The wisdom of Alexandria

But what is the point when we only have twelve years left? Unfortunately there is more -

   

Crap jobs

The other day found us tootling along Derbyshire roads with the top down on a lovely sunny day. Lovely for us but not necessarily for those who had to work outside in the heat and the full glare of the sun.

We passed one of those temporary traffic control systems where two guys have to hold up STOP GO boards. Both wore full hi-vis overalls so it must have been a sweltering job. If that had been my job I’d have put a great deal of effort into moving on. In fact I’d have put a great deal of effort into avoiding such a job in the first place.

It’s an element of career ambition. Maybe it isn’t easy to say how important it is generally but from my perspective it is very important. The notion of a fulfilling career is probably a fantasy for most of us - avoiding the crap jobs will generally do.

Thick as a post

Just before bunging this post onto the interweb I realised it’s my 3000^th post. Not a huge number by blogging standards but when I began I didn’t expect – well I don’t quite know what I didn’t expect. Here it is anyway.

There is a vital sense in which we need eccentrics, extremists and perhaps even criminals. From the harmless nutter to the politically correct loon to the megalomaniac, we need them as boundary posts. They indicate where sanity comes to an end and insanity begins. They are the boundary posts put there by bitter experience to indicate where we must not go. It’s where the expression thick as a post comes from. Actually it isn’t, but perhaps it ought to be.

The trouble is we also need similar boundary posts for a completely different reason. These boundary posts indicate where we have gone wrong and how we should change our boundaries in the future. Spotting the difference between them can be a problem.

For example, Jeremy Corbyn is an obvious boundary post of the don’t go there type. An intransigent extremist who over more than three decades has contributed little of political, economic or moral value to any public debate. An easy boundary post to spot one would think but for many voters apparently not.

An example from the US could be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who if given the opportunity could do a great deal of harm to the US. Ursula von der Leyen seems to radiate post-like qualities and of course the EU itself is an enormous institutional post. Our leaders ignored that one on our behalf.

The problem of boundary posts is an old one, but current difficulties seem to stem from our history since WW2. One might suppose that WW2 and communism left us with a number of massive boundary posts in Hitler, Stalin, Mao and co. Compared to that lot Al Capone was a cuddly teddy bear of a businessman.

Hitler, Stalin, Mao left us with huge clues about the boundaries of political endeavour. Vast clues only a raving lunatic could miss. Unfortunately the posts have been moved and all we are really left with today is Hitler because numerous intellectuals, journalists, politicians and activists choose not to see the others.

The Guardian is an institutional boundary post, as is the BBC, both showing us how the upper middle class pulls up the social ladder to minimise social mobility. This is why we have comprehensive schools – the grammar school educational ladder was pulled up.

The Daily Mail is yet another institutional boundary post, warning us that tits, bums and celebrities aren’t everything. The Pope is another post as is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Unfortunately ours is also the age of fake boundaries such as identity politics fake racism, fake sexism and the wider problem of numerous fake prejudices. These boundary posts show us where free speech is being abused and where language itself is abused.

Climate change gives us a huge boundary post to indicate where science is corrupted by politics if we are foolish enough to cross over to the mad world of invented physical phenomena. As with all such problems, rational argument goes nowhere. Ignore the boundary post, cross the boundary and reason no longer functions.

Jeremy's mass rally

source

Maybe the others were too busy.

The GaryBox

Hooray, BritBox is coming to the UK.

BritBox: ITV and BBC set out plans for new streaming service

Shows like Love Island, Gavin & Stacey, Gentleman Jack and Broadchurch will be on ITV and the BBC's streaming service BritBox when it launches this year.

The broadcasters are joining forces to set up the subscription service in the UK as a rival to the likes of Netflix.

It will cost £5.99 per month in HD, launching between October and the end of December.

New programmes will also be made specially for BritBox, with the first arriving next year.

Not the same thing technically, but here’s another idea. How about a GaryBox for the BBC? This would be a simple inexpensive box of tricks sitting between the aerial or satellite dish and the TV. On a particular well-publicised date BBC terrestrial and satellite transmissions would be scrambled but the GaryBox would unscramble them for viewers who have paid a fee.

To make the GaryBox work, BBC viewers without an internet connection would buy time-limited cards which slot into the GaryBox, allowing them to watch all BBC output, including of course Gary Lineker on Match of the Day. For those with an internet connection the GaryBox would be updated via an internet account and Direct Debit. That would be the majority of viewers, making the GaryBox easy to operate.

The GaryBox would do away with the TV licence and allow people who don’t watch the BBC to watch TV without worrying about TV licence bullying. I know from personal experience that there are people who don’t watch BBC but pay for a licence to avoid any possibility of licence bullying but that’s the Beeb for you. Gary must be paid.

Pulling up the ladder

There is much to be said for the idea that pulling up the social ladder lies at the core of all political movements and systems. This is why socialism is so middle class, why covert stifling of social mobility seems so important to both socialism and the many flavours of left wing politics.

Entangled with this is the selective control of information. In other words there is also a fundamental difference between those who value comprehensive explanations and those who for social and political reasons prefer partial explanations. Partial explanations are easier to understand and promote, easier to mould into ladder-pulling slogans.

There is a vastly important type of partial explanation which offers a sense of moral strength while pulling up the social ladder. In these cases the whole ladder-pulling game is viewed from a standpoint of moral strength, Everything is done for the common good, especially for those at the bottom of the social pile.

But of course the moral standpoint is spurious because what is created is dependency and dependency is all that is left once the ladder has been pulled up.

High in the water

Sky has this story about a dodgy Chinese swimmer

Sky Views: Podium protest against China's 'poster boy' shames swimming's governing body

There were several contenders for standout moment of the swimming world championships in South Korea this weekend.

Not least, Adam Peaty producing possibly the finest performance by a British swimmer in history, becoming the first person to break 57 seconds for 100m breaststroke.

But it was the image of Australian Mack Horton refusing to share the podium with China's poster boy Sun Yang that will endure.

The terms "drugs cheat," "dirty," and "doper" are already being attached to Sun Yang by his rivals before he has been convicted of anything, over and above a warning relating to the latest scandal.

But that is the environment FINA has created with its disgraceful approach to doping control and toothless punishments of drugs cheats.

The piece lists the evidence against Sun which, one might think, should be enough to have him barred from competitive swimming. Apparently not.

In other news, Chinese geneticists have a new breed of drug-free swimmers in the pipeline. With huge feet, webbed hands and a breathing hole in the back of their heads these super-athletes are expected to consign the whole sorry drugs mess to sporting history.