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ARTHUR –
People can be so bloody unreasonable these days -
This lovely bloke on another blog told me I write crap – “ferment manure online”, he opined.
An interesting but rather undeserved verdict, that.
And one which I opine is the product of a closed mind scooting through cyberspace like a demented ferret.
Thinks I, this is the sort that has ‘no use’ neither for history nor science fiction, nor anything that enriches curiosity or the intellect of man.
Yep. ‘Blake’s Seven’, it hit me, or even a ‘Conan Comic’, would definitely have him ‘all at sea’.
Everyone else had buggered off, God knows why, to the ‘Regional Show’. No help, no consolation, no advice. Millie had left ‘on her Jetplane’.
I was on my own.
I had a good cry; then once I had calmed down with a good cup of Bovril™, had a damned hard think about this confronting situation.
After all I’m not the bloody Pope. At the end of the day, I’m not entirely infallible.
My flawed reasoning progressed thus -
After a fair amount of consideration I realised that he really meant he didn’t agree with what he had decided that I’d written. Repeat – “what he had decided that I’d written” – which is saliently different from his misunderstanding what I HAD written, the confused little twit.
Or is it?
Stap me. Now he’s got me confused!
This, as follows, is by way of being circumspect and intended as an overpolite way of saying that evidently the poor doofus cannot either read or reason.
He went on to prove that by more or less ripping strips off me for, as he claims, having the temerity to put shit on someone I had merely mentioned, one Larry McMurtry.
Which is strange since I am fond of the literary work of Mr. Larry McMurtry -
My library record attests to the fact that I am inordinately fond of that author’s work.
So whenever I mention Mr. Mc Murtry it is invariably in positive terms.
What could I possibly gain by doing otherwise?
Could I maybe con people into believing that Larry is a hopeless author and thereby diminish that long waiting list for his books down at the library?
I hardly think so.
But none of that is really the point; not at all the proverbial bone of contention -
What he really means is that he has sneaked over here to Calligula’s Horse, the Blog and taken a bit of a peek and rummage amongst our pages.
And what he found there was too confronting.
What we are saying here and there on these pages risks pricking his little bubble of false security.
I could almost hear his share portfolio spontaneously self-combusting.
One thing for sure is that he was not ever going to open up any of those URLs we provided allowing him to corroborate what we are saying about the dubious and perverse direction this country is taking.
Nor did he even leave a G’day, well done, comment. The little churl.
Leaving a mark -
Some ‘Kilroy was here’ comment or, since all we ever write is crap, even some reciprocal annoying digital excretion reminiscent of the local feral tomcat mightn’t be welcome – but at least it’d let us know that the net was still working. (Stuff ‘em. I delete ‘em before you ever get to see ‘em anyway. DR, Editor)
How would we know if he was ‘there’ if he didn’t leave his ‘mark’ -
Oh, come on fellows. You know better than that.
Comes in the statistics package, doesn’t it.
It keeps all your, the reader’s, contact details confidential – leastways we never get a look at them.
Nonetheless, checking the stats, the devious mind does gain an inkling or five about where and when this or that ‘hit’ came from and, by inference, why.
It isn’t exactly rocket science but usually more reliable than predicting the stock market.
A completely specious statement from outer field-
All of which ably demonstrates that reading and comprehension aren’t particularly high on the list of priorities of the genetically modified and well programmed herd animals inhabiting Oz. these days.
Recognition, herd animals, vocal characteristics, a selection –
- That doesn’t worry me (re - new laws)
- ‘They’ make the rules (new laws again)
- ‘They’ can do what they like (new laws introduced overnight without consultation)
- I can afford that (new taxes, levies and increased prices)
- That still doesn’t worry me (yet – or – but I know it gives you the shits)
- Should have brought that law in years ago (they don’t own a gun or motorcycle)
- Oh well, I can afford it (I know you can’t)
- If I can afford it, so can you, if you work hard for it (usually directed at unemployed, disabled and farmers)
- If you can’t afford it – quit doing it (they don’t like ginger beer, or -)
- If you can’t afford it you mustn’t be meant to have it (anything else they don’t like)
- They say it’s bad for you (just about everything they heard about on the news)
- It’s bad for you – that’s why it’s so expensive now (just about everything in creation they’ve noticed other people enjoying)
- We’ve all have to pay our dues (actually they were coke dealers but had ‘certain contacts and obligations’ then)
- We never do anything in our back yard that we’re ashamed of (ugly, inhibited, no imagination)
- You’re not allowed to do that (anything and everything, especially if it looks like fun)
- We can do whatever we want to on our side of the fence (they are still coke dealers)
- Someone should do something about that (Peter Beattie)
- Oh well, it had to happen sometime (Queenslanders, speaking about Beattie rooting the Qld credit rating)
- This sort of thing never happened in our day (back when they dealt in coke and had ‘protection’)
Off on more of a tangent -
That’s why we refer to the ‘Dunning/Kruger Effect™’ frequently.
We don’t do that to insult the reader but to give those DK guys a plug in the hope that the less self-confident out there have a look at the concept, roll it about for a while in their consciousness and hopefully they profit by it.
If you are a bit that way it may give you some encouragement to realise that Messrs Dunning and Kruger might just be a bit dim themselves.
After all it took two of them in modern times to cook up and commercialise an idea that Socrates invented all on his lonesome (and offered for free) the best part of two and a half thousand years ago. (See further below. Dr, Editor)
Bottom line is that we just haven’t progressed much
Just still just so easy to get into trouble in the blink of an eye.
Image – “One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest”. No. It isn’t Jack Nicholson.
This is a pikkie of an Aussie kid posing with a couple of his mates ‘somewhere over in Europe ’.
Looks warry doesn’t he? Except that the lump of pipe he is pointing well away from the camera is what the military call ‘inert’, ‘deactivated’ or ‘expended’. It contains no ammunition or charge.If it had been ‘loaded,’ the projectile would be clearly visible projecting from the front of the tube. It is therefore harmless.
Yet the press let this picture represent to millions of gullible fools that it was prime evidence of his intention to cause harm. Not one single ‘expert’ ever stood up and said – ‘this is bullshit’. The poor kid is such an expert that he’s got the optical sight of this piece of expended ordnance in perfect alignment with his MOUTH. Everyone knows that we can aim infinitely better with our GOBS than we ever possibly could with our eyes.
See, even pikkies, out of context, fool the gullible.
Too harsh on my critic?
Probably. But maybe he does need to carefully study the contents of some of the following URLs if he wants to win friends and influence people with his profound comprehension.
- or this, if he is merely a doofus who needs a hint about how to manage that infirmity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect - since as they humbly suggest and Socrates would attest – things can get pretty poisonous when low wattage intellects fail to realise that their lack of metacognitive ability denies them the ability to comprehend their mistakes.
Ah, Socrates.
But having said all that – never, ever forget this sucker –
Which goes back all the way to our ‘Maiden Speech’
Don’t worry though, it’s not the end of the world – just a spot of ‘cognitive bias’.
http://books.google.com/books?id=GxyY5NRWqEMC - maybe these guys can help?
(But hold. They’re having a brief mention of this sort of thing broadcast on the ABC this minute The masters reckon that people are getting really snarky on the internet – that old fashioned manners and decency are just going down the gurgler. I believe they are suggesting that henceforth the internet fora and weblogs are beneath contempt)
Which intrusion leads to another train of thought -
When politicians want to fob people off they say things like – ‘But that is a very COMPLEX situation’.
What they actually mean is if some emerging situation suits the populace – then they’ll pass a law against whatever it is. That keeps life simple for them in terms of keeping paper off their desks and their avoiding anything as challenging as attempting to comprehend and assimilate the contents of those documents.
Meanwhile they pretend they are slow readers.
On the other hand some COMPLEX situations (like the massively overcomplicated tax laws) they cherish and hold as inviolate as the original copy of the Ten Commandments.
Wrong. Read again -
I didn’t say they OBEY the Ten Commandments or the tax laws themselves.
Rather they EXPLOIT them to their advantage and to the detriment of the disenfranchised masses.
The big question remains. How long are you patiently suffering, uncomplaining dills going to keep putting up with the outrageous games of these manipulators of self ordained privilege?
Don’t you ever read the NEWS?
The political masters turned a blind eye to climate change skeptics in 2006/7 –
- but when the shoe is on the other foot in 2011 we grab out ‘good’ scientists and wrap them up in cotton wool.
While that is happening Mr. Bob Katter establishes a new political party -
- and when doing so has expressed the opinion that he’s worried about himself getting ‘put in jail’ in result of doing no more than exercising his democratic right.
What could possibly cover the interest and concerns of such diverse groups?
Obviously a whole bunch of aggressive ratbags behaving themselves might help.
They really should not fly off the handle at such special interest groups as sampled and mentioned immediately above.
- but evidently, and to their infinite shame, they do.
But we at ‘Calligula’s Horse’ talk nothing but ‘crap’ -
An Australian charter of rights is rubbish – has to be crap. If we talk about it, it has to be.
Never forget that for a second.
Always remember that no hyena is ever going to bite an ostrich on the arse when it has its head firmly jammed in the sand.
Not when there’s all that free, hyena distracting, KFC put out there fresh every day by, bless ‘em, the ‘Ostrich Rescue’ guys and gals.
The ostrich rescue guys and gals will aggressively defend their right to put out KFC every day and run campaigns demanding contributions and funding.
And because they’re zealous idealists they’ll gang up on the people politely pointing to the Ostrich overpopulation and all the hyenas dropping dead of coronaries.
They will vigorously deny that they are causing an ecological disaster because they religiously bellieeeeve they are right (besides all those other perks).
About the only thing that will ever bring them into line is a press release avowing to the fact that it was a Colonel Sanders who set up ‘Ostrich Rescue International™’.
But before idealism is so precipitately torn asunder heads will be cracked and the ‘claret’ will flow.
Don’t know what I mean?
Well, for one thing if you are an ostrich with your head firmly, permanently, jammed in the sand you might be grateful that a mob of activists rush about all day saving your butt.
Ha, with any luck they might even wipe it for you.
That’s what governments and an ever expanding, allegedly altruistic ‘NGO industry’ pretend they do – but at what cost, wasted effort and to whose ultimate benefit?
Special interest groups whether defending an Ostrich, a duck, a climate change skeptic, a true believer, or some politician cannot adequately defend the object of their interest or promote some special cause unless they have a right to do so.
To deny that right leads to an escalation of confrontation, intimidation, threats, then ultimately violence. (the lawyers love it)
That sort of thing has been happening for several thousand years now.
Many people don’t know that; others don’t want to know that; while others just don’t care or see it as the natural order of things.
There are a whole other set who like things that way. They call it maintaining the status quo.
They exploit the idealistic zealots often placing one set in conflict with another thus providing street theatre for the masses, a good chance for the masters to ‘regretfully resort to the exercise of authority’ and a damned good opportunity to bring in new ‘law and order’ legislation.
It is a package of deceit all bound up in a wrapping of being an unfortunate aspect of democracy in our increasingly complex, ungrateful, disobedient society.
And all the acrimony bunfighting and nausea could mostly be brought to a stand by drafting and implementing a document which defines our rights and guarantees each and every of us our right to natural justice and a forum for our voices to be heard and acted upon.
Just imagine that. Instead of wasting time like me here writing this drivel or having some toolhead on talkback radio hit the red button on you – you’d have a venue to lodge your concern or dissent and have it acted upon.
Wow !
But the masters won’t ever do that, will they. It’d all end up too much like work.
PS - What is the difference between the new Australian Party and the LNP?
Unlike the LNP, Mr. Katter’s new party has an elected leader.
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