The English Class System (09/08/2006 02:41)

Inspired...

So, it's basically the first real week of my holidays...because as i'm sure most of you knew...i had sociology on monday. Well i decided to write a blog...no idea why, just a wave of whatever you want to call it washed upon me; as well as a few thoughts entered my head.

Well i just finished watching Van Wilder...it's a bit of a weird film you would think to inspire anyone upon writing anything...but well...it seems i've been in an inspired mood recently because i got inspired just last night when i went to the grayhound track...admitedly when i was inspired i had already gotten though two half bottles of red wine...and just for those of you who may be a bit slow..that's one whole bottle, lol

So anyway...i went to the grayhound track; i didn't have the slightest idea what to think or what to expect...it was with some of my mums friends from work, and although their all pretty old and stuff i got on with them fine...admitedly it's nice having people to talk to who don't just go on about how so and so is annoying them, or how cool it was to see the latest big brother show.

So what were the enspiering factors of going to the greyhounds to bet? Well there were many really...but the first noticable thing was that there were 3 enterances...which i thought was normal. We were booked in in a large group so this man directed us to this enterance. We went in...everybody was reasonably smart...y'know, kinda like no jeans and a shirt with the top button undone with the women wearing long skirts and generally low-cut tops...but not too revealing. Another thing i noticed at this point was that most of the people who were entering via this enterence tended to look slightly interlectual...there was noone who looked like they played any sorts of sports or any kind of manual work. on the walls were the famous people who had been here; boxing stars, football stars...people who personally i'd think that noone surrounding me would really care about.

Well in that initial thought i was quite right. As we entered it looked quite posh...but if you want really posh theres always room for improvement. As i sat down there were 3 waitresses who quickly came over, gave me a betting slip, showed me how to bet, asked me what drink i wanted to drink and one who wavered a huge basket of bread infront of me. So obviously i took the bread, it was actually quite nice tasting bread...it wasn't mouldy or anything.

At this point i saw a huge difference...behind me were rows and rows of tables just like mine, each with 2 knives, 2 forkes, a spoon and a special knife primerilly for cutting and spreading butter. I only noticed this AFTER i'd used one of the propper cutting knives to spread my butter though, tipical, hehe.

Well as i said...the tables i was on and the ones behind me had table-clothes, quite nice wooden tables, comfortable chairs and waitresses/waiters serving them, all as i described earlier as reasonably well dressed. These people got served propper food, i choose a steak and had to pay a surcharge of £5, probably because steaks are expencive. Well...infront of me there was a low-ish wall...you could see over it, but only at the point where i was sititng, for as it got towards the centre of the room it rose so noone could see over it.

Over this wall...were plastic chairs, fast-food...people who looked quite strong actually, maybe in manual work...the clothes they wore were jeans...baggy t-shirts...short skirts, quite revealing items of clothing, and to bed they had to go up to a special betting kiosk which was behind a glass window, very unlike what we had to do. They were getting served beer and spirits in PLASTIC glasses, unlike us who had glass glasses if you get what i mean

So at this point what you can see is an obvious distinguishable factor between people WITH money...and people without...it looked from my point of view that people without money were treated like they were nothing...just there to make the numbers up, "bums on seats" as some people say, make sure the bookeys make enough money. They had plastic cups and the bookey hid behind a glass window because they were untrustworthy...the bouncer...yes..there was a bouncer making sure none of them came over to "our" side...even though i don't like saying it like that for it makes me feel like i think i'm "better"...wheras infact noones better than anyone else initially, it's just the mini-society we're each brought up in which distinguishes whether we are going to be placed in the not so nice or the nice part.

I made themost of it, having the waiters and all...it was getting stuffy though so i went downstairs and saw that there was an outisde...everybody outside seemed to come from the side that i was not on which i noticed. I walked around the track a bit, saw one race down there which was quite enthrilling...those dogs can sure run a bit! (i just lost all i wrote and got really scared...and noticed i'd only pressed ctrl+X so it was still there...thank god because i certianly wouldn't have written all this out again!)

Well down on the tracks i saw little boxes with what looked like people with an awful lot of money in. Each party had their own bar, fridge...special glasses and their own personal flat screen television. Each one was wearing suits, looking very wealthy.

Well whoever said that the English class system was deminishing? whoever said that deserves a slap and they need to wake up to the real world. It's present maybe more so now that it ever was! look at the difference in Estates, Blackbird leys to the North of Oxford. Blackbird leys...council housing...Oxford North...private. blackbird leys is renowned for stabbings, being a complete dump and all other things that go along with things like that...andthen the north of oxford which is a nice place...not shabby in any way, looks like a reasonably wealthy area.

Then there are todays sports...upper/middle classed people genrally play rugby...notice that there are no "chavs" or "chavettes" who play rugby, they all tend to be if you want to put a label on it "skaters" "preppy people" or people who have a bit if disposable income. The rugby grounds are generally kept better, they have better facilities, a nicer atmosphere...which is noticable in professional rugby too, with very few racism, not as much policing and hardly any riots and "firms" as the footballers like to call themselves.

And then theres Aircraft...compare Virgin flyers to Easyjet flyers...or Primark shoppers to Debenhems shoppers...or Waitrose to Tescos. Or schools! look at private schools to state schools. You can make a good thing out of a state school, everyone has the same chances in a state school, but the atmosphere and what the children at state schools aspire to are completly different. They have a completly different attitude to life.

From my experiences State school children just want to get on in life, don't care too much about good grades, just want a job and a family...but Private school children don't just want that...they want a GOOD job, they want a nice family, they want an enjoyable life with lots of holidays, a nice house a cool car and more than just friends. Even if people say these values are not put accross in school tell them their lying! because they are! someone who wants to become let's say a doctor at a state school will not be encouraged as much as someone at a private school.

Sure there are always going to be divisions, without poverty there will be no rich, without world hunger people wouldn't have the opertunity to get fat. Without leadership none of us would be where we are now. It's required...eveything. No matter how we all want equality there will never ever be it...not in communism, not in capitalism(obivously) not in some new system some guy might come up with in a few years time, theres ALWAYS going to be extreams, the rich want to stay rich, the poor can't do much about their situation, the world is like that, England is like that, and as far as i can see, it's always going to stay like that.

Humans are cruel...we do things for our own good, and we don't care what happens. We breed cows, keep them in captivity and use the excuse it's better that their kept in captivity so they never know the feeling of freedom than catch them in the wild and taunt them. So say to them, what your saying is that it's acceptable to breed humans just for being slaves, but it's only O.K if they've never tasted freedom before. That, i'm sorry, but that's complete bull.

Humans are ****s, we're all self-centered, horrible, nasty creatures. Even if you believe your not. For instance i believe im not, i don't like admiting i am a horrible, self-centred person...but thinking about it, we are. Take girlfriends for example. I want a girlfriend, i want to treat her well, i want the relationship to last forever and i want a bloody good friend out of it. I want to spoil her, make her feel special and make her love every second being with me. It's all true...but let's be honest here...it's all for verySELFISH reasons. i only want to do that because i want it returned to me, i want to be made to feel special, i want to be treated well and i want to be spoilt. And in doing all this, i'm going to enjoy every last second of it. The actions are self-less, but the reasons are selfish.

Even giving millions of pounds to charity are selfish acts...you do them only so that you feel like you've made a difference in the world, so that you feel good, happy about what you've done for them. Or you can boast to people going that was me who made that school for them, i created that well that keeps them living, i trained that doctor with my money who helps them survive tough times.

Every act anybody does is selfish, even if they don't want to do it their doing it so they please someone else which either makes them feel better about themselves or so that they just shut up!

Anyway, that's my few pennies for the time being, i bet not one person reads all this but meh, i wrote it to get some stuff off my chest and because i actually enjoyed writing this. might i add...this took me an entire hour of solid writing Anyway...leave a comment and tell me your views and such...or just let me know that you read it

Will talk to you all soon hopefully

Ben