Breeding.

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Yeah, and how tightly you can cleave to dynamic/evolving standards of etiquette, being a measure of how adept you are at social navigation. If you can keep up, you can appear to have "more than enough" of what it takes.
 

luka

Well-known member
it's interesting though isn't it. the way it's projected. the paxman sneer. the patrician voice. i did love it when Brand took him to pieces. it felt significant at the time.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
it's interesting though isn't it. the way it's projected. the paxman sneer. the patrician voice. i did love it when Brand took him to pieces. it felt significant at the time.
I know, you've mentioned it a few times. Obviously made a big impact on you.

"Authority" I suppose means several related but distinct things. At a minimum it can mean either knowing what the fuck you're talking about, or having the right to tell subordinates what to do. Expertise versus class seniority. Paxman no doubt legitimately has a lot of the former sort of authority but also assigns to himself the latter sort when talking to (or at) Brand.

I think right-wing populism comes to a large extent from a hatred of one kind of authority and an absolute deference to the other kind. People who despise "the elite" (Guardian/New York Times readers) but who think Boris is a ruddy good bloke, or that Trump is a 'regular guy' who's done well for himself through ingenuity and hard work.
 
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constant escape

winter withered, warm
Interesting points on authority @Mr. Tea , "Expertise versus class seniority"

What do you think it says about us that these two are so readily conflatable? In principle, it makes for an organic means for a class system to structure itself - the more you know, the higher your command post.

How can one split from the other? Can we really just be that decisive about which meaning of authority we abide by?

Can clout replace expertise here? It sure seems like it can.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
I love terriers. Not behemoths, jacks mostly. Life bonds, You can't walk them out of prey targets, but they're one of the best dogs for getting out with. Done the full modern antiquarian mission with the crew over decades. Then Boris got one, so you know that's been polled first. Cunt. Not the dog.
 

luka

Well-known member
"If anyone had told me, then, that all this was a brilliant game, played for the excitement of the moment, for the employment of high spirits, in the thoughtless love of superiority, in a mere wasteful, careless course of of winning what was worthless to him, and the next minute thrown away..."
 

luka

Well-known member
"That sort of people. Are they really animals and clods, and beings of another order? I want to know so much."

"Why, there's a pretty wide seperation between them and us," said Steerforth with indifference. "They are not to be expected to be as sensitive as we are. Their delicacy is not to be shocked, or hurt very easily. They are wonderfully virtuous, I daresay - some people contend for that, at least; and I am sure I don't want to contradict them- but they have not very fine natures, and they may be thankful that, like their coarse, rough skins, they are not easily wounded."

"Really!" said Miss Dartles. "Well, I don't know, now, when I have been better pleased than to hear that. It's so consoling! It's such a delight to know that, when they suffer, they don't feel! Sometimes I have been quite uneasy for that sort of people; but now I shall just dismiss the idea of them altogether. Live and learn."
 

luka

Well-known member
"We must take them by surprise"

"Oh, of course! It's no fun" said Steerforth, "unless we take them by surprise. Let us see the natives in their aboriginal condition."
 

jenks

thread death
That bit is interesting as, up to now, David has been in complete awe of Steerforth - his ‘natural authority’ (I suppose it might be chalked) a leader of men who stands tall even against those supposedly in positions of power over him - Mr Mell, his teacher, for example. But here Dickens is starting to create a sense of distance, the reader (I think) encouraged to maybe question where this ‘natural authority’ might lead to if it is unchecked.
 

luka

Well-known member
and he wasnt happy with that fat kid crying about it. right from the beginning hes a very ambivalent character.
 

jenks

thread death
and he wasnt happy with that fat kid crying about it. right from the beginning hes a very ambivalent character.
Agreed but David can’t see it - he’s in thrall to the breeding. He even allows himself to be called Daisy and Steerforth wishes he had a sister so he could seduce her. The rotter.
 
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