The Heseltines To most people in the establishment nepotism is a laughing matter. 'Oh come on.', you can hear them say. 'Everyone does it. The only reason they complain is that they are jealous. In any case if you can't cut the mustard you are soon found out. It's just the first step.' Of course nepotism is a very long snail trial indeed. By the time a young toffee nosed whippersnapper - thinly disguised behind street credentials - is offered a leg up - he has already travelled a thousand miles. He has been fed the best food as a child. He has been exposed to a richer cultural and intellectual environment - Handel is his, as well as the Beatles, Mahler, remixes and Drum and Bass. But Althusser explained it better than anybody with inelegant originality. Ironically Anglo-American universities still discuss Althusser. They neuter French theory, label it as a failed intellectual experiment, and then inject it like a vaccine into their future public
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head