Is there any truth to society’s supposed loathing of elitism?

This morning I shared an excellent article from the Guardian Newspaper in which John La Carre and George Orwell’s quotes were use to make some difficult to dispute points

The poor and poorly educated seek to show disdain towards the elite, but when the opportunity arises for them to act on that disdain, they are instead mesmerised and roll over as the latest UK general election aptly demonstrated. People complain about the Etonian grip (for those not familiar with Eton, it is an esteemed private school (what we call public schools in the UK, which bizarrely imply posh private schools) that has produced majority of UK Prime Ministers compared to any other school in England) on power and the league of private schoolboys running the country, but who put them there? the same people who claim they can’t stand them right? Indeed.

Fortunately, I only spent 5 very early years of my infant education in an English private school before continuing the rest of my education abroad and only wrapped up with university back in the UK, thankfully avoiding the English private schoolboy drawl (accent) and forever thankful for my more guttural accent that only occasionally lapses into a posh drawl, which I have spent years effectively suppressing. While a private education is indeed not a recipe for elitism and entitled attitudes, our history (very well defined in comedy shows such as upstairs & downstairs, which is the fore-runner to Downton Abbey) and they seeming impossibility of moving on, and the fact that the world remain fascinated by that aspect of British life, has meant that elitism has continued to breed.

You sit in meetings where individuals rail against elitism but the minute someone with a public school drawl pop up, they are again mesmerised and bamboozzled and the chap with the thick northern or east London (common) accent is cast aside.

Personally, with government, I couldn’t care less who is in power, provided they made sound decisions and govern equally. Etonians can continue as PM till doomsday as long as they deliver for the country. But the truth of that, is what the Guardian article examined and the conclusion wouldn’t make for comfortable reading for our elite. What I find continually frustrating, is the moaning of the masses, only to turn their backs on their own, on Election Day as they turn up in their droves to cast their ballot for the polished elite who drop in a word of Latin here and there with bluster!

Perhaps it finally time for us to up the funding of non-private education in the UK, to provide the exact same quality of education for all? Making it unnecessary and of no advantage to send children to private schools. Those who have previously called for an end to private schooling make a very dubious case – I couldn’t disagree more. My position is that you leave private schools be. Let them continue to flourish, but get the funding in, to all schools, recruit top tutors and make that excellent level of education available to all, at whatever cost – it is sound investment. And if some folks still wish to continue sending their kids to fee-paying schools, when all schools offer matching excellence without fees, why not….

The “love to hate” or “pretend-hate” relationship between the masses and the elite will no doubt rumble on till kingdom come….