Simon Carr: I am really not sure I'd do the right thing
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Independent Minds
First the bankers, then the police, now the MPs. We are seeing a wholesale crash in the structures of authority. What happens next? How does it get better? We all believe we will do the right thing, personally, ourselves. Is that how we usher in a new Republic of Virtue? Or will we just roll along doing what everyone else does, safe in a crowd and obedient to our various masters?
There was a Horizon the other week showing a remake of the "Milgram Experiment", one of the most alarming psychological demonstrations of the last century.
A scientist sits in a room with a member of the public. In an adjoining room sits a man who has been strapped to a chair. It is made clear that this man is wired up to an electricity generating machine.
The experiment begins. The man in the chair is asked questions; he responds; when his answers are wrong he is given a shock by the member of the public in the other room. Every wrong answer gets a heavier shot of electricity.
Past a certain point, the man in the chair starts complaining, then protesting, then pleading. He has a heart condition. He is in danger. The pain is unbearable.
Around two-thirds of people went on to give the maximum 450 volts three times in a row. They didn't want to. They became distressed but the scientist said: "The experiment requires that you continue." Nonetheless, they continued.
The set up was faked. No shocks were actually given to the man. It wasn't an experiment in learning but an experiment in obedience. The result? We are very obedient.
When Horizon repeated the experiment nearly 50 years later, after two generations of personal development and individualistic training, what would the result be? A slight increase in the number prepared to administer the maximum shock, twice what the mains supply provides. Yes, we are now 75 per cent obedient.
One thing I was certain of: I wouldn't have turned up the dial. As soon as the man started indicating distress I would have been out of my seat and in the next room to unstrap him, experts and authority figures notwithstanding. It's just the way I am. Or so I assumed.
Another news item last week reported the case of a deportee being restrained by two immigration officials in his aeroplane seat. It was a commercial flight. The words heard in the cabin were: "I can't breathe!" The plane was still on the ground.
A passenger stood up to remonstrate with the officials. He was told to return to his seat. He refused. The flight was disrupted. The officials were just doing their job. The deportee was a trouble maker. He was resisting a court order. The plane was full of busy people with appointments at the other end of the flight. "Sit down!" vs "I can't breathe!"
Very often, just before take-off I see empty seats together, and when the cabin doors are shut I steel myself to undo my seat belt (against the rules) and stand up (making myself conspicuous) and move into one of the empty seats (looking greedy).
Considering this sensitivity to public opinion, would I really have the nerve to undo my seat belt, stand up and denounce fully accredited law officers, empowered by the courts, backed up by airline stewards?
Or would I be part of the 99 per cent in the Republic of Obedience? The gentleman who intervened was bundled off the flight by armed police and taken into custody. Obviously.
We all need to be resilient – ask any boy
Jane Campion puts in a word for the Resilience Movement (it's in its infancy and needs support). The director of Bright Star has looked at the lack of women at the top of the film industry and attributes it not just to the normal "boy's club" stacking of the boards of directors. Women are brought up more gently, she says, more respectfully.
"I think women don't grow up with the kind of criticism that men grow up with. We are more sensitively treated."
A friend of mine had a daughter who wanted to be an actress. By chance, he knew Michael Douglas and asked his advice. Douglas advised against it saying that an actor's life was one of constant, continuous rejection.
Men were more used to that (starting with teenage dating propositions).
Jane Campion went on to say that women "just aren't used to" criticism in the way men are. There's a subject for a thesis in there because in my experience, women have very great talent in the field of criticism and apply it most particularly to each other. But Jane Campion's proposal deserves to be put on the school curriculum. Of course bullying and rejection are undesirable. But it's equally important to teach resilience to those who suffer from them.
At last, something to get our teeth into
One thing to be grateful for: something is actually happening. It's so unusual we must savour it.
The G20 talks weren't something happening. Ninety per cent of parliamentary activity doesn't count as something happening. Public life is process. It's why people don't vote any more. Most voters view politics as being harangued by failing megalomaniacs – where's the fun in that?
But the expenses scandal is something else entirely. This is alive, uncontrollable, unpredictable. It's moving so fast our leaders have to think on their feet. They can't rely on a civil service note. They can't calculate and game-play five moves deep. They have to improvise and rely on their instincts. They have to fight! They're alive!
And that has its dangers (no wonder we're enjoying it). As a result of the last few weeks, we can see a little deeper into the Prime Minister's psychology. And normally, you would really need a snorkel to look at that.
We also know more about Cameron. He took risks, he faced down the Hoary Tories and came out looking like a prime minister – which is not the same as looking like the Prime Minister.
Nick Clegg too has shown us what he's made of. He put all his savings on red and span the wheel. No other party leader has dared to say what he's said about the Speaker. It's a big bet. And if the odds are shortening in his direction, let us not forget how he could have come a cropper.
And of course, the Speaker has taken off all his clothes and revealed himself in full psychological nudity. The indecency has been exhilarating. I bet the vote goes up next year.
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Comments
there is a far larger potential controversy looming over MEPs expenses.
There is partial transparency over MEPs expenses, with some information available and some denied, but there is enought to be able to see that there is a major problem with - what shall we call it? - 'bad practice'.
For example, certain MEPs have been claiming larger expenses than would at first sight seem possible or justified, and arranging for their office expenses to be paid through their wife, as 'paying agent'.
Then we are denied information about the detail on the basis that 'Mr ****** is correct in not sending you details of individual headings of expenditure as no decision on this has been made by the EPLP to make these available' - so says Mr Giampi Alhadeff, Secretary General of the European Parliamentary Labour Party - a rather colourful individual and scion of an international banking family.
Come on, we are in the middle of the campaign for the European elections and we would love to hear about MEPs
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
Hello any one there please HELP!!!
RICKY Gervais has revealed he went to the White House ? in his PYJAMAS.
The Kremlin is hidden by an enormous row of BMW billboards, although they seem to be the only ones in Moscow full of advertisements. Even though the VIP tables in Soho Rooms, NON ISLAM AGAIN. one of the city's most ostentatious nightclubs, can still be reserved for the rather worrying sum of £8,000 (and on which you can still place a £1,200 bottle of Dom Perignon), and even though the luxury shops are reporting a brisker trade than at Christmas, times here are still tough.
The Hotmail gone. The Indians who came to the Silicon Valley have the Bangalore as their Silicon Valley. They are happy working there, what is more the Gays etc does not go well with these and many.
The banks that are still solvent do not have much of an appetite for tax offsets because they do not have profits they are trying to shield from Uncle Sam. It is hard for lots of Silicon Valley start-ups to raise money right now. It is even tougher for some clean-energy start-ups that were counting on special tax breaks to help them raise cash.
The situation is another reminder of the devastating effect the recession and credit crisis have had on some segments of green technology, the industry that was hailed as an innovative bright spot--and potential big moneymaker--for the venture-capital industry just a year or two ago.
I just read that Obama is trying to defend the GAYS and now we have pajamas. Are these antiques? THIS IS VERY BAD IN ISLAM.
RICKY Gervais has revealed he went to the White House ? in his PYJAMAS.
The comic?s clothes were at the cleaners when he was invited to President Barack Obama?s home.
So he wore loose black PJs for the visit with girlfriend Jane Fallon and actor Ben Stiller.
They are honest thieves or mad, Hick. Decent yes? Face the book, and the mirror. Hick.
I know that He, he, he, eh, Hick, but do not tell them. They do not know that. He, he, he, hick, they are drunk with the pride, He, he, Drinking too is not allowed so I am getting ou of here soon.
The programme, the cost of which is shared by manufacturers, allows owners of cars and small vans more than 10 years old to get £2,000 off the price of a brand-new vehicle when scrapping their old vehicle.
But administrative issues have seen it run into difficulty on the day of its launch.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson earlier hailed the scrappage scheme as a "wonderful bargain" for drivers and good news for everyone in the motor industry.
The scheme will last until the end of February 2010 or until the £300m Government funding runs out. Cheating is not allowed but we cheat anyway.
% of what but I like the change. We have similarity. The budget then the price increases in the next month, again next month, and again the next month. Then we stop complaining and carry on living under the trees silent until death takes to Allah if not collected like dogs. Please prey for me? You will. No?
Total=Crazy
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
I never understood why anyone with a socially approved choice would want to battle their way up the greasy-pole lined with razor blades that leads (eventually, for a very, very tiny number) to "The Boardroom". I think 99% of players aren't gagging for it - it's a bloody horrible environment - dominated by supposed "male values" - and frankly very few men actually get "somewhere lofty" anyway. Why do that crap and drudgery if you do have the choice to focus on something meaningful, like nuturing your off-spring?
Women have more role choices in this society, and they can make happier choices than men are allowed to. We don't need to trot out the usual vast, convoluted, conspiracy theory to explain why "women aren't in the boardroom"; the answer is because they have social approval to do much nicer things.
This is a parliament that thinks its own rules trump the laws they themselves created.
Parliament must voluntarily hoist themselves on their own petard.