PRESENT DAV SNOBS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 April 1940, Page 6

PRESENT DAV SNOBS

rampant in all circles

FINE DISTINCTIONS.

lIORE-BELISHA’S DISMISSAL.

11 was generally believed that, whatever good or bad reasons of State lav behind the dismissal of Mr llore-Bel-isha from the War Office, the snobbery of the military caste was certainly an assisting factor, writes Ivor Brown in the “Manchester Guardian.” The soldier is always a trifle uppish about politicians iso. by the way, are quite a number of civilians), the Aryan is uppish, about the Jew (so. by the way. are a number of Jews uppish about the "Goy"), and the Conservative is impish about the Liberal, even a Nat. Lib. Instead of admiring this sect’s adhesion to office and Mr Chamberlain, he probably despises the type rather more lor being, as Kipling would have said, “a giddy hcrumphrodite." The habit of being uppish is, indeed. ” a joy in widest commonalty spread.” To be a proletarian is by no means to be exempt from the pleasure of feeling superior. Trade unionism is often vi1 brant and envenomed with craft-con-sciousness and the idea of a graded society is nowhere more powerful than in the servants’ hall. Spending Christmas at sea I was once the confidant of the chief steward of a liner which included three classes of passengers and therefore of stewards, along with all the craftsmen and tradesmen, as well as crew, whom such a vessel normally carries. The poor man’s task ol timing their various Christmas dinners was tricky enough; amicably to adjust the social relations, even for this supposedly Christian feast of fel-

lowship. was impossible. Ono grumb- | ler. albeit of fairly humble occupation. I said to the chief steward, "You have | ruined my Christmas Day. sir. You have put me next a bath steward.” So might a General Blazo speak of a Liberal politician. Snobbishness is a vague word. Chambers defines the snob as "one who apes gentility," which is odd. since many snobs make no effort to behave like Lord Tomnoddy; they merely wish to have his presence, smile, favour, and, in these days, autograph. "Snob” also means a shoemaker, a non-striker in labour disputes, and a townsman in Cambridge, which seems to bear hardly on all three ways of life. Snobbery, to Thackeray, who roared so loudly on this theme meant “meanly admiring mean things." It is plain from this snobbishness is a word applied to almost any social attitude or conduct distasteful to yourself and that Hunting the Snob is one of the most general and popular of sports.

It might be well. then, to attempt some clarification, as the diplomatists say. First, it is obvious that snobbery has two postures, that of looking down and that of bowing down. The forin- . er attitude, that of the aforementioned uppishness, appears to be natural to men in all forms of society. We are a sect-forming, cliquish people, and f when we have made our company and :l shut tlTe door we thoroughly enjoy the i pleasure of disparaging those outside. 1 Thackeray's "Book of Snobs” is a proj longed assault and battery directed s against any persons deemed by Thack2 eray to be objectionable and mainly i against those types of the established - jobber who were far more amusingly s pilloried by Dickens as Tile Barnacles, i- The "Book of Snobs” represented the i spleen of the early Victorian middle i class, which was fighting its way

' through the still stiff hedges of feudalism to the place which it believed i to be the duo reward of its energy, intelligence. and wealth. The anti-snob essays, which have more fury than fun. were printed in Punch, then the organ of a radical and outspoken bourgeoisie which was jealous of all ranks from the Crown downwards, had bitter memories of the Georges, and was ready enough to visit the sins of Hanover on the head of the unoffending Albert. Beginning at the top, Thackeray attacked as a snob every owner; of pomp and power; that he did it I pompously as well as powerfully has since been remarked. ( Had he written hall' a century later he would have had far more to say about lhe Snob Imperial, by which 1 do not mean the intellectual who grows a goatee but the Anglo-Oriental who has set us talking' in terms of "pukka sabib." He is one of the Occupation Snobs, accepts anybody holding certain rank in Government service, and dismisses as "a trade wallah” anybody outside it. allhough the latter may have twice the breed and four j limos his brains. The lingering contempt I for trade in certain Imperial zones isa ' fascinating example of the blind eye. For years half the aristocracy have I been running shops and businesses in [Mayfair las a rule, I gather, with more I show of huckstering avarice than of a [tradesman's ability) and duchesses luive had the blood of countesses over a small matter of a It) per cent, rakeoff. Yet the poor, pathetic, sabihsnobs in far Cathay, who could novel' think ill of a Vero de Vote behind the I counter, go on drawing lhe lino al > chartered accountants, just as certain | absurd little medicos draw lhe line at < dentists and intrigue in every villa at 1 <

Shrimpton-on-Sea to keep these “tooth wallahs” out of the tennis club. A common form of snobbish disdain is that of the failures for the successes. Disappointed people tend to cluster in clubs which they turn into Temples of Failure, railing against all who have got on as though they had passed beyond any pale of decent human society. There may be a few of those who lead a profession ready to despise their less able and fortunate fellows. But snobbery of that kind is far less common than the snobbery of the bottom dog who yaps at the' top ones as though (hoy were, of necessity, unscrupulous climbers and the moral and intellectual inferiors of all who remain below. The same tiresome slate of mind is obvious in literary quarters. It is now taken as a matter of course that certain literary reviews should also be Temples’ of Failure in which all successful people are promptly mocked and scourged. No author one of whoso books has ever been popular on a large

scale can expect in the future anything but supercilious patronage or juvenile jeers from this direction, although his outlook may be socially and politically similar to that of the review in question. In the critical columns he is likely to be judged by his fellows, who arc usually failures, and hell knows no fury like a novelist unread. Failure Snobs, cosseting their own incompc-, tenco. which they probably call their. I artistic conscience, are as common in [ fact as they are caustic in intention. All arts and crafts are prickly with their presence, as they rage against the man with a public following. There may be fairies at the bottom of the i garden; there are always furies at the [ bottom of a ladder. It is not suggest- [ ed that all best-sellers are works of I consummate truth and beauty. Far I from it. But the Failure Snobs, too I angry to discriminate, insist that no I best-seller can have any merit at all [ and growl and howl accordingly. An- I

; other strange facet of uppishness is ■ that based on speech. A correspondent recently suggested to me that, while an i Irish or a Scottish accent is a help to I a social oi' professional success in London. to talk Lancashire or Yorkshire is i definitely a handicap. Is this a general I experience? No doubt it has its reverse I aspect. I remember the bitter Yorks.shireman in Mr Priestley's "When Wc 'Are Married" who resented all South-ern-sounding persons and dismissed a young man as "la-de-da" because of his London voice. in any case. Hie [ worst tiling that a man ashamed of his accent can do is to seel; self-conscious- i ly to alter if. The result generally is I a species of the mincing, genteel, high-1 pitched Southern English, an abomin-1 able and characterless drawl, which is | vaguely termed "8.8. C. or "Oxford.” [ ; with small justice to either institution, i We have wandered some way. by ; now. from Mr Ilore-Belisha. who him- I sell' might have much to say about I the Failure Snob in politics and the I Services. Moreover, no snobbery lias ; ' been discussed save that of looking j down. The bowers-and-scrapers. the [ toadies and sol'i-soaperr,. deserve, as [ the authors say," another chapter.