Yeah, it was supposedly based on Platonic ideals and invented by Germans.
But by the standards of prep-school hazing of the day, that wasn’t especially bad. I can remember reading in old books about “sports for boys” that cold showers made one stronger. So it wasn’t just hazing for the sake of it. It was just one of those unscientific dumb ideas people had in those days. Until fairly recently, a lot of coaches believed training without water breaks increased endurance. (It does not.)
But for posh kids who were used to having everything done for them, learning how to do manual labor, and work together on service projects would make them less dickish, potentially.
Not sure about the daily runs, but they don’t do the cold showers any more. And it has girls. And they have a big sailboat so everyone can learn seamanship. That would be kinda cool. Still probably pretty dickish.
But Eton seems all about telling students that they’re better than everyone else and deserve to run the country and to step on anyone they have to to get it. Rugby and the Wall game and all that seem to be designed specifically to develop a social Darwinist attitude.
Fucking top hats. Really?
But by the standards of prep-school hazing of the day, that wasn’t especially bad. I can remember reading in old books about “sports for boys” that cold showers made one stronger. So it wasn’t just hazing for the sake of it. It was just one of those unscientific dumb ideas people had in those days. Until fairly recently, a lot of coaches believed training without water breaks increased endurance. (It does not.)
But for posh kids who were used to having everything done for them, learning how to do manual labor, and work together on service projects would make them less dickish, potentially.
Not sure about the daily runs, but they don’t do the cold showers any more. And it has girls. And they have a big sailboat so everyone can learn seamanship. That would be kinda cool. Still probably pretty dickish.
But Eton seems all about telling students that they’re better than everyone else and deserve to run the country and to step on anyone they have to to get it. Rugby and the Wall game and all that seem to be designed specifically to develop a social Darwinist attitude.
Fucking top hats. Really?
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