I beleive there may well be a form of intelectual snobbery at work here with some people. Its a bit like half the first team from Manchester United going to the local park and joining in with a game of soccer with the local lads, then complaining that the standard wasnt as good as last weeks match against Chelsea!

I dont mean to infer that all eliete players have this attitude.............a great many of them go just to enjoy themselfs and get great pleasure passing on their skills and knowlege to beginners and improvers or just "joining in". And they dont condem those that cant or choose not to improve either, recognising the enjoyment that these people get from doing what they do and that music is often simply a common factor in a wider social interaction between friends.

The problem for some of these tallented intelectuals is that in their limited world, they are used to having a great deal of control and power. Take them out of their natural environment and they become simply unable to adapt to different circumstances, because they never have to in their world. They know all the rules and have the speed of thought and mental training to excell there. Throw them a "curved ball", or put them somewhere where there is something going on that they dont give value to, and they can become completely socialy inept. Some of our "Guests" here have the same attitude. Its sort of a "them ordinary people are playing with OUR toys....and they arnt doing it rite!" kind of attitude.

The reality is that these "toys" dont belong to them, wether they be Irish Tunes or the internet, someone let the "Cat" out of the bag a long time ago! Granted, things get watered down when they go public in this way, but its just a matter of re-organising so that they can continue to develope at the "cutting edge" rather than wasting their time running around trying to put their toys back in the toy box saying "you cant play with those they are MINE!"

Believe me, I admire the tallent and mental discipline that produces excellence, I then try to aspire to it myself, it motivates me by example. But I also recognise the down side to that level of single mindedness and the personalities and traits it SOMETIMES produces.