Who remembers I Spy books? They are still around and certainly encourage kids to
observe the world around them because the art of observation is considered to
be a Good Thing.
The art of observation is a rum game though. At one time it was considered essential for a particular kind of acute, penetrating intelligence epitomised by the scientist in a white coat but it went much wider than that. In detective fiction, Sherlock Holmes was the ultimate observer but there were many others from Miss Marple to Ludovic Travers. By contrast, Holmes’ plodding companion Dr Watson hardly appeared to observe anything but the obvious.
Back in July I took this photo of what I thought might be some kind of fungus, but it seems more likely to be an example of Wolf’s Milk. Quite common on decaying wood in the UK apparently, so why haven’t I observed it before? Surely even Dr Watson would have spotted it lots of times.
Yet oddly enough, the art of observation appears to have been downplayed over recent decades. As if a Dr Watson fog has drifted across the public domain, where the ability to observe even the obvious is tuned out by endless media clamour.
It isn’t merely media noise though. There is a covert message that it is not nice to observe everything. It never was in certain circles of course, but those circles appear to have widened considerably. In a widening circle of circumstances, those who observe too much have become bad people.
A striking example is the coronavirus debacle where there is very strong media pressure not to observe but to accept. Yet the simplest observation tells us that many countries had a better pandemic outcome than the UK in spite of having less advanced health services. Merely one of numerous observations we are not supposed to make.
Another striking example is US President Joe Biden where simple observation suggests that he lacks the mental capacity to carry out the role - lacks it by a wide margin. Simple observation also tells us that the mainstream media do not intend to tackle this issue. Those who observe this one are definitely bad people. Even very bad people and you don't want to be one of those do you?
3 comments:
If it was possible to generate a Presidential Competence Score by plugging in various parameters to a fair model, and it was run by disinterested people from a different country, how would Trump and Biden compare? I suspect Trump, although unpleasant in many ways, would win.
But such a model is never going to be run, or more importantly the results reported, because there is now zero allowance for achievement in the model. The only parameter is whether or not the President is of the 'correct' party.
If I had to guess the future I'd say that Trump will be judged as another Thatcher (hated by many, revered by many others, effective). Biden will be judged as another Blair (hated by many, revered by many others, in it for himself, perhaps).
Possibly the faculty of observation has receded as an ability to reason took over. We are now expected to pay little attention to the actual weather, but to derive certain conclusions from some axioms about climate that someone left lying around. We can no longer look at jihadi killings, but we are encouraged to derive public policy from a set of assumptions. And although we've never seen a virus - probably most of us don't even know what one is - we can draw a set of behavioural conclusions from the generalisations that scientists provide us with.
Possibly the change came with the decline of manufacturing and manual work. People had to keep an eye on their work, monitor the reality of what was going on, pay attention to processes. Now we sit in offices and try to influence people and organisations by manipulating symbols.
DJ - future assessments of Trump and Biden may depend on how well the US copes with current political trends. To my mind the future US should be ashamed that Biden was ever elected, but they will write the history.
Sam - "Now we sit in offices and try to influence people and organisations by manipulating symbols." Yes that's it and it seems to be what leaders across the world generally do.
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