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October 06, 2005
Ignorance and Hypocrisy before breakfast. So how was your morning?
I don’t remember much about GCSE Maths but I do remember that they’d drum it into us time and time again that we MUST show every stage in our calculations. That way if we slipped an extra digit in there somewhere and ended up with the wrong answer then we’d at least get one mark for barking up the right tree. I look at the opinions of other people in pretty much the same way. I’m not one of those people who can say hand on my heart that everybody is entitled to their view and we are all right, RUBBISH! you are only right if you agree with me Godammit BUT if you demonstrate that you actually care about the issue at hand enough to give it five minutes thought and show the calculations as to how you came to your opinion, then I’ll give you a mark or two for trying. Hell I might even enjoy the debate. So for instance, I can sit and listen to some of the speeches at the Conservative Party Conference with a little pleasure. Liam my Dear, you are WRONG but bless your little heart I can see how you got there, have a D grade for effort.
What I can’t stand however is knee jerk reactions, sparked by utter ignorance and gut wrenching sweeping generalisations. This morning I got caught up in a conversation I really didn’t want to be having. Someone came up to me in the playground and said,
‘This whole Harvest Festival thing is really pissing me off.’
‘Don’t tell me they’re not having one?’
‘Oh yes they’re having one alright but all the food we bring is going to be given to The Homeless...’
‘....and....?’
‘Money’s tight enough as it is without having to give to The Homeless.’
At that moment I watched as the rest of my day fell in ruins about my feet. Call me an idealist but the only way I can get out of bed in the morning is by convincing myself of the foolhardy notion that there is not a person with a roof over their head who would begrudge a 26p tin of beans to a homeless person. I don’t like that illusion to be shattered before 9am, it does not have the makings of a good day.
‘Why should I have to feed them when all they’ve got to do is get off their arses and get a job?’
These words were spoken by someone who lives off benefits herself and only the other day was complaining because ‘they’ were trying to make her get a job now her kid is in school full time. Irony AND hypocrisy before 9am? This is going well.
Why do people have no sense of when to keep their mouths shut? There I am, standing there (in a Levellers t-shirt, hello?) going purple from all those deep breaths I’m taking and with blood gushing down my chin from biting my tongue and still it does not occur to the woman, that perhaps it might be a good idea to turn and run - FAST.
‘If they didn’t spend so much money on alcohol and drugs then they would be able to afford somewhere to live.’
And then very calmly, I asked her how she reached his conclusion,
‘I knew an alcoholic once. He beat his girlfriend up and she threw him out, so he ended up living in a shelter. They are all like that...’
This triangle must be an isosceles triangle because I once saw an triangle that was an isosceles triangle therefore all triangles are isosceles. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! FAIL! FAIL! FAIL! Get thee to the dunce class.
After I had picked my eyeballs up off the floor, I made the mistake of opening my mouth thus allowing my opinions to be known. Ok so perhaps I euphemise, what I should say is that I spat and snarled for God knows how long about ’narrow mindedness’ and ‘Catch 22 situations’ and a better world where poverty and ignorance would be eradicated.
Poor girl suddenly remembered something she needed from Tesco’s. You don’t suppose it was something I said do you?
I also found out that the woman who lives below us (single Mum - kid few years older than Littleone) had petrol posted through her letterbox on Saturday night.
So as you can see I’m struggling with my idealism today.
I might just go back to bed and try again.
Posted by purple elephant at October 6, 2005 12:37 PM