I added the following note to my piece of last week about why and how I left the Establishment - which cleared the way to becoming a Christian:
Maybe the peak of my Establishment acceptance came when - in 2000 - I was a Visiting Distinguished Millennial Fellow at Kings College London.
I was surely the least in status of these Fellows, probably a substitute for someone who dropped out; nonetheless the other Fellows included political scientist Kenneth Minogue of the LSE, Melanie Phillips the journalist (a panellist, not Fellow), Julia Neuberger (another panellist: then the most famous UK female Jew - reformed liberal 'Rabbi'), Robert Winston (University of London, doctor) and Colin Blakemore (a panellist - Oxford, scientist) who both fronted major BBC TV series, Kay Redfield Jameson of Harvard (the global star of bipolar disorder), Rowan Williams (later Archbishop of Canterbury).
I gave a lecture to some hundreds of people at Southwark Cathedral, London; an extract of which was reprinted in The Independent newspaper.
[The Independent is an ultra-Leftist national title. You can see from the linked transcript how much of a Libertarian I was at that time - which indirectly shows that Libertarians are actually of-the-Left - if there had been any doubt.]
Oh! - I nearly forgot to mention the most significant 'evidence' that I was part of The Establishment (albeit on the fringe): my original debating opponent in Southwark Cathedral, was, until a late-ish stage of planning, Jimmy Carter. Yes, him. I really was scheduled to speak as one of only two lecturers with the ex-President of the USA. In the event, he cancelled; but still...
9 comments:
Haha, sic transit gloria! I'm not sure why, but this post made my day.
Not to one-up you or anything, but (ahem) my likeness was once prominently featured in the Hebrew-language Wikipedia article for "Hair."
@Wm - "I'm not sure why, but this post made my day."
Probably because it's a classic 'lame claim to fame' - I *nearly* debated with Jimmy Carter...
Rather like the fact that, as a child, we used to have living at the bottom of our garden (i.e. the house backing onto ours) the famous playwright Alan Bennet's *brother*.
Or that my Dad lived in the *next-door* village, and went to the *same school* as Bobby Charlton (but not at the same time, and we aren't actually related).
Today I learned what “at the bottom of the garden” means! I had only ever encountered it as the place where fairies are supposed to live.
By the way, I just checked Hebrew “Hair” article on Wikipedia now, and my handsome mug is still there all these years later. It’s nice to know I’ve still got it. (The fame, I mean, not the hair.)
My other main claim to fame is that I once lived on the same floor of the same building as the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer — but fortunately not at the same time.
I once shared an elevator with Christopher Lee. That's about it.
@DR - Well, at least it was you - not your Dad - who shared the elevator; and it was actually Christopher Lee - not his cousin.
I don't personally know Sacha Baron Cohen, but I did know his cousin Simon (*first* cousin; the autism scientist) - which surely counts for something?
On a similar note; my Dad once had a pee standing next-to British & US Open Golf champion Tony Jacklin. This near-brush-with-celebrity got me considerable kudos as a primary school kid.
I once commented on the same blog as a guy who shared an elevator with Christopher Lee!
I'm clearly in the presence of greatness here.
I stood next to Cliff Richard in the backstage gents at the 1979 Greenbelt festival!
David - That almost sounds like the headline of a tabloid expose!
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