The default position for human beings seems to be to distrust each other. Any teacher will tell you that it takes time to build up relationships with your students.
The bonds between people are so delicate. So much effort and so many coincidental circumstances are needed to construct and maintain friendships. Neglect, or one discrepancy, and the bond may be damaged or even severed.
Good intentions are simply not enough.
It must be some sort of survival mechanism built into our 'hard-wiring'.
Even between friends there is always distrust. With the best will in the world even real friends sometimes can't communicate. One of my friends is in a situation where I know I can help. I've 'been there and done that'-but they can't see it! They are are blind to what is on offer in front of their very eyes: a solution to the problem. Will they make themselves 'available' to me for assistance?
No, of course not!
Some of my teaching friends are caught up in the Orwellian nightmare of modern living.
Although my friends may be talented ,intelligent, generous and kindly people they all have the modern flaw - they cannot conceive of anyone else being a part of a solution to their problems.
Friendship involves ALLOWING other people to help you - just as much as helping other people.
The fact is that many bureaucrats are failed teachers who are not qualified to lick the boots of my friends. Others are failed pen pushers who don't like teaching or or can't teach.
Changing the subject entirely...
This morning started with a letter in the post which told me I had a two hundred dollar fine for a speed camera driving offence.
Now, I'm not denying that I didn't speed, nor that speed can be dangerous.
My point is twofold: firstly, I have been driving for forty years and have never had a serious accident. So, do we really think that my 8 kilometer per hour infringement was dangerous?
Moreover, what sort of a world do we live in where I can be fined and pay the offence without meeting another human being?
It seems to me that the ultimate objective of the consumer society is for the citizen to grow up, live -and then die without having to meet another human being- in other words without having to "bother" anybody. Is this not the ultimate Orwellian nightmare?
When are we going to realise that 'Efficiency" is not the ultimate goal in life?
Is not the the logical result of pursuing efficiency for the citizen to be born, grow up, live and maybe die "online" without bothering anybody!
There has been so much talk about "accountability" in the past forty years. Fine -but WHO are we accountable TO?
More often than not it is some bureaucrat or politician with no experience whatsoever in the area of expertise of the profession!
Here endeth the lesson for this day!
Retirement, Kota Kinabalu
This is where I would like to be after I have robbed the bank
Winners and Losers
Debate 2008 Winners and Losers Editor at left.
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