The long boat game

[Pabmusic]

...suppose he had done something to obstruct final exams at Oxyspan Advanced Learning Systems etc .... the kids three years work etc etc ... there is a fair gripe back by the crews but on the other hand the situational objection to elitism would be stronger...

Although I usually enjoy your posts, I am puzzled by all this talk of elitism in the Radio 3 Forum. There are - surely - many who might accuse us all of 'elitism' (so much so that the BBC is getting cold feet, and we're complaining about it). Also, I don't hear the cries of 'elitism' over those who attend Yale, Harvard, Princeton or any of the other Ivy Leaguers. I suspect it's all part of a basic need to reduce everything to caricature. Baddies in black hats. (Or have I misunderstood - something that's all too often a possibility, I'm afraid?)

[amateur51]

he has some quite amusing suggestions for anti-elitist guerrilla tactics

"If you clean the bathroom of someone that considers themselves elite or is an elite sympathiser, like a right wing professor, can you never put loo paper in their bathroom?
If you work in a restaurant where elitists eat, can you serve the food once it is cold or cook the wrong food? "

and taxi drivers, take the long route - I thought they did that anyway

Ah well, many mini-cab drivers regard 'proper' Black Cab drivers as being part of an excluding elite too

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i do not object to elitism since it would confound my Knuttist principles to do so .... but since all known human societies are characterised by elitist structures we should entertain the notion of protest and change in elites as a welcome feature of our lives ... it is never about elitism and always about the wrong elite ... as in R3 eh ...

and i confess i do have a personal antipathy to the braying English well to do .... completely unprincipled on my part and i am not proud of it but there you are that is often how life goes ...

and on reflection even if oxbridge and the ivy league were truly and deeply meritocratic, not tokenist etc, i would still want to pillory the elite cadres they produce on principle ... think of all that analytic intelligence and PPE training behind our current Cabinet and Shadow cabinet .... impressive eh?

[John Skelton]

Speaking of jumping into a river http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-17312251

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjfnkvvfqrA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16jq4lO1jC0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsZ7p28lGyw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abp0gwVHKtY&feature=related

[kernelbogey]

he has some quite amusing suggestions for anti-elitist guerrilla tactics

...but not so careful about preserving his own copyright:

Copyright © 2012, TRENTON OLDFILED. All rights reserved.

[Mr Pee]

The man is quite clearly a mentalist. It's just a shame he didn't get clobbered on the head by an oar. It might just have knocked some sense into him.

[John Skelton]

What is "a mentalist"?

[Mr Pee]

What is "a mentalist"?

"Mentalist" is a word used by the Radio Norwich presenter Alan Partridge to describe somebody who's a slice short of a sandwich.

[anotherbob]

What is "a mentalist"?

"Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats and rapid mathematics. Hypnosis may also be used as a stage tool. Mentalists are sometimes referred to as psychic entertainers."
Wikipedia

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

a "mentalist" is someone who is completely out of touch with his inner fascist ... i.e. who has a rationale, not an instinct for what is right and true ... thereby using their mentality innit ... and interrupting things with awkward questions ...&c

[vinteuil]

[I]"Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities.

... as in the excellent tv series of the same name

[Vile Consort]

Remind me again why Oxford and Cambridge are elitist. I still don't get it.

[John Skelton]

Thanks for the mentalist answers - very interesting! Apologies for the diversion.

[teamsaint]

Remind me again why Oxford and Cambridge are elitist. I still don't get it.

can of worms time, but for one, because they relentlessly recruit a huge proportion of their students from our rich and elitist public schools at the expense of people from less well off backgrounds.

This is in part a failing of the schools system, but Oxbridge and other "elite" institutions fail to do all they could to combat this corrosive state of affairs.

[kernelbogey]

Remind me again why Oxford and Cambridge are elitist. I still don't get it.

The OED definition of elitism:

Advocacy of or reliance on the leadership and dominance of an élite (in a society, or in any body or class of persons).

I suppose that these universities are still lampooned as the route to power and prestige, regardless of the individual's academic merit; although I think that is now a somewhat outdated idea. Meritocracy has come a long way in my lifetime - maybe has a way to go - but I think Oxford and Cambridge have made considerable progress, in that time (and indeed before) to widen access. But as with all clubs (for to a degree they are such) people tend to know one another. Nowadays that's called 'networking'.

(Sadly I won't be contributing more to this thread as I'm going away for a couple of days.)