Whilst this guy is patently an utter arse, The KLF burnt a million squid as ‘art’. On national TV.
An interesting point actually, and it says a lot about wider society, the media, how we choose to interpret such acts and what place Money/wealth and the perception of “privilege” occupies in our world…
You’ve got different scales there obviously, but also you need to examine the intent/message behind either act…
Were the KLF pointing and laughing at those less fortunate than themselves?
Apparently they themselves weren’t too clear what statement they were making but they buggered off to a Hebridean Island and did it relatively quietly…
If it was a statement about wealth, the excessive importance of money or inequality then that was lost somewhere along the way. If they were simply being a bit “Rock’n’Roll” again it wasn’t quite showy enough for that…
There’s always the argument that giving the money to a charity in either instance would send an utterly different message, it’s relatively easy to show the world your philanthropic deeds and recieve mostly positive vibes in return, its quite another thing to consciously and publicly destroy wealth and put it beyond anyone else’s use…
You could argue both are rather self involved acts, and you’d be right, but this Tory student’s had a distinctly more malicious feel to it in many people’s eyes. The sums involved are (perhaps strangely?) less of a concern than the meaning…