Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Bad luck, Oxford. I'm sure we would have won the Boat Race this year - "the Boat Race", as I'm sure you all know, being the annual tussle on the Thames between an Oxford rowing eight and a Cambridge rowing eight, also known as the "dark blues" and the "light blues" because of their team colors - had the event not been interrupted and then restarted as a result of some idiot protestor jumping into the river.
The protestor's name is Trenton Oldfield. Apparently - according to this blog he wrote prior to his publicity stunt - he was doing it in protest at elitism. Here's a taste:
When hasn’t elitism lead to tyranny? When hasn’t the belief of being ‘more’ than another person led to tragedy? Who benefits from elitism? One won’t be surprised to learn the etymology of the word ‘elite’ derives from ‘the elected’ ... unfortunately not elected by democratic means, but rather, elected by god. Yup...‘elected’, ‘selected’, ‘chosen’ ... by god ... inherited. When has this understanding of oneself or by a group of people ever been a good thing? When has this understanding not resulted in tyranny? Is tyranny surely not the inevitable outcome? And in contrast, when hasn’t the pursuit of equality, not resulted in these long passages of tyranny being overcome, even if temporarily?
And why does this man feel strongly about elitism? Probably, many are speculating, because he failed his entrance exams to Oxford or Cambridge. If this is the kind of garbage he writes who can blame them for having turned him down?
(Though he clearly fancies himself as an intellectual: he is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, where he describes his interests thus:
foremost preoccupations include unearthing the socio-political history of fences/railings - including when they shifted from keeping things in to keeping things out, the spaces in cities people have set out to make together, contemporary places of work, emotions in finance, the processes of creating and conceptualising ‘a home’ in a new city, the tension existing between danger & beauty embodied for example in aeroplanes and how social relations (dissolving of nation states and rise of cities) might change on earth with the colonisation of other planets. Trenton is also working on debates within inter-disciplinary urbanism around notions of ‘Darwinistic individual selfishness’ – or ‘Who Dares Wins Urbanism’ attempting to make apparent the predictable, though overlooked failures of individualism within and apparent across the 'leadership' of the centre, left and right.)
What's heartening about the story is that - at least as far as I can judge from my Twitter feed - absolutely nobody is taking this pseud's side. On the contrary, people are now lining up to mock his puerile protest and his even more ludicrous manifesto by suggesting new ways to emulate what they call "Trentonanarchism."
Here are few of the best suggestions so far:
Go to a pub and ask for a lemonade. Their alcohol based elitism must be destroyed.
If you see an elitist listening to N-Dubz, let them carry on, they're torturing themselves pretty well without your help.
If you see an elitist playing a Playstation game, stand in front of the television until they die.
If you work in a concert hall, could you cause outrage amongst the artistic elite by clapping between symphonic movements?
Study the routes elitists take as they walk and place a banana skin on their predicted path.
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Comments:
Dec '11
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
We're becoming a culture of attention-seekers. It takes hard work and skill to earn the good sort of attention, so some people opt for the bad sort.
Mar '11
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
There are few things more exasperating (or painful) then getting half way through a start and having to abandon a race a few strokes in because of some error by a ref, launch, or coxswain--nevermind a protestor jumping into the river.
I might have removed my oar from the oarlock and used it to "convince" this moron to extricate himself from the racecourse.
Jun '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
James Delingpole: he describes his interests thus:
Anyone whose job description contains phrases like "emotions in finance" [getting upset when your checkbook won't balance?], "the tension existing between danger & beauty" [Anne Hathaway on a tightrope with no net?], and "the predictable . . . failures of individualism within and apparent across the 'leadership' of the centre, left and right" [David Cameron can play each role, right?] must be unemployable.
Jun '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
James: A question. Are you one of those "Who Dares Wins Urbanists"? I need an example: a pedestrian crossing when the road when he's not supposed to?; London cabbies?
Edited on April 7, 2012 at 9:18pmSep '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Why did they stop the race again? Because this guy could've drowned or because he could have interfered enough to change the outcome? If the former, Darwin should've been asked to intervene. If the latter, they should've considered him no different than any other obstacle in the water and either steered around him or over him.
Oct '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Boat-race Night! James, I hope you stole a policeman's helmet in Ricochet's name, though I don't know if that counts as a blow for or against the Elite.
Oct '11
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Could we get a picture of this Trenton dude ... I just want to zero the chance of having this failure as part of my family.
Mar '11
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
I watched the race this morning on BBC America, the Oxford boat ran over him. His head dunked under the water, and then came up after it passed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaRWzXqWlEY
Aug '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
If I get (and appreciate) this literary reference, does that make me a card-carrying member of "The Elite"?
Oct '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
By granting this narcissist as much air time as the BBC and others have, don’t the media all but guarantee copy-cats during the upcoming London Olympics? I thought there was an unwritten rule among TV broadcasters not to play video of fools who run onto the field or otherwise disrupt sporting events, precisely so as not to encourage more of it. I wonder why this incident was treated differently.
Nov '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Here's a taste:
Well, Dellingpole, I think the protester is correct at this point. His following contrast with "equality" is lacking, but to this point he's correct.
Today, in America, we suffer the elitists in government and academia. It is a very jealous and defensive class and it will lead to a bad outcome.
Edited on April 8, 2012 at 2:14amAug '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
David John
Here's a taste:
Well, Dellingpole, I think the protester is correct at this point. His following contrast with "equality" is lacking, but to this point he's correct.
Today, in America, we suffer the elitists in government and academia. It is a very jealous class and it will lead to a bad outcome.
Fair enough ... but how does disrupting a collegiate boat race strike a blow against the Illuminated Reptilian Overlords?
Oct '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Misthiocracy
If I get (and appreciate) this literary reference, does that make me a card-carrying member of "The Elite"? · 2 hours ago
It does indeed, Misty. Your card is in the mail under that name, so I'm sure I got it right this time.
Aug '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Severely Ltd.
Misthiocracy
If I get (and appreciate) this literary reference, does that make me a card-carrying member of "The Elite"?
It does indeed, Misty. Your card is in the mail under that name, so I'm sure I got it right this time.
The short form is Misthios. Misthios!!!!
Misty is a the cocktail waitress at The Rumba Room. ;-)
Mar '11
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Failing my Cambridge entrance exam was the best thing that ever happened to me - I went to Imperial College, instead. From there I went on to fame and fortune in the USA, that bastion of entreprenership and capitalism.
Oh, wait...
Aug '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Brilliant. That looks much better on a resume than "unemployed and loitering in cafes".
I bet he's a wiz at deconstruction and identifying hypocrisy, too.
Jan '12
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
The University Boat Race is an annual race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities. It's like having College Football only between Yale and Harvard.
It was started in the elitist days of the BBC (which are not over albeit with a different elite) when the people running the BBC came from Oxford and Cambridge.
There are many people in the UK who would like to see the boat race opened up to other universities but this has been resisted.
Oct '10
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
Stephen Bishop:
There are many people in the UK who would like to see the boat race opened up to other universities but this has been resisted.
Umm ... how exactly are we defining "many" these days? Does it break into the sky-high realm of three digits? Four? Admittedly, I've not exactly front loaded a search engine to detect Oxbridge Boating Cranks, but I do wonder how burning an issue this is among the general UK public.
Jan '12
Re: Boat Eace Protest: Elitism is Bad Because It's, Like, So Elitist!
HVT. It's not a burning issue.