Sunday Share: Priggish Puritans Vs. Arab Arrivistes

Wealthy Arab men have been in the habit of offending the sensibilities – pecuniary, aesthetic, and otherwise – of the English upper class for some time now; just ask Prince Charles. Recently, however, privileged Arab youths in the habit of transporting their exotic wheels to London for “Supercar Season” – a fortnight of pre-Ramadan Dionysian revelry based on conspicuous consumption, street racing, and gratuitous throttle blipping rather than imbibition – have found themselves in the public eye. Rather than breathless Youtube and Instagram fluffers, these arrivistes have found themselves in the critical eye of a Very Serious Documentary Film, entitled Millionaire Boy Racers.

If this is a lazy Sunday for you, check it out (apologies, but my exceptionally limited technical skills prevent embedding a non-YouTube video).

If you choose to devote 45 minutes of your day that could otherwise be invested in edifying activities, you’ll be thrilled by naive, carefree men from the Middle East who’ve escaped hellish temperatures and stifling societal strictures for a few weeks of summertime fun. They’re preening and strutting around London’s glamorous West End in their flashy supercars, but the resident English aristocrats are unwilling to stand for this effrontery. The stiff upper lip brigade is galvanized, politicking and raising awareness for this worrisome “degradation of the neighbo(u)rhood.” These xenophobic practitioners of received pronunciation are concerned about “reverse colonization,” whereas the intruders who’ve interrupted the idyll are just there to have a good time (and pump untold pounds into the still struggling economy).

I know which group of people I’d rather spend time around.

David Walton grew up in the North Georgia mountains before moving to Virginia to study Economics, Classics, and Natural Light at Washington and Lee University. Post-graduation, he returned to his home state to work in the financial services industry in Atlanta. A lifelong automotive enthusiast, particular interests include (old) Porsches and sports car racing.