We are standing on the shoulders of giants.
Requiem for an Admiral
We passed a memorial to Admiral Hopwood. No one has ever heard of him but now you know that he risked his life for his country through all the naval engagements of WW1. He is one of the twelve million servicemen who ran real risks of their lives for future generations. And the reality is that today very few of the “future generations” know anything about history and don’t appear to care a fig!
All honour to Admiral Hopwood.
The State We Are In
“We live in a time of a terrible inflation of words, and it’s worse than the inflation of money.” Eduardo Galeano
For years, schools (and some parents) have awarded prizes to children irrespective of whether they were deserved or not – and now universities are issuing First Class degrees like smarties. These degrees used to be precious and a matter of great pride, but a recent report reveals that a quarter of students with three “D”s at A-level have attained a “First”. Bosses are finding that some of the “achievers” they’ve employed can’t even write a letter in clear English, so they no longer value this nonsense – and that, of course, makes a mockery of the first-class accomplishments of the brightest students.
So, the currency of exams has been devalued… Who’d have guessed the inscrutable workings of the iron law of unintended consequences?
Mad, Mad World
Now the term “bullying” has been inflated beyond recognition. I went to private schools. I was a private in the army and attended RMA Sandhurst, and was a businessman and an MP. I really do know about hardcore bullying. Thankfully, the world has changed and folk are now protected from some of the worst rantings of tyrannical NCOs and bosses.
However, in the workplace, things like eyerolling, mere “glances” and “micro-aggressions” –whatever the hell this last means – can now be described as “bullying”. Has this made people any happier or more contented? The result is that the word “bullying” has lost its true meaning. Hypersensitivity has been legitimised and forthright communications are now almost impossible.
And look what’s happened to the rules around sexual behaviour. We’ve all witnessed the nasty stuff, and of course, it can be hugely distressing. However, one of my senior friends described how, at a party, he dared to tell a female friend how nice she looked in her new dress – he was promptly traduced by a beak-nosed harpy who informed him his words were “highly improper and likely to be misunderstood”! Such acute sensitivity over the small stuff devalues the big – for example, gruesome Alex Salmond’s drunken groping, streams of vile sexual innuendos and vicious harassment.
And suffering from stress is now fashionable – and I don’t mean clinical depression and real illness, for which I have every sympathy. Stress is the illness of the moment, and its victims are everywhere (bar the self-employed). I once asked a bunch of workmen if they’d ever been off with “stress?” Of course, not,” they laughed. “If we don’t work, we don’t eat!”
One theory is that the only people who can afford to stop working because of stress are those who know they’ll be paid anyway – for example, those who work for large charities, nationalised corporations or as civil servants. I know this is a tad cynical, but I’ve been around a long time and know something about human nature. The self-employed do not take time off work lightly.
Today, we live in a marshmallow society, where we are as soft as snowflakes and likely to be blown sideways by every zephyr that passes. During the Battle of Britain, can you imagine the reaction from Bomber Harris if his pilots had requested time off due to stress or insisted on taking paternity leave? We’d all be speaking German today.
Of course, all sympathy to the mentally ill – whilst recognising the inflationary spiral that classifies mere emotions and even bereavement today as “illness”. Trauma was once an event that indicated grave injury, threat of death or sexual violence. Involvement in a serious accident would qualify. But then, as is the usual pattern, the definition started to inflate so it embraced not only one’s own experiences of harm but those of our “loved ones” (and how I dislike that expression!) too. I suspect this expansion is due, in large part, to pharma companies hoping to prescribe pills to an ever-widening audience of “victims”.
Years ago, when I ran a health authority – Milton Keynes since you ask – I was told that many of my employees were off with “stress” because they were fearful there might be a war, and their children “might” be involved! So, would we provide a free counselling service?
ZANE donors, please be proud, for I blankly refused. For heaven’s sake, most of our parents went through a world war, and then there were no counsellors of any kind. They just had to get on with it. And we’ve all had ghastly stuff in our lives, from our own sicknesses and failures to the deaths of those we love, job losses and all sorts of betrayal… And we just bloody well get on with it, don’t we? And what we can see coming down the track doesn’t look like a barrel of laughs either.
Decades of “welfarism” has created a society in which millions of people choose to hyperventilate with emotional stress, live off their fellow taxpayers and consider themselves entitled to do so.
We are living in a mad, mad world, my masters. Simply mad!
Church Matters
As the number of churchgoers is in steep decline, perhaps those running the churches might appreciate an unvarnished view as to why? They should try to find out whether the vicar and his/her team are liked or merely endured, and whether they’re viewed as competent or lazy. No one has to attend church, people can always go gardening or boating instead – and judging from the figures, that’s exactly what they’re doing!