future assured because of it, for many it is an expert, well deserved and hard working education.
Now, as for Trenton Oldfiled himself. I've been told that he himself had a privileged upbringing and went to a very selective school. NOW! Here's the thing. Can you be a lefty even if you have had a privileged upbringing? Yes. Simple as. Its a liberal philosophy that we are all born the same and its one that I though we, as a liberal democracy, stuck to. We can't help what our parents have done or the choices they make for us at an early age. There are plenty of left wing thinkers, politicians and activists that had privileged upbringings, take for instance Tony Benn, a man who fought to throw off his hereditary title and did, he was also the voice of socialism within the Labour party for many years and since leaving parliament has been a peace activist and has attended march upon march. Even Marx and Engles were born into well off families! The wealth you are born into and your personal feelings are not one in the same. Free will doesn't work like that.
Onto the act itself. Yes, it was a stupid stunt, did it danger anyone? Mainly himself. I see where he got the idea, much like the suffragette walking in front of the king's horse, but it seemed a bit more pathetic. What was the damage though? It ruined it. Really? That's it. As balanced as I'm trying to be ... that's not a legitimate point to hate him about! Yes it was an annoying stunt but the boat race itself seems elitist, it has become a symbol of elitism and he thought he'd try and bring attention to this. Still, no one could call him an armchair-socialist, instead he's an armchair-at-the-bottom-of-the-Thames-that-someone-threw-in-after-it-broke-on-them-socialist (Poor I know but I referenced the Fenton thingy last time). Yes him ruining the fun of a handful of people is annoying, what's more annoying is THIS SNOTTY ARTICLE IN THE TELEGRAPH IN POSSIBLY THE MOST IRRITATING ARTICLE I HAVE EVER READ! http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100149749/boat-race-spoiler-trenton-oldfield-is-an-intellectual-snob/
So is he a hate figure. He has become something of a centre of irritation over the last few days. But he had a belief and he acted on it in a way that had no damage what so ever. Bit risky but it was his own life on the line. That's refreshing in a time of political apathy.
So, lets finish this grovelling apology thingy because we all have lives to get back to! I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I do know that not all people are in Oxford and Cambridge are millionaires and went to private schools. I even mentioned that in my original post. And I've looked over it and I can see that its really changing to create a more democratic system. No excuses, just an explanation, I should have thought of this more, effort and I should have been more awake, instead I was a stupid boy and played to stereotypes and it ended up a Stalinist, class warfare rant. To all those who go to Oxbridge Universities or have been given offers for next year, I wish you nothing by luck and good will. I'm sure it has taken a lot of hard work to get there and its not the universities I have a problem with, its the elitist societies that come out of them that I have a problem with. Sorry if I offended or undermined your efforts in any way, I shouldn't have, it was a poorly judged rant that I did without fully considering who would read it.
May your god bless you and I wish you luck. Sorry.