Does this constitute snobbery?

[cloughie]

Conchis, you seem to be giving the impression that, with Beef Oven's departure, there is a Forum vacancy for a stirrer and provoker, and that you are capable of filling his shoes.

There isn't, and you're not.

Take this message as a "Cease and Desist" statement, please.

Well said, I've been thinking that for a day or two ferney, and for a few days was so peed off with the boards that I made no contributions at all - no doubt to the delight of a few here!

[french frank]

Yes I think I see where you are there - I just think inferior with or without the commas is not the right word.

'Uncertain'? Some things I know, I am 100% certain. Other things I know I don't know, but I don't care about them. In between are the things which I feel would be worth knowing, being certain about - but I'm not.

But you are correct: I don't feel inferior in any common sense of the word. So much of life is about finding out, increasing one's knowledge, expanding one's experience. Most people who stop to think surely believe this? The main point is that I don't feel that any snobbery is directed at me. If I felt that, I would put it down to the problem of an inferiority complex on my part rather than snobbery [just self-satisfied, complacent smugness] towards me.

I am quite sure I have my 'Kafka' blind spots.

[Serial_Apologist]

Conchis, you seem to be giving the impression that, with Beef Oven's departure, there is a Forum vacancy for a stirrer and provoker, and that you are capable of filling his shoes.

There isn't, and you're not.

Take this message as a "Cease and Desist" statement, please.

I'd been thinking exactly the same thing too, like cloughie!

[Pulcinella]

Pulcinella - rather than repeat yourself ad nauseam, why not keep up to date with the thread?

The 58 year old evidently liked me enough to want to work wtih me again, so your feelings are somewhat misjudged.

Hardly 'ad nauseam', and given that #15 was early in this thread, I can't really be accused of 'not keeping up' at that point.
I was merely pointing out that someone HAD reflected on what the 58yo might have thought.

But I should not be fuelling this thread.

[richardfinegold]

There is some irony in this thread because for about 99% of the outside world, most Forumites are already considered snobs. We listen, and obsess about, a rarefied art form that most of the world has rejected, one of the frequently cited reasons that Classical Music Lovers are snobs. Most of us reject that assertion but it doesn’t matter. I have long since stopped caring. I will not pretend to embrace the parts of popular culture that I abhor to avoid the snob tag.
Is the OP comfortable with being considered a snob? It seems not, and while most of us have reacted negatively to his shunning of someone that didn’t meet his Cultural Litmus test, it seems that many people here are also not comfortable being considered snobs by the general population. I have ceased to give a damn

[Conchis]

Conchis, you seem to be giving the impression that, with Beef Oven's departure, there is a Forum vacancy for a stirrer and provoker, and that you are capable of filling his shoes.

There isn't, and you're not.

Take this message as a "Cease and Desist" statement, please.

Duly noted, but please don’t compare me to that noxious and unlamented individual.

And, if you don’t mind my saying so, I think your comments might hold more force if you hadn’t indulged in a bit of stirring and provoking of your own (see up thread). I thought form prefects were meant to be above such things?

[Conchis]

There is some irony in this thread because for about 99% of the outside world, most Forumites are already considered snobs. We listen, and obsess about, a rarefied art form that most of the world has rejected, one of the frequently cited reasons that Classical Music Lovers are snobs. Most of us reject that assertion but it doesn’t matter. I have long since stopped caring. I will not pretend to embrace the parts of popular culture that I abhor to avoid the snob tag.
Is the OP comfortable with being considered a snob? It seems not, and while most of us have reacted negatively to his shunning of someone that didn’t meet his Cultural Litmus test, it seems that many people here are also not comfortable being considered snobs by the general population. I have ceased to give a damn

Rest easy:everyone’s a snob to someone. Likewise, everyone’s a chav to someone, too. Believe it or not, I once knew someone who was appalled when I admitted I listenened to Beethoven (and people who came after). Why?’Becausee that’s ‘pop’ music!’ His parents had brought him up to believe that ‘anything after Mozart’ was vulgar. Hard to believe, bu true -to him, Beethoven was on the same level as the Beatles or a rap record (an inverse form of cultural relativism, once might say).

[LMcD]

Ah, but today’s troll has a whole new bag of tricks. Rather than just causing trouble for the sake of it, he causes trouble by pretending to be offended on someone else’s behalf. It’s actually a rather old tactic - and a painfully obvious one.

You clearly overestimate my intellectual capacity - after all, I DID only manage a 'Desmond'.
Just out of interest, I googled 'internet troll' and ended up watching 'The Hall Of The Mountain King' on You Tube.
Perhaps, when joining the Forum, I should have stuck with my original choice of user name, which was the stunningly accurate 'Technoprat'. Any controversy, stirring or provocation that may result from any of my whimsical offerings are, as they say, entirely coincidental, but I'm flattered that you attribute to me motives that I don't in fact have and would in any case be quite incapable of implementing if I did.
(As evidence of my admittedly painfully limited choice of interests in the popular and less popular arts, I would add that we have just laughed our way through reruns of 2 episodes of 'Cheers' - a nice contrast to the Martinu string quartet which I discovered on yesterday's Lunchtime Concert).

[Padraig]

Just out of interest, I googled 'internet troll' and ended up watching 'The Hall Of The Mountain King' on You Tube.

If you're not going to use 'Technoprat', L, may I have it?

[LMcD]

If you're not going to use 'Technoprat', L, may I have it?

Feel free to do so!
I've been round at the Community Centre drinking coffee and playing board games involving varying degrees of childish fun. Imagine my horror when I discovered that none of the people at my table know Martinu's first name.

[Bryn]

Feel free to do so!
I've been round at the Community Centre drinking coffee and playing board games involving varying degrees of childish fun. Imagine my horror when I discovered that none of the people at my table know Martinu's first name.

Martin who?

[Richard Barrett]

There is some irony in this thread because for about 99% of the outside world, most Forumites are already considered snobs. We listen, and obsess about, a rarefied art form that most of the world has rejected, one of the frequently cited reasons that Classical Music Lovers are snobs.

I don't agree at all. It isn't snobbish to like a particular kind of music, it's snobbish to look down on people who don't share that enthusiasm. Of course the fact that "classical music" is generally associated with educated white middle-class people who tend to be those performing as well as listening to it isn't helpful. But anyone who's worried about being thought a snob is, I would have thought, quite likely to actually be one. It takes all sorts I suppose. As for giving a damn, I guess I could say I don't really have the luxury of being able to stop giving a damn. Regarding the area(s) of music I'm involved in, for example, the fact that someone with an ordinary and "non-musical" background like mine has been able to understand and appreciate and be inspired by it would seem to indicate that anyone else is also able to, if they're so inclined. Surely if one meets someone who hasn't heard of Kafka the non-snobbish response would be to say "really? well you possibly have a major treat in store when you get round to giving his work a try, it's profound and insightful and even beautiful but all in a completely unique way", and so on. If we agree that both snobbishness and ignorance are problems to be addressed, that is.

[LMcD]

There is some irony in this thread because for about 99% of the outside world, most Forumites are already considered snobs. We listen, and obsess about, a rarefied art form that most of the world has rejected, one of the frequently cited reasons that Classical Music Lovers are snobs. Most of us reject that assertion but it doesn’t matter. I have long since stopped caring. I will not pretend to embrace the parts of popular culture that I abhor to avoid the snob tag.
Is the OP comfortable with being considered a snob? It seems not, and while most of us have reacted negatively to his shunning of someone that didn’t meet his Cultural Litmus test, it seems that many people here are also not comfortable being considered snobs by the general population. I have ceased to give a damn

The only things I obsess about are Laura Linney generally and what Rachel Riley will be wearing on 'Countdown' (oh yes, and the use and abuse of apostrophe's). And if I were a snob - which I don't believe I am - my fellow volunteers at the hospice shop would soon knock it out of me.

[cloughie]

I don't agree at all. It isn't snobbish to like a particular kind of music, it's snobbish to look down on people who don't share that enthusiasm. Of course the fact that "classical music" is generally associated with educated white middle-class people who tend to be those performing as well as listening to it isn't helpful. But anyone who's worried about being thought a snob is, I would have thought, quite likely to actually be one. It takes all sorts I suppose. As for giving a damn, I guess I could say I don't really have the luxury of being able to stop giving a damn. Regarding the area(s) of music I'm involved in, for example, the fact that someone with an ordinary and "non-musical" background like mine has been able to understand and appreciate and be inspired by it would seem to indicate that anyone else is also able to, if they're so inclined. Surely if one meets someone who hasn't heard of Kafka the non-snobbish response would be to say "really? well you possibly have a major treat in store when you get round to giving his work a try, it's profound and insightful and even beautiful but all in a completely unique way", and so on. If we agree that both snobbishness and ignorance are problems to be addressed, that is.

I don’t think you are diagreeing, rfg said wevare considered to be, not that we are snobs!

[Richard Barrett]

The only things I obsess about are Laura Linney generally and what Rachel Riley will be wearing

Oh no, I've never heard of either of these people. I'd better retire to my study with my revolver and do the decent thing.