I finally went to the tip on Sunday to clear out the junk and defunct household items that had been accumulating since March 2020. I’d been putting it off because since the first lockdown the local tip had introduced an inconvenient booking system and all manner of the usual ‘Covid safe’ nonsense. Bear in mind that this is a facility that exists entirely outdoors and so where the risk of transmission is minimal.
I was waiting for the restrictions to be lifted so that I could just turn up, in the handy, old-fashioned way, and not be harassed by the tiresome ‘safetyist’ propaganda. This had taken considerably longer than I had anticipated, however, and now ‘Freedom Day’ had come and gone, and still the booking system remained stubbornly in place. The rest of the country may have lifted restrictions, but not the tip.
So when the microwave gave up in quick succession to the coffee machine and I faced the prospect of a garden filling up with broken small electrical appliances, I finally admitted defeat and booked myself in for a slot. It was, as predicted, irritatingly inconvenient, as having made the arrangement for three o’clock on the Sunday I now felt bound by it and had to arrange my day around it. The fact that the weather turned out unexpectedly summery and we ended up at a classic car show only meant that, come the hour, I had to drag my two small children away from the enticing bungee bounce in order to be able to make my time.
On arrival at the recycling centre (as the tip is now styled) it was like stepping back to April 2020. Large illuminated signs warned the approaching visitor of the dangers of Covid and reassured them there were numerous measures in place for their safety and to prevent the spread. Staff would not be able physically to help with disposing of items, the signs declared. That’s a noble sacrifice on their part, was the unkind thought that went thought my head.
I was delayed in gaining access as the driver of the car in front of me was engaged in a lively discussion with the guardian on the gate. It seems the poor man had not booked his slot so was to be denied access; he had naively assumed that ‘Freedom Day’ had meant he could now just turn up. It was not possible for him to book a slot for the same day, even if they were not all full, so he would have to come back another day. He drove off with what I imagine was a new appreciation of how seriously council workers take Covid safety.
I was ushered in (my car registration being recognised from my booking information) and drove myself to one of the socially distanced parking spaces that had been marked out in tape to keep us all sufficiently far apart. I estimated that the capacity of the recycling centre had been cut in half by these arrangements. Many of the workers were standing around doing very little. They’d love to help, of course, but it just wouldn’t be safe to do so.
During the 15 minutes I was there, the place almost emptied out. “It’ll quieten down now,” said one idle worker to another. Was it really necessary then, I thought, to have sent away the car ahead of me just 15 minutes earlier?
Distancing, restrictions, compulsory booking systems and so on have all gone from pubs, restaurants, supermarkets, and anything in the private sector that relies on paying customers to stay afloat. In the public sector, though, where more customers just means more work rather than more money, there is no rush to return to normal, to restore convenience, to encourage usage, to provide assistance. Is this because public sector workers are more conscientious in their Covid safety measures? Or is it much more likely because it suits them to keep the measures in place?
At the British Medical Association conference later this month medics are going to be told that GPs should be allowed to “dictate the pace of a return to ‘business as usual’”. Small wonder then that many people are finding it very difficult to get an appointment with their doctor, especially face-to-face.
Public sector organisations are always prone to producer capture, where the interests of the workers in an easier life take precedence over those of the customers in convenience and quality. Covid has just made matters a whole lot worse.
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Yes, keep tapping at the little things,but use ridicule not anger. One of the destructive acts against the USSR and Communism was the humour and ridicule that came from the people.
It rots a system. We can do the same.
Humour, indeed. And the beauty of humour is that the nasty barstewards must laugh along. Because if they don’t, they will reveal that the joke is TRUE!
Except that the woke dont understand humour, hence the treatment of Gervaise because they didn’t realise he was using it to make his points.
I think one of the best soviet jokes was that they could make a nuclear bomb that fitted in a suitcase.
Only Problem was they didn’t have any suitcases!
Says it all in one joke.
A friend of mine lived in North Korea. Called him up one day and asked “how’s it going over there”?
He replied “I can’t complain!”
Or “What is the difference between a Just Stop Oil Protester and a plank of wood”? —————The Grain.
An evolutionary clinical psychologist I rather like (Dr Doug Lisle) says that the best way to have discussions on difficult topics with people is to start by saying “I don’t have all the answers” (apparently it’s disarming and takes people off the defensive). Then you can ask gentle questions like “I don’t know, do you think furlough, for all the support it provided, maybe has led to all this inflation?”)
That’s the only way people can stomach discussion, if you start with humility (even if it’s a bit contrived!!).
I find it impossible to appear humble without appearing patronising.
But the main point being, however you say it, say it. Just try to keep it impersonal. And stay optimistic; always try to present the way out.
Yes, quite right. No point just steaming in there with facts and logic. It hurts them. As a salesman of some experience, I can say that the best way of influencing the buyer standing in front of you (and who usually hates you) is initially to concede something – a sop to the buyer’s vanity. Throw in phrases like “You know more about this than I do” – give them the moral high ground, and then, as you say, ask a question or two – allow them slowly to realise that they’re not actually standing on the high ground, or maybe that there isn’t any high ground. This way you can get them to a position of a kind of parity. Often it’s best to stop right there – without trying to make any kind of factual point (such as that the Covid vaccine doesn’t work, or tranny “women’ are not female). First, instil the ideas that 1) You are not an expert, 2) That neither is the ‘buyer’, 3) That the actual experts don’t half get it wrong sometimes, don’t they! Then walk away. It’s all we can do.
Excellent article
You have said it for me- thanks Marcus.
The picture needs a caption: ‘Gis a job, I can do that‘ springs to mind
Plenty of people “understand science and technology”, we aren’t in positions of power, or funded bysupra-national organisations
The author comes across as one of thiose sneering humanities types, that thinks becauase somebody of his “towering intellect” doesn’t understand it, nobody can.
The image attached reminded me of the identity of one of that groups funders: Dale Vince. Quite recently, the Foreign Office funded branch of the propaganda channel did a decent item about him and his background. They went so far as to say that he had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as well as commenting on his educational history. Quite a few bugs in his thinking, a cynic might say.
It could be argued that many senior leaders are often abnormal in some shape or form, otherwise they wouldn’t be there.
“This doesn’t require a conspiracy by the way. That is just what the profit motive will do when untrammelled by conscience or virtue. For the controlling minority of society it is extremely lucrative to promote the Pandelusion. For the majority, the result is an expensive, destructive, disempowering rip-off.”
Sorry but doesn’t this paragraph contradict itself? It seems to me to describe a conspiracy, or a series of related conspiracies. It is not describing cock-ups.
A good piece and it mirrors my own thinking. Personally, I don’t believe we win any hearts and minds by shouting “they’re trying to kill us all!” or “they’re injecting people with a bioweapon!”. Regardless of what I actually believe, I always go with slowly, slowly, catchy monkey. I’ve found that appearing to be a little confused about things generally creates a mirror response and sets the cogs of alternative thought in motion. Sowing a seed seems to be a better approach than planting a fully grown oak tree in someone’s front garden.
‘Too many people believe things that are not true.’
Nailed it.
That is the major fault line in democracy (the least worst form of government).
Impossible to replace the people.
After a conversation I had over the weekend with an Italian acquaintance, I give up.
“I don’t follow politics, I’m not political……Meloni is a fascist…..I got covid on holiday, I’ve been vaccinated three times…..during covid I had to wear a mask for a year at work, take a test every day and get vaccinated otherwise I would be suspended without pay indefinitely from the my government teaching job….”
(For those who don’t follow Italian politics, Meloni wasn’t in charge during covid – it was a “left wing” government, which couldn’t possibly be “fascist”).
It isn’t always that things are “Not True”. There can be an element of truth to it. The Climate Crisis eg is a smidgeon of the truth elevated into a planetary emergency for which no evidence exists. But this allows for policies to be put in place because proponents of climate change can say that “climate change is real”. Which has to be one of the most absurd statements I have ever heard. But often the best political slogans are so ambiguous they can mean anything that the person uttering them wants them to mean. ———-eg “Vote for Change”. ——-But Change from what and to what? How many people do you know who go around saying “I want Change”? ——It doesn’t mean anything at all, but it sounds like it does. So, it isn’t always just a case of things being TRUE or FALSE or BLACK or WHITE. It is just that the focus is all on the BLACK, making it appear there is no WHITE.
That is because they are being taught things that are not true in schools.
A good article Hugo and Carl Sagan’s quote resonated with me – I am saving that.
I am science trained and follow much of this closely. So, in the interests of accuracy you might want to fix a couple of errors of fact which to me undermine your case.
You simply don’t need to change electric car batteries every 5 years, they degrade slowly and predictably and in general will be usable for hundreds of thousands of miles. EV manufacturers fully warrant their batteries for 7 or 8 years. Of course there will be a few hard failures with time and that’s a risk but overall quite a small one I believe.
Secondly lithium is not mined in the Congo, they don’t have any significant reserves. I think you are confusing it with cobalt, which is used in some (but not all) lithium based EV batteries. Manufacturers such as Tesla are working to eliminate cobalt from all their batteries in the future.
Great article. Perfect quite from a very wise man.
But when people are bombarded every day with a barrage of politicised absurdity masquerading as some kind of ultimate truth then what can you expect? People are busy with work and family life and don’t have time to investigate every issue. They think and expect that Investigative Journalists are doing that for them. —-Alas NO. They are NOT.———— Mainstream Journalism is mostly not about investigating things, but about pushing political agenda’s and the five main ones are Equality, Diversity, Race, Gender and Climate. —–Propaganda is a very powerful tool and it very often achieves its objective. On the issue of climate eg instead of asking questions, many people brainwashed by the stream of misinformation will tend to glue themselves to the road and buildings clamouring for their own impoverishment and acting as useful idiots for their eco socialist pretend to save the planet governments.