I was reminded of the Social Network the other day. David Fincher's movie about the rise of Facebook that chronicles the battles between Founder Mark Zuckerburg and the Winklevoss brothers. The geeky visionary vs the over-priviledged relentlessly greedy gruesome twosome, who think they deserve something for nothing. Zuckerburg plows away at Facebook, albeit making some ruthless decisions along the way, to become one of the most innovative, transformative and essentially geeky heroes of his age. He stood up to the wealthy bullies and sent the Winklevoss brothers and all their priviledge packing.
I'd been wondering for a while why the relentless and deeply personal attacks on Ed Miliband that dominate the UK media irritated me so much. A clique of over-priviledged bullies picking on the weird kid as he pursues a vision. I think its the Facebook story all over again in my mind with Ed cast in the geeky Zuck part and Cameron and Osbourne and all the rest of the Bullingdon Boys as the greedy, unpleasant narcissistic Winklevoss Brothers.
In any other scenario if a group of people picked on a geeky outsider we'd call them out for the nasty bullies that they were and champion the underdog. We'd cheer when they failed to buy or bully their way to power or ownership and the geek boy triumphed. Yet somehow in the UK we continue to allow these nasty elitists to pick on the kid in the library.
I know when I watched the Social Network I loved it when Zuck triumphed over the Winklevoss brothers and went on to do great things. I know come May 2015 i'll be voting geek not greed.
