sillysocksonfriday

Vesti la giubba

Put on your costume and do your job. Heart-broken, Pagliacci the clown had to go on with the show

Ridi del duol che t’avvelena il cor

Laugh at the grief that poisons your heart.

Sometimes we just have to do it. Of course there are worse jobs with worse things to do: imagine a frontline soldier having to face the enemy or a doctor who has to tell a child they are going to die or a policeman to a mother whose baby is dead

But everyday some of us have to gird our loins just to go on with our lives, open the door, go to work and be polite.

So many silent, secret heroes out there.

Why Do People Avoid Thinking About Serious Stuff?

… look away now if you’re not up for it

Not everyone does a lot of contemplation … when asked to elaborate … they are forced to parrot whatever echo chamber to which they subscribe. I blame the schools, all of them.

We are a culture of people who would rather be distracted than confront real issues, and we shy away from acknowledging problems because if we actually notice them we’d have to work to fix them.

My dream is that we find a way to incorporate critical thinking into the education system. Not only would we encounter people capable of having an intelligent conversation, we’d be more likely to hold politicians, business people, and everyone else accountable for their decisions and what they advocate. Imagine a return to fact-based decision making!

If the success of religions since the dawn of civilizations taught us anything, it is that most people are terrible at thinking independently and would much rather be told what to believe, think and do.

Most people don’t talk about deep stuff because they are shallow. They are shallow because they were never challenged properly as children to develop their critical thinking faculties. Children are constantly told to shut up and listen or else. Hence followers are manufactured in the home.

It’s a cycle that won’t be broken until someone brings forth a functioning model that provides working methods for existing damaged people to inadvertently not damage their children.

Once you’re raised to follow, you can’t listen to the truth because it forces you to violate your dependency on others which is now hardwired into your brain for survival. Hence the prevalence of dominance hierarchies.

These are responses on Reddit to the title question, not my words, although they resonate with me

How red is my neck?

The Altemeyer RWA scale measures right wing authoritarianism. I was curious so did the test. Now write down what you think I scored.

(22 is minimum and 198 is max).

I will tell you my score at the end of the blog.

Is compromise good or bad?

In a long ago industrial relations training session I was mildly scorned as I maintained compromise should be the realistic and most pragmatic outcome. Society in South Africa at the time generally endured an authoritarian regime and was engaged in a national power struggle .

Compromise seems to have an undesirable reputation and various negative meanings and circumstances attach to it. But in the context of bargaining I still firmly believe it is a better solution than total victory, unless the relationship is broken beyond repair.

That is because each party gets something, admittedly not what was desired but enough. If one can widen scope from total victory to partial victory then a solution is possible.

Of course, the degree of antagonism means that compromise solutions are difficult.

But that is what must prevail in Ukraine and Gaza as the degree of antagonism is reduced by the grief and loss felt by both warring countries. Sadly the latter seems to be spiralling out of control as fringe participants step up their antagonisms.

Both these regions existed for centuries in relative harmonies before borders became so darkly drawn on maps.

My RWA score was 33! Even I was surprised!

You can’t say that!

At a friend’s baby’s first birthday (can you believe it?) last week, I saw an Irish friend, who recently returned from a visit to the Emerald Isle. I puffed out my cheeks and chirped that it seemed he had brought some potatoes back with him. He laughed and said he had put away a few while he was there.

Another friend sitting next to me was aghast and berated me for making such a remark about someone’s appearance. I protested that he was a friend and wouldn’t take offence, to which he laughingly agreed.

Earlier in the month, I had been castigated by one of my daughters for calling a nephew chubby.

Should we not say what we think ? And why do others feel they need to spring to defend, calling out possible offence?

Much of the current erosion of western values has arisen from the failure to speak out for fear of treading on some sensitivity or other and causing offence.

So when a few people promote the right of people to choose their own gender and pronoun and demand that the rest of society follow suit, much of society followed suit, without demur.
When a few students muzzled the Oxford Union, professors obliged.
When mobs toppled or defaced statues of historical figures, little action was taken.
When immigrants heckled soldiers’ funerals, little was done.
When immigrant priests urged defiance and eradication of Jews and supported jihad, governments demurred….
When foreigners started flooding borders and consuming benefits funded by citizens’ taxes, governments tip toed and hesitated.

Yet, I shouldn’t tell someone he is looking fat!

Resentment festers and if unresolved can erupt. The recent violence n the UK seems to me a clear demonstration of resentment. It is going to take a lot of undoing, because the damage is a cultural wound and those cannot be fixed by decree. Once you have let people in the gate, it is very difficult to get them out and the process involves bloody mauling.

So defy sensitivity and correctness and speak out or you will forever have to hold your tongue.

It is not just a right, it is a duty.

How do I feel?

What I believe is greatly influenced about what I feel. Thoughts and words express our perceptions which are greatly influenced by our emotions.

I suffer from bouts of insomnia for as long as 10 minutes and occasionally wake up too soon to get up in winter.

These are some of the thoughts that exuded from my foggy brain this morning:

How do we address the erosion of western values by the woke generation, some of whom are our own kith and kin?
How did I learn to feel and think the way I do?
What was the world like when I learned to think and articulate what I believe in?
What do I believe in?

It gets quite difficult and foggy, very quickly

Coincidentally, someone posted this on Facebook recently:

I am God … I think therefore I am.. I am a biological thinking intelligent machine… I can create my own reality.

I believe we are mostly good, but that experiences mould us:

There are some bad and weak people who choose to follow their own ways, despite knowing better ways.
We are easily distracted and tempted; self-discipline is difficult, but rewarding.
We are also easily misled and pride rules our redemption.
We forget that emotion guides every choice and harnesses intellect, so that it becomes imperfect..

I started life in Africa, as everything did apparently. That history was a great place to learn values and witness injustices.

Discrimination based on race, gender, ability and history is wrong.
We have a duty to stand by our family and friends.
We pay the State to serve us and we must also serve the State in times of need. But we cannot blindly follow the State.

Hmm! That should be enough for you to chew on.

I do not doubt that there will be little response to these humdrum words – that usually only comes after blogs about birds and flowers and such like.

Which way are you going, Billy?

Life is suffering

Love is the desire to see unnecessary suffering ameliorated

Truth is the handmaiden of love

Dialogue is the pathway to truth

Humility is recognition of personal insufficiency and the willingness to learn

To learn is to die voluntarily and be born again, in great ways and small

So speech must be untrammeled

So that dialogue can take place

So that we can all humbly learn

So that truth can serve love

So that suffering can be ameliorated

So that we can all stumble forward to the Kingdom of God

“Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities.”

Jordan Peterson: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (I think)

I often struggle with direction and the meaning of life; what Peterson says resonates.

…. and now for something completely different..

The Midnight Cowboy

What happened below is one of those stories that you couldn’t make up.

It was case that came before me when I was a Senior Magistrate, presiding in Salisbury Magistrates Court

The accused was charged with failing to obey a Police officer’s instructions and assault. He pleaded not guilty.

At about midnight on the night in question, a Detective Superintendent was driving home after a Police Officers’ Regimental Dinner. Formal dress was required so he was attired in his No 1 mess uniform – navy blue in colour with sword, spurs, medals, brass buttons and lots of braid. A glorious sight!

He observed a vehicle drive through a red traffic light without stopping. As a Police officer, he felt obliged to give chase.

He caught up to the offender and forced him to pull over, got out of his car and approached the other car.

He remonstrated with the driver who responded tersely with a coarse suggestion that he should go away and then roared off again.

Under cross examination, the Superintendent denied the suggestion that the accused could have mistaken him for the Midnight Cowboy returning from a Fancy Dress Ball.

(At this stage, I had to pretend that I had dropped my pen, to hide my laughter!)

The zealous policeman, now incensed, called in the registration number and got an address. He arrived there about half an hour later.

The fugitive came out, there was an altercation, and he biffed the policeman, whose spurs caught in the grass and he fell over. It was produced as an exhibit!

The Superintendent retired in high dudgeon and then called out the riot squad, who deployed in full force with rifles and spotlights to arrest the offender.

There was not a helicopter as later depicted in a Sunday paper cartoon.…

I had a great deal of difficulty remaining impassive and dropped my pen 3 times, I had to … I couldn’t stop laughing!

During an adjournment, I suggested to the Prosecutor that he withdraw the case and he said he wanted to, but the complainant insisted.

Eventually, I found the man not guilty of disobeying a policeman, as he may not have appreciated the glorious uniform contained a policeman.

But I had to find him guilty of assault, but gave him a paltry fine, which enraged the pompous policeman.

It really wasn’t so funny. The man’s hubris had besmirched the reputation of the Police force; he had deployed great force to deal with a petty infraction; such abuse of authority was astounding.

I wish I had kept a copy of the cartoon in the Sunday Tribune!

Go the Marones!

In Australia, marooon is pronounced marone and is the colour of the Queensland rugby league team jersey.

During June and July, a kind of buzz arises about the annual Game of Origin clashes with the New South Wales team. Floods of money are spent on paraphernalia and tickets and Origin parties. Marone is the colour of the day, or blue if you are one of them…

It is a good buzz, well illustrated on TV by bands of pumped-up supporters of the two teams arriving simultaneously at the game bus. Glaring at each other, waving placards, the people at front brace themselves, then stand back and politely wave the other team onto the bus: “after you”.

Fierce love of the game!

One hopes the same spirit of fierce competition and control prevails in the US Red v Blue contest, where tensions are on knife edge after the near miss on Donald Trump. What a vivid demonstration of what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” !!

My first reaction was that it was a stunt, which refelects my opinion of US politics… but it wasn’t.

But, are the US close to civil war, as speculated by some respected commentaors?

It is no great leap of understanding to see the rationale of: who sent the assassin? It must have been them, let’s show them… The US Capitol invasion occurred in a haze of righteous fervour. Once radicals start indulging in extreme behaviour it doesn’t take much for extreme opposition to erupt.

“Fight, fight, fight” might not be the right slogan for such fraught times in a country quite clearly divided.

‘Without a transcendent vision, the people run amok’; based on Proverbs 29:18, these words underpin our desperate need for leaders who can guide us towards good lives.

Let us hope that Trump has the finesse to control his meteoric momentum to the Presidency in the face of a visibly crumbling Biden camp. Desperation could lead one or some of Dems to say or do something rash!

In a flash, there could be a rash of violence, assassination attempts and general mob chaos, which in that heavily armed civil society could descend to civil warfare.

Here in Australia, we too are suffering from poor leadership. The current Prime Minister is a wishy washy socialist, unable to make hard decisions or control the factions and individuals in his party. The opposition is not particularly impressive, apart from a conservative Aboriginal Senator who opposed the notion of an Aboriginal voice. She appears to have the charisma and courage to lead.

Let us pray for strong clear leaders who can build a plan for the rapidly evolving future.

I fear I hear the feeble, quavery voice of Neville Chamberlain in September 1938, “peace for our time’ – the world was at war in less than a year.

Roolz are trapz

There are two types of rules: laws and regulations. Apparently, regulations are made to give clarity and certainty about the intentions expressed in policy or laws.

They do so by restricting and binding and diminishing freedoms. The more regulations there are, the less freedom there is, and the greater the risk of breaking the regulations. This gives legitimate causes for disputes.

Regulations are actually the tools of those that aim to reduce the power of the policy makers and the subjects of rules. They are the weapons of the trade unionist and the bureaucrat, used to consolidate and entrench their own function.

Policymakers are elected, like ministers, members of parliament, directors and board members. They do not make regulations. They delegate these functions to bureaucrats, who are not elected.

This is the likely source for one of the major failings of democracy.

By avoiding making regulations, policymakers abrogate any responsibility for how policies are implemeted, whether they succeed or fail, facilitate or oppress.

Politicians delegate their decision-making powers, instead of educating functionaries on the full purpose of policy and allowing precedent to serve as example.

Bureaucrats then lay out specific regulations describing specific behaviours required by the law makers and procedures to be followed to demonstrate this.

Procedures are the great scimitar of the bureaucrat.

In order to ensure greater certainty more rules and procedures are devised, requiring more bureaucrats to administer and interpret compliance.

Failure to comply with required procedure becomes a substantive offence attracting penalties: refusal or denial of a claim made under the policy. This is where the plethora of claims fail: improper procedure.

Actually, nothing to do with the intention of the policy !

Hence the existence of Administrative Tribunals, designed to deal with appeals against bureaucratic acts. The waiting period for an appeal is apparently only 46 weeks: easily long enough for memory loss.

The moral of this story: do not make rules, just make policies which are easy to understand and act upon. Let common sense rule.

Transform bureaucracy to save democracy!

We may need a Trump card to Musk it!

It does not seem impossible to imagine AI replacing most bureaucrats in the near future: imagine instantaneous decision making , information and assistance!!

A call to take up inoffensive weapons in a global campaign … (woke speech)

The time has come, as the Walrus said, to think of other things.
The organisation / association / school of which I am proud & happy to have been a part for over a decade, has decided to broaden its campaign.

It has been accepted that the global campaign against neckties has had some impact. Sympathisers have increased awareness that tying decorated strips of cloth around one’s neck is folly and a clear symbol of submission to the yoke of ridiculous convention.

I attended a seminar in the city recently. It was depressing: I had to seek guidance on how to access the lift – there were 6, with no buttons. One had to mechanically alert a console in the foyer as to one’s destination & it advised which lift would convey you. The damn thing had only a clock & an alarm bell & took me straight to floor 20 without stopping.

Even worse were the attendees: 90/100 uniformly attired in black; decorative nooses tightly wound around male necks & jackets buttoned …. slightly amused at my grey flannel slacks and cardigan, politely ignoring my lack of necktie.

All I could think of was urban clones. The lawyers who adressed us, could have been brother and sisters, raised by a Sergeant Major! I am so glad I don’t work in the city!! The campaign has a loong way to go.

The Israelis, those clever industrious aggressive people, who are the best national example of a general rejection of that corporate noose, are not doing well with PR at the moment though!

So, a different campaign, a strategic feint, is considered appropriate to garner fresh attention,

Being easy going, we understand the courage and daring involved in resistance. The Man is mean, unreasonable and unrelenting – a challenge of this nature is likely to invite institutional condemnation from up high.
The Man, who has tolerated this absurdity for many years, will have to admit his own folly to recant.

That is hard and would attract labels such as radical, liberal and, horror of horrors, may risk refusal of entry to the Club! So any challenge will be stifled.

Of course, women do not have to comply – that is discriminatory; but don’t tell a lawyer that, there will be an answer. Perhaps men should wear skirts to work – they could call them kilts …hmmm!

Take courage, talk about it, debate it, defend it, attack it!

We still believe wearing silly socks can bring about a gradual erosion of urban uniform mentality.

Start on Fridays & spread the word; encourage participation, praise creativity. It cannot be faulted (it is underwear , after all)

To socks, to socks!

This is a re-post of a very early (slightly edited) blog published on 28 July 2006

Shine a light on it

This is not a religious rant.

The Devil loves the dark. He shies away from the light.

I was having a devil of a time understanding why I felt that capitalism was a failed system.

My concern was prompted by the perpetual focus on how rich the super rich are. The worth of Elon Musk, Bill Gates etc is staggering! According to Wikipedia they are surpassed by Bernard Arnaut who is worth $233 billion!! (understandable as he produces the world’s best champagne, brandy and luxury goods – Louis Vuitton – he sells to rich folk).

Then I shone a little light on their worth: LVMH has 213,000 employees, representing 190 different nationalities; Musk companies employ over 110,000 people.

That’s how capitalism works: clever people employ many people who in turn fund society and of course they all pay taxes so we can have a government to run our countries. In 2023, LVMH paid a tax rate of 26% on revenue of €86 billion.

That looks like capitalism works very well for society!!

Since the adoption of capitalism the world has improved dramatically:

Life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900;
the almost universal illiteracy of 200 years ago has practically disappeared;
only 10% of the world live in extreme poverty, compared to 80% of the world 2 00 years ago.

There certainly seems to be enough money provided by the Capitalist economies and even the former communist and totalitarian economies like China and Russia who have ample funds to spend on military hardware and war!

So we must shine our light elsewhere.

The US federal government debt now stands at 33 trillion dollars*

Almost every single Western economy shows a similar pattern!!

Throughout democratic capitalist economies, politicians are confronted by rising expectations of the voters, rising costs of government and declining productivity.

… authoritarian capitalist economies such as those of Russia and China are not constrained by the economic realities that confront Western democracies.

If free market capitalist economies are to survive we have to either substantially increase rates of taxation to pay for rearmament or reduce the welfare benefits that citizens now see as their right.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/06/are-we-doomed Tony Letford

Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Our governments are just shelling out money to stay in power – how long is that going to work?

So my faith in capitalism is restored. I have no faith in politicians, yet they are what we have, so we must get them to work properly.

Intermittent feasting

It is a sad thing that we always try to fool ourselves. Long ago, I accepted that I was hopelessly self-indulgent and because I loved eating and drinking, there would be some corporeal consequences.

Daily exercise was my penance and thus I felt that I prevented indulgences from becoming overwhelming. I knew my form as overweight; what a tailor called rather inelegantly, portly short. (My ego inserted ‘slightly’ to mollify my dignity).

I had long ago accepted that I was not as trim as I was when I played rugby (not quite 50 years ago), but that the next step, overweight, was acceptable. I mean Shakespeare’s Falstaff was a knight at arms, even though somewhat portly!

However, I was recently labelled as obese!!

I was also told the risks that my obesity fostered: diabetes, higher blood pressure, dementia, high cholesterol; but to be honest, I think it was my vanity that was most bruised. I can not allow myself to be obese!

It was my chiropractor who labelled me – a good man (he talks rugby between slaps and stretches).

I had gone to him for various aches and pains and the obvious conclusion we drew, was that they too may well diminish if my poor skeleton was not dragging around almost 20kg of unnecessary weight.

He suggested that losing weight was a mental challenge. Diets were about changing what was eaten; changing when I ate, may outfox my procrastinations and lapses when confronted by Black Forest Cake or Sherry Trifle.

So now I may eat them between 10h00 and 18h00, admittedly with some moderation …. but I am a reasonable man.

In this way, I protect my vanity by reducing my obesity and virtuously discipline my habits and lose wight which will make me healthy.

It’s what I call a win, win, win solution!

(I might live forever! That might be taking things a step too far. Nobody would tolerate me at 90!!)

I promise to keep you informed on progress … or otherwise! Scout’s Honour.

Starting weight, fully dressed was (?) 105kg.