Hi,
Yay for Fridays: the blessing of part-time folk and those in need of a rest. Well, ‘and/or’ but not Andor, which is different thing altogether. Keep up, young padawans 😉
Yesterday I was thinking about what I might write about, as I was beginning to feel like I was stuck in a bit of a loop. Readers of a certain age – that would be me, as well – may wish to mutter the film line “Groundhog day!” 🙂 Cue a wee public domain picture as I’m trying to reduce any graphical AI generation. Reduce, reuse, and recycle! 🤗
So, yeah, the feeling of being in a bit of a loop remains. Perhaps not having significant or impactful events to talk about is a good thing? I mean, it’s not like there’s a shortage of eventful news going on, right now!
But, the bulk of what’s reported seems….. well, terrible. Fools being foolish, bigots being hateful, the corrupt being – well, you get the idea. Has it ever been thus, or have we turned the dial up to eleven, cranked it a bit more, and snapped the end off? 🤔
On that note, I am reminded of an anecdote from a fellow escapee from awful job from long, long ago. Social media hadn’t quite slithered its tendrils into society then, so – shock! – you’d have to depend on random happenstance to catch up with folk. Anyway! They mentioned that other folk they’d kept in touch with, would often say something like ‘Oh, you think that was bad then, they did this afterwards!‘. This prompted an art related joke by them, which seems relevant to today’s post: namely the reversal of M.C. Escher’s famous drawing “Ascending and Descending” – only this time, it’s folk going down, but never quite reaching the depths of toxic management. 😉
Personally, the way I’m trying to cope with it, is trying to remember that a lot of this is temporary. This does not mean certain events are unimportant, should be ignored, or the targetted & allies should go quietly. Indeed, one might say that action is required to remind certain folk they are currently in charge. As a far wiser person that I, said: forever is a long time, and the law takes a long time – almost glacial – to catch up with the wrong ‘uns. But, in general, it does… even the footsoldiers of the regime.
Another element is that of mockery, that some of what’s going on now is so dumb, it’s difficult to dispute we’re not living in Kafka’s version of The Matrix; a series of demonic pranksters pushing the buttons, while high. 😉
Take for example, the recent ruling on trans folk being sort of able to use the loo in a place of business. Apparently, it’s completely logical that a customer who may or who may not be trans, can use the loo that matches their gender.
However, once the person is an employee; trans folk have to use the loo that matches the sex assigned to them at birth. I’m sorry, I’ve not had enough mind bending chemicals to understand how that seems remotely sensible.
Are we to don a hat, those spy glasses with the fake nose, and a big badge marked “I’m a customer”, just to maintain our privacy at work? 🙃 You know, the right to privacy?
Coming back to temporary, we have – as humans – been here with this level of cruel buffoonery numerous times. Sadly, humans have yet to work out that those punching down are only in it for themselves. That riling the mob is to rob people of their thoughts, kindness, perhaps even humanity. Have we really moved on from “eee, that looks like a Witch!” and everyone goes crackers! 😁
On a more positive note, national treasure, Sir Ian McKellen provided this amazing performance during a recent interview. If you want to skip to the Shakespear; it’s around the 23 minute mark.
Fiction yes, but a sentiment that does not seem new. That we are all capable of becoming strangers. All it takes is bad luck – or a tyrant… or runaway climate change. Ah, stay positive, Lynn 😉
L x
PS: I’ll not be using the Posiblogging this time around 😁
Nice chance no Trolls 🙂
Heh. Trolls, bots, morons, edgelords, and AI slop. Big oof.
May I also I refer the right honourable commenter, to Poe’s Law 😉
🙂 I was’nt trying to upset anybody, just happy to see the end of those green images
As for Laws ‘O’Toole’s Commentary on Murphys law states
Murphy was an optimist.
Ah, sorry. I thought you meant on-line trolls, not the goblins.
I’ll get my cloak 😉
For a few years (a few was too many) I worked in Whitehall until it dawned on me that the entire purpose of government was to feed the malice of psychopaths and the fragile egos of narcissists by using citizens as fodder, and disguising incompetence and ignorance with processes. It has no rhyme or reason other than that, and logic, consistency, justice, fairness and humanity are concepts for the little people to live by. Enforcement arises through fear, propaganda, creation of scarcity, ritualising petitioning and, when those aren’t working so well, force. So it happens that, in the UK, the trans community and immigrants are footballs being kicked now. It could just as easily have been goths or vegans. In England the boot has previously been applied to Catholics, and Jews before that and so on. Maybe Americans will be next. A scapegoat focuses attention away from the chaos at the top. So, no, you are not the mad one. But the chaos is permanent, it’s just the actors who change and the actors today are loud and stupid rather than being subtle and sneaky. All the Epstein evil was done in peaceful and prosperous times, after all, and, as with the sleaze scandal of the ’90s and the expenses scandal of the ’00s and the tabloid scandal of the 2010s, you’ll get a couple of sacrificial lambs to assuage public anger (prince Andrew, say) and then it’ll get back to corruption as normal till the following decade’s scandal breaks. There may be trans rights later, there may be not. No-one cares, apart from the people affected, but they don’t count. So don’t waste time trying to see the logic of the government or media or chattering class position as there isn’t any, just combat them till they feel it’s too much effort to push this agenda and they find some other ball to play with. Sue xx
Hmm. I guess it’s different between Whitehall and local government – even at county level. The latter was – to coin a well-known phrase; Led By Donkeys 🙂 However, there were folk trying to do the right thing and actually make a difference. I guess the trouble is, the cliché of Power Corrupts is hackneyed for a reason.
A friend once said to me that “large organisations allow psychopaths to exist”. Now, while he went on to add he didn’t mean knife waving loons, the dark triad – narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy – was certainly an observable pattern in the toxic areas.
On lighter news, I see The Grauniad featured a story (interview?) with the writers of “Yes, Minister”. Their sources in history for the inspiration, and how the site remains topical to this day.
All that aside – and I won’t disagree about the inept and the corrupt – I hope cooler heads will prevail, and we can get back on to the more pressing matter of not boiling the planet.
See you in the bunker 😉
Wow. That Shakespeare speech from Ian McKellen hits the nail on the head. Thanks
Didn’t it just? I feel those who probably should listen the most, may not hear it.
An ever tightening noose where the useful idiots suddenly find themselves in the out group.
In other news, a decade of the Brecksh*t vote, this week 🇪🇺
Goodness, powerful stuff despite it being a circular post. McKellan doing what he does best.
Glad I read this, sorry it took me so long.
I was minded of a poem – and we have become its first line rather than Communists. For now at least. I hope we don’t reach too far down the list. I hope we don’t stray too far down that well-trod path yet. Not the worst example, nor most recent, nor most illuminating: just best known.
Thanks, Jo. Yes, Sir Ian is on top form with that performance, IMO. Given his time in the protesting for LGBTQ rights, dare I say he can see the pattern?
Despite what the most of the press and antisocial media are, frankly, muck spreading around; I think there’s a strong sense of the UK remembering, that nothing good comes from extremists.
Lynn, the “Groundhog Day” feeling is very relatable and sometimes a quiet life is no bad thing, even if the wider world feels like a dystopian farce. Your Escher image of endless descent was painfully apt.
The loo “logic” genuinely defies common sense. It would be funny if it weren’t so intrusive, policy by prankster, as you say. Sometimes mockery really is the only sane response.
I appreciated your reminder that much of this is temporary. History has a habit of correcting itself, even if it takes time and persistence.
And yes, Sir Ian is, as ever, a national treasure.
Here’s hoping the loop shifts in a better direction soon.
Lotte x
As much as the right type of excitement is nice, IMO; perhaps it’s better to be grateful for stability, the quiet, and living drama free. There’s certainly been enough crazy these past few years.
Ah, famous relative doing his Thomas More speech again. Love that 🥰
A top job, bless him. As an opener at the recent Transmission concert too.
More Ian, less Nige 🙏