Monday 27 November 2017

An Unexpected Early Lesson in Life

"Fifteen love" said David. "No,no,no it's fifteen all" corrected Stanley his older brother. The two had improvised a game of 'tennis' in a corner of the ground floor of Ribstone House, one of the blocks of council flats that were known as The Morningside Estate in Hackney (circa 1946). The tennis ball, was authentic but everything else was improvised. Hands for rackets, lines chalked on the wall for boundaries of play. Johnny, aged 8, was their sole, somewhat bemused, spectator. "Why did you say 'love' ?", the small boy said. "That's what it's called when you haven't yet scored" said Stanley. "And anyway it's fifteen all" he added quickly. I soon learned that, as and when you won more points, you had to say 'fifteen', then 'thirty', then 'forty' and then 'game'. If it got to 'forty all', you had to say 'deuce' instead.

For young Johnny, this was the unlikely beginning of understanding that life is not always logical and that, despite this fact, it can be enhanced by accepting a small degree of magical thinking. After all, who would deny that the rather peculiar and unlikely scoring nomenclature in the game of tennis - and in contradiction of all the norms of science and mathematics - actually enhances the game?!



Saturday 25 February 2017

Political Correctness (PC)

In his recent TV programme on Channel 4, Trevor Phillips, suggested a strong connection between political correctness and the rise of 'popularism'; Trump, Farage, LePen, Brexit etc.I have been suggesting this for some time and was pleased to see Trevor Phillips - ex head of the Commission for Racial Equality - addressing this important issue. But let me take a closer look at PCness.

We need to distinguish between, on one hand, words/phrases that are liable to give offence and, on the other, opinions that can cause offence. The potential for offence generated by words/phrases varies over time and common usage. For example, the f-word has been largely blunted by its constant use in the popular TV comedy, "Mrs Brown's Boys" as well as its ubiquitous use from building-sites to the board-room. Calling a homosexual man a "queen" is not the eyebrow raiser it once was. Having said that the use of these words/phrases is often unwise and sometimes can give offence. Why refer to a Jewish man as a 'yid' when it is just as easy to say Jew and avoid the possibility of being taken for an anti-Semite?

On the other hand, it is unreasonable to claim to have been offended by an expressed opinion when you have the option of countering with evidence to the contrary. If you opine that the Holocaust didn't happen, I can counter with massive amounts of evidence that it did. If the opportunity to challenge isn't there - for example, it's in a TV documentary - frustration is understandable as is the suspicion of bigotry/offence.

How is this connected to 'popularism'? Over-use of accusations like 'sexist', 'homophobic', 'Islamophobic' have generated latent frustration in the general public. Politicians have been overcautious in trying to avoid giving offence. The menace of violent Islamic extremism has been down-played by politicians for fear of causing a violent anti-Muslim backlash. The populist politicians have broken through these bounds and this is resonating with the feelings of the person-in-the-street. Is this a good thing?

To the extent that these issues are now on the agenda, yes. Is this not putting the wrong people in powerful positions? Also, yes. We have to hope that this is a passing phase and that these people will be seen for the opportunists they are and will eventually be replaced by much better and wiser leaders.