Skip to main content

Chris Trotter almost gets why socialism is wrong

In today's From the Left column, Chris Trotter says:

As I watched the cavalcade of secondary school pupils receive their prizes, and heard all around me the happy murmuring of proud parents, a lifetime's worth of hostility towards these sorts of ceremonies melted away.

All my life I have given thought only to those with no hope of receiving the glittering prizes. Even when (very occasionally) I received one myself, I could not help feeling that tug of guilt; that blush of embarrassment at being distinguished from my peers.

The socialist in me would rehearse all the reasons why I should reject such baubles. What chance does a kid from a working-class family have in a competition for academic distinction? Where are the shelves of books? The family connections? The universally positive middleclass expectations in which these high-achievers are cradled from the day they are born?

How can a kid raised among the stark, bare walls of a state house hope to compete with a kid who has grown up with Beethoven and Bach, Rembrandt and Brueghel?

But as I watched the prizewinners make their way across the stage, it suddenly hit me that this attitude was both extraordinarily arrogant, and very, very dangerous.


Of course he then starts wondering why those in state houses turned against Labour. I'm not sure which way he's going with this.

Maybe we need to pray for him.

Related link: The John Keys v the donkeys ~ Stuff

Comments

  1. The Chris Trotter's and John Minto's of the world are bewidered, bilious old men whose god has deserted them...Trotter at least has occasional wit, but this is largely overshadowed by his daft/left nostalgia.I avoid too much local political comment at mickysmuses.blogspot.com but invite you to pay a visit...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wondered if what we saw in Trotter's column was the return of Dr Jekyll after an excess of Mr Hyde

    http://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/10000/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please be respectful. Foul language and personal attacks may get your comment deleted without warning. Contact us if your comment doesn't appear - the spam filter may have grabbed it.