In a sign of its anger at reports that forged Australian passports may have been used by suspects in the Dubai murder of Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Ambassador of Israel has been spoken to, sternly, by the Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith.
“He really was quite firm with the Ambassador”, said a spokesman for the Foreign Minister. “We didn’t even offer him a cup of tea”.
“When we asked what arrangements we should make for the visit, Mr Smith said that we were only to provide water, on request. He said, ‘I’m not having them [the Israeli delegation] enjoying our yummy ginger snaps when I feeling as cranky as this’.”
“He [Smith] was quite quivery during the meeting”, said an insider.
In the face of the dressing down from the Australian Foreign Minister, the Israeli security agency, Mossad, was said to be reviewing its tactics and possibly renouncing the use of violence in the defence of Israel.
“We've had along hard look in the mirror and we're a bit ashamed at what we've been doing for the last sixty years”, said a senior Mossad commander.
“Good luck with the roofing insulation problems”, he added, “We can only imagine how tough it must be for the Australian people to cope with a threat to safety as serious as that”.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Keeping down with Joneses
This is getting ridiculous. Now the Tories (yes, the Conservative Party) want to use social pressure to improve household energy efficiency.
Party leader David Cameron has said, "We need to apply gentle social pressure on people to bring down their energy use. So just as they're doing in California, we will make each energy bill come with an illustration of how much energy people's neighbours are using in comparison to their own usage, inspiring them to consume less in competition".
But what will the pious, smug, Prius driving little git who lives next door to you do when he learns that you’re using much more energy than he is? Leave helpful pamphlets your letterbox? Tsk as you walk past?
The ultimate outcome will be violence.
As J.S. Mill observed (and as noted here before), protection against the tyranny of authority is not enough, “there needs protection also against tyranny of prevailing opinion and feeling, against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct”.
Party leader David Cameron has said, "We need to apply gentle social pressure on people to bring down their energy use. So just as they're doing in California, we will make each energy bill come with an illustration of how much energy people's neighbours are using in comparison to their own usage, inspiring them to consume less in competition".
But what will the pious, smug, Prius driving little git who lives next door to you do when he learns that you’re using much more energy than he is? Leave helpful pamphlets your letterbox? Tsk as you walk past?
The ultimate outcome will be violence.
As J.S. Mill observed (and as noted here before), protection against the tyranny of authority is not enough, “there needs protection also against tyranny of prevailing opinion and feeling, against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct”.
Monday, 22 February 2010
Sooks, wimps and whingers
Uncharacteristically, I was at work very early. When the entry buzzer sounded for the door to the secured area I inhabited, I walked 25 meters from my office to answer it. Nobody was there and I returned to my work. Just as my bottom touched the chair, the buzzer sounded. I retraced my steps and found the invisible man. Annoyed, I opened the door, shoved my head into the corridor and called out. No reply.
The third time I tried to ignore the buzzing, but its insistence was irritating and distracting. I jogged (no mean feat) to the door. Nothing. I went outside into the corridor and walked around the nearest rooms calling out. Nothing.
The fourth buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz was infuriating. You might think that I’d discharged my duty. But as it was not uncommon for people (i.e. me) to forget their passes and in this desolate industrial estate there was little to pass the time until office hours, I again went to the door.
There stood a large, thickset and powerful air-conditioning repairman. Being a coward, one look at this monster caused me to abandon my plan to blast my tormentor’s chin whiskers off with a string of high volume invective. All I managed was an arms outstretched, “Mate, what the fuck are you doing? This is my fourth trip to the door and it’s the only time you’ve been here”. My delivery was exasperated but at normal volume.
He looked a bit surprised and said, illogically, “I didn’t think anybody was here”. I shook my head and returned to my office.
Two days later, following a complaint, I was summoned to explain my offensive language and aggressive and intimidating attitude. Naturally, my response was sarcastic. I refused to apologise, noting that I had received none for my inconvenience and, as for intimidation, it seemed unlikely that a labourer who stood at least 10 centimetres taller and whose muscular form outweighed my slope shouldered blancmange by 20kg could be intimidated by little, plump me.
My smug written report about the incident was informed by my contemporaneous reading of Theodore Dalrymple’s, In Praise of Prejudice. These days, I noted, quoting Dalrymple, the exercise of any authority exterior to that of the ego is a wound to personal sovereignty. My chastisement of the repairman was to me an exercise in social interaction, a not unreasonable request from one person to another to be more thoughtful. However, as I was an office worker and lacked a broad accent, the interaction was seen by the repairman as one of power. The repairman’s dignity as absolute sovereign of his soul had been infringed. For him life was a long series of acts of lese-majeste by others. His ego was “like a wound that is never allowed to heal, that is constantly reopened by reality, into which salt is ever rubbed by those [he thinks to be imbued]* with greater power and prestige than” himself (pp 61-62).
Recently a headmistress has been so intimidated by a petite female parent that she’s had the parent banned from school premises. There’s some dispute about whether there was touching but if the principal was assaulted why weren’t the police called? If not and there was only a verbal disagreement, even shouting, it sounds suspiciously like sookiness from the principal. Perhaps she was unhappy that her authority was challenged? The principal’s dignity as absolute sovereign of her soul had been infringed.
How many parents when reasonably chastising their children hear the modern line that the chastisement constitutes abuse? In the relativist world their teachers inhabit, all possess the right not to be disciplined (unless, of course, some right of the teacher has been infringed).
In the work place wimps abound. Workers cannot be disciplined or chastised or can be only in highly controlled circumstances. The incompetent survive, their behaviour and inept practices uncorrected.
Recently during tense negotiations, when the last of their specious arguments had been demolished by cold logic, our opponents accused us (me) of being overly aggressive and terminated the meeting. They could not distinguish the issues from their egos. Any effectual challenge to their arguments was interpreted as a challenge to them, to their legitimacy, to their essence. It was a violation of their rights. But, of which right? Their right for their wrongness to remain unidentified? Their right not to lose? Their right to be undisturbed wimps?
As for Prime Ministerial bullying, the point’s been well made that in the highest office in the land there’s bound to be bit of pressure and emotions could run high. Surely we want those associated with that office to possess a backbone and, if not, they’re not emotionally qualified to be there. I wonder if staff crumpled and ran from Churchill’s war room blubbering. Possibly. But I warrant they didn’t allege bullying.
So here’s the essential advice for many of you feeling pressure at home, at work or in school:
Harden the fuck up.
* Square brackets added.
The third time I tried to ignore the buzzing, but its insistence was irritating and distracting. I jogged (no mean feat) to the door. Nothing. I went outside into the corridor and walked around the nearest rooms calling out. Nothing.
The fourth buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz was infuriating. You might think that I’d discharged my duty. But as it was not uncommon for people (i.e. me) to forget their passes and in this desolate industrial estate there was little to pass the time until office hours, I again went to the door.
There stood a large, thickset and powerful air-conditioning repairman. Being a coward, one look at this monster caused me to abandon my plan to blast my tormentor’s chin whiskers off with a string of high volume invective. All I managed was an arms outstretched, “Mate, what the fuck are you doing? This is my fourth trip to the door and it’s the only time you’ve been here”. My delivery was exasperated but at normal volume.
He looked a bit surprised and said, illogically, “I didn’t think anybody was here”. I shook my head and returned to my office.
Two days later, following a complaint, I was summoned to explain my offensive language and aggressive and intimidating attitude. Naturally, my response was sarcastic. I refused to apologise, noting that I had received none for my inconvenience and, as for intimidation, it seemed unlikely that a labourer who stood at least 10 centimetres taller and whose muscular form outweighed my slope shouldered blancmange by 20kg could be intimidated by little, plump me.
My smug written report about the incident was informed by my contemporaneous reading of Theodore Dalrymple’s, In Praise of Prejudice. These days, I noted, quoting Dalrymple, the exercise of any authority exterior to that of the ego is a wound to personal sovereignty. My chastisement of the repairman was to me an exercise in social interaction, a not unreasonable request from one person to another to be more thoughtful. However, as I was an office worker and lacked a broad accent, the interaction was seen by the repairman as one of power. The repairman’s dignity as absolute sovereign of his soul had been infringed. For him life was a long series of acts of lese-majeste by others. His ego was “like a wound that is never allowed to heal, that is constantly reopened by reality, into which salt is ever rubbed by those [he thinks to be imbued]* with greater power and prestige than” himself (pp 61-62).
Recently a headmistress has been so intimidated by a petite female parent that she’s had the parent banned from school premises. There’s some dispute about whether there was touching but if the principal was assaulted why weren’t the police called? If not and there was only a verbal disagreement, even shouting, it sounds suspiciously like sookiness from the principal. Perhaps she was unhappy that her authority was challenged? The principal’s dignity as absolute sovereign of her soul had been infringed.
How many parents when reasonably chastising their children hear the modern line that the chastisement constitutes abuse? In the relativist world their teachers inhabit, all possess the right not to be disciplined (unless, of course, some right of the teacher has been infringed).
In the work place wimps abound. Workers cannot be disciplined or chastised or can be only in highly controlled circumstances. The incompetent survive, their behaviour and inept practices uncorrected.
Recently during tense negotiations, when the last of their specious arguments had been demolished by cold logic, our opponents accused us (me) of being overly aggressive and terminated the meeting. They could not distinguish the issues from their egos. Any effectual challenge to their arguments was interpreted as a challenge to them, to their legitimacy, to their essence. It was a violation of their rights. But, of which right? Their right for their wrongness to remain unidentified? Their right not to lose? Their right to be undisturbed wimps?
As for Prime Ministerial bullying, the point’s been well made that in the highest office in the land there’s bound to be bit of pressure and emotions could run high. Surely we want those associated with that office to possess a backbone and, if not, they’re not emotionally qualified to be there. I wonder if staff crumpled and ran from Churchill’s war room blubbering. Possibly. But I warrant they didn’t allege bullying.
So here’s the essential advice for many of you feeling pressure at home, at work or in school:
Harden the fuck up.
* Square brackets added.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
We don't like to brag, but...
Everyone digs it. Audi’s Superbowl advertisement featured the Green Police. The backing track is Cheap Trick’s Dream Police, with new lyrics. Of course, you saw it here first.
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