To be fair to the rugby guys behind the “rules” email that went viral, the four twentysomething City types, calling themselves “G4″, may have written at least some of it ironically. Still, how naff. The rules, compiled ahead of a Dubai rugby sevens tournament, included: “Cheating is allowed” and some pitiful rubbish about degrading women during group sex, while high-fiving each other throughout.
Then there were also gushing write-ups of each other: Daniel England’s “whit (sic), intelligence and looks”; George Boulton-Lea, “one to follow when the sun goes down”; Rory Jones, “a true Viking warrior”; James Hill, “a remarkably good-looking individual who is permanently tanned and has an extremely muscular body”. Phew (writer fans herself), this explains the group sex – who’d want to be kicked out of the room when these hunks got going?
However, by far the most revealing was rule number six, which was to keep mentioning their parents’ wealth. So, guys, let’s get this straight: you’re planning this epic rugby trip, featuring crazed drinking and wild sex… and your parents pop into your heads? You’re looking forward to fornicating together, high-fiving, the lot… but bragging about Daddy’s status also makes the list? Where is Freudian analysis when you need it?
How strange. Here are adult professionals with serious jobs and glittering futures, the types novelist Tom Wolfe once dubbed “masters of the universe”, and yet it’s as if they still view their parents’ status as a key part of their personal curriculum vitae. Not that this is anything new; in fact, it’s way old. It’s almost as if, in this challenging era, certain sectors of society are reverting to outdated notions of fiefdoms, pedigree and lineage, in a bid to bolster some pathetic, undernourished self-image. Why else would somebody actively plan to mention Mummy and Daddy on a night out?
Say what you like, but working-class people just don’t do this. You don’t get a second-generation plumber bragging pompously about their father’s superior way with lagging. Should said plumbers go on boozy-sexy trips, I can’t imagine “mentioning parents” making number six on any wish-list, or even number 600. Not because they don’t care about their families but because, all going well, they’re grown up, independent and living lives where they don’t need to be somebody’s progeny to survive socially.
Likewise, those who “make good”, as it were, might sometimes mention their backgrounds, but only in terms of making sense of how different their lives have become. What a contrast to the weedy, desperate, clinging on to the parental coat-tails displayed by G4 in their email – the craven faux-ironic desperation to impress, with achievements that were nothing to do with them.
It’s long been routine to mock middle-class kids who affect streetwise accents and hide their backgrounds. However, if only temporarily, at least they’re trying to break out of their privileged bubbles. I’d take them any day over
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