F*cked up Britain Pt 97 - Sean Mercer "a hero"

[Bakunin]

Wash your mouth out with Lifebuoy!!
Nope, a private.

Ah, so you didn't go to Eton or Harrow, don't have a silver spoon lodged so far up your arse that it makes your teeth rattle, actually have more than the occasional use of the family braincell and you worked for a living. You definitely weren't an officer then.

I come from a long line of enlisted men, and my grandfather said that sometimes the most dangerous enemy of all was an officer, fresh out of officer school, hungry for medals and promotion and with what he described as 'interesting' ideas in mind.

He did exempt officers who came through the ranks, though, as having been proper officers who actually knew what they were doing.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Ah, so you didn't go to Eton or Harrow, don't have a silver spoon lodged so far up your arse that it makes your teeth rattle, actually have more than the occasional use of the family braincell and you worked for a living. You definitely weren't an officer then.

Well, that's a bit of a stereotype, as I have a cousin who's a captain, and she didn't go to Eton or Harrow.
She did go to a private school, though!

I come from a long line of enlisted men, and my grandfather said that sometimes the most dangerous enemy of all was an officer, fresh out of officer school, hungry for medals and promotion and with what he described as 'interesting' ideas in mind.

Same here, and the officers, even though their class is now leavened with the products of state schools and former polys, is usually just as full of piss, vinegar and sheer ignorance as they've always been, probably mostly due to the ridiculous ideas drummed into them at Sandhurst about how they're special.

He did exempt officers who came through the ranks, though, as having been proper officers who actually knew what they were doing.

Having learned the hard way.
Then again, officers like that are often spurned by the Sandhurst types, even though statistically (according to Norman Dixon in his book "On the Psychology of Military Incompetence") former rankers mostly do a far better job of effective leadership.