Ramrod
17-10-2003, 22:44
From the Sunday Times review:
"we are a nation of wimps that will put up with anything.
After half a millennium or more of some sort of mother-parliamentary democracy, we live in a one-party state with no concrete civil rights at all. We seem to put up with this.
Look in any National Health Service waiting room. In almost any state school. Inside any commuter train. Try to drive around the M25. Each of these experiences is ten thousand stories of people being abused by the state. But hardly anyone is behaving badly at all. We wait our turn.
One does not know whether to laugh or cry. I am hooked on the public appointment advertisements in The Guardian. It is the funniest and most tragic section of the midweek. Last week some council in the west was hiring a climate change officer!
Yet nobody pays a political price. The proles get soaked for foul, deteriorated and corrupted services while favoured contractors and political contributors rake in millions, idiot/venal/useless/stupid politicians come and go, and of course the mandarins collect beautiful baubles and fabulous inflation-proof pensions.
It is universally acknowledged that in order to get by and survive everyday life in Britain, we must meekly accept the completely unacceptable ††â€ Å“mustnâ ۉâ₠žÂ¢t grumbleââ‚à ‚¬Ã‚ is our real national motto. If anyone complains, then we are expected to stare at them as if they are the abnormal ones.
The politicians and the BBC talk ******** but almost all obediently pay and obey. Council taxes go up at 10 times inflation yet few pelt councillors with rotten tomatoes because nobody even knows who they are.
To an extent it is healthy to be able to encounter setbacks and cope with official illogic without melting down and causing a scene. But at some point this British tolerance morphed into psychosis. Collectively, we deny the real, perhaps because we are powerless to affect it. On the BBC, the bien pensants sneer at California. At least in California when people sicken of a politician, they can give them the sack. What sort of political choices do we have? Is there truly any party that represents any cause other than its own?
Are we drugged? A mould, perhaps, attributable to our damp climate? Rye fungus produces an effect not dissimilar to LSD. Perhaps Defra has slipped something in the burger buns. Maybe this is what anaesthetises us and keeps us quiet.
Something baffling is doubtlessly occurring. I buy a loaf of organic white bread at Waitrose. The Waitrose boy removes the plastic film wrapping. I tell him I am happy for him to leave it wrapped. But he insists: †œI have to unwrap it. Itâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s an EU rule.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šà ¬Ã‚ÂÂ
I point to hundreds of loaves of Hovis on the nearby self-service shelf, wrapped in plastic bags. Unmoved, the boy solemnly decants my bread to a paper bag. What is this about? jonathan.miller@sunday-times.co.uk (jonathan.miller@sunday-times.co.uk)"
'nuff said:afire:
"we are a nation of wimps that will put up with anything.
After half a millennium or more of some sort of mother-parliamentary democracy, we live in a one-party state with no concrete civil rights at all. We seem to put up with this.
Look in any National Health Service waiting room. In almost any state school. Inside any commuter train. Try to drive around the M25. Each of these experiences is ten thousand stories of people being abused by the state. But hardly anyone is behaving badly at all. We wait our turn.
One does not know whether to laugh or cry. I am hooked on the public appointment advertisements in The Guardian. It is the funniest and most tragic section of the midweek. Last week some council in the west was hiring a climate change officer!
Yet nobody pays a political price. The proles get soaked for foul, deteriorated and corrupted services while favoured contractors and political contributors rake in millions, idiot/venal/useless/stupid politicians come and go, and of course the mandarins collect beautiful baubles and fabulous inflation-proof pensions.
It is universally acknowledged that in order to get by and survive everyday life in Britain, we must meekly accept the completely unacceptable ††â€ Å“mustnâ ۉâ₠žÂ¢t grumbleââ‚à ‚¬Ã‚ is our real national motto. If anyone complains, then we are expected to stare at them as if they are the abnormal ones.
The politicians and the BBC talk ******** but almost all obediently pay and obey. Council taxes go up at 10 times inflation yet few pelt councillors with rotten tomatoes because nobody even knows who they are.
To an extent it is healthy to be able to encounter setbacks and cope with official illogic without melting down and causing a scene. But at some point this British tolerance morphed into psychosis. Collectively, we deny the real, perhaps because we are powerless to affect it. On the BBC, the bien pensants sneer at California. At least in California when people sicken of a politician, they can give them the sack. What sort of political choices do we have? Is there truly any party that represents any cause other than its own?
Are we drugged? A mould, perhaps, attributable to our damp climate? Rye fungus produces an effect not dissimilar to LSD. Perhaps Defra has slipped something in the burger buns. Maybe this is what anaesthetises us and keeps us quiet.
Something baffling is doubtlessly occurring. I buy a loaf of organic white bread at Waitrose. The Waitrose boy removes the plastic film wrapping. I tell him I am happy for him to leave it wrapped. But he insists: †œI have to unwrap it. Itâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s an EU rule.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šà ¬Ã‚ÂÂ
I point to hundreds of loaves of Hovis on the nearby self-service shelf, wrapped in plastic bags. Unmoved, the boy solemnly decants my bread to a paper bag. What is this about? jonathan.miller@sunday-times.co.uk (jonathan.miller@sunday-times.co.uk)"
'nuff said:afire: