[exclusivity] pride, ambition and humility

Pride is a fascinating word - it encompasses the mother who sees her child walk for the first time and at the other end of the spectrum, Hitler, as he did a jig when learning of the latest allied casualties and the annexing of a new outpost of the Reich.

We're proud of Blogpower, the way it's grown and of being mentioned in the Iain Dale Blogging Guide. Pride prevents a couple reconciling [don't sleep in the subway, darling] and keeps Montague and Capulet in an endless loop of wastage, of energy, humanity and lives.

Pride has crossed the line, IMHO, when it tends to exclusivity. I was public school educated [meaning private, to the non-Brits] and that's a training ground for unstated but assumed place in society; there've been other landmarks along the way as well.

I seem to get on best with both clubbable people and with tradesmen. I do worst with ambitious middle management, people clawing their way to the top, something which never interests me until the opportunity goes begging and then I shift up a gear.

The biggest problems with exclusivity are that it gives people airs and the chance to look down their noses at others whilst assuring inverse snobs that all well-educated people are guillotinable; it enslaves the exclusivity lovers to patronage and fitting in with the plans of those who bestow the largesse and it also slowly inures the hopeful to the sufferings of others, as they themselves start apportioning the largesse [give them cake to eat].

Exclusivity taps into a deep-seated need to be recognized - hence web awards and stats checking. Have to smile when some of those who tell us not to worry about stats have the whole game scientifically down pat and anxiously concern themselves with multiple statistical measurement of their own blogs whilst assuming an air of: "Stats? I can take them or leave them".

Exclusivity taps into the need to look down one's nose a little or a lot. Bill Bryson wrote of some stupid people he met who's delight was to be able to look down their noses at others they themselves discovered who were "even more stupid than they were".

My friend and I over here enjoy a niche market but the tendency to be overly proud of our position is the final step before the fall, IMHO. Once the nose goes into the air, the clients melt away and patrons think: "Ah ha, a bit above himself now, isn't he?"

It's hard to keep focussed, to accept one's no better or worse but has had some things fall into place at the right time and it is good when things fall into place.

Yet another problem with exclusivity is that it marginalizes others - Guido is an example of someone who was marginalized by certain elements in the parliamentary establishment way back when and then hit back so that he had to be taken into account as one of the top bloggers in the country. His readership is no accident.

I defend to the death the right of clubs to exist, to make their own rules and not to be forced by government to admit certain sections of society who are in fashion at the time.

But there are clubs and clubs. I once had to evict a couple from a house I'd rented out to them - it was messy and the two of them were not far from animals in their behaviour.

They'd trashed the house, warped the main shelving unit [with inch thick shelves] and left uncollected rubbish from weeks before plus empty bottles. I noticed two letters addressed to them along with the inevitable bills - both letters were from "The Young Sophisticates Club" - I tell you no lie here and am not bending it in the slightest.

I wrote back to the club about these two members.

At the other end of the spectrum is the allure of the Club of Movers and Shakers, on whose stroke of the pen the misery of many hundreds of thousands depends.

The majority I knew were not of this ilk but there was a sizeable section who were, who'd cut their eye-teeth on exclusivity and the boat club had to finally crack down on their behaviour, which lacked of any respect whatever - was there ever a stink over that and the secretary had to resign.

I don't know - there has to be some middle ground somewhere and I can't seem to find it.