Jonathan Dodd’s latest column. Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed
I’ve always contended that everyone lives their lives with a very complex set of layers to their personalities, or psyches, or unconsciousnesses, or subconsciousnesses, or spirits, or souls. Whatever feels right to you, dear reader, please apply your own labels. Personally, I like the idea of the Conscious and Unconscious mind.
I like this because it was the model presented to me on a wonderful course I once attended, and it made perfect sense to me, and it was simple. You know me by now. I like things to be kept simple. I hardly have enough time to deal with the extraordinary number of simple things out there, without having people difficulting them up for me.
Energy in and energy out
For instance, I never understood the need to do the diet thing. There are two elements to this. The first is energy in and the second is energy out. If your energy in exceeds your energy out, then generally you’re going to put on weight. And vice versa. All you need to do to lose weight is either to eat less or do more exercise. Or you could do both.
It really is that simple. But we human beings, being generally far more skillful in mis-describing reality to fit our internal unreason, invent all sorts of ideas that are ridiculous or over-complex, either to allow ourselves to avoid the simple thing or to find ways of blaming external forces for the state we got ourselves into. And we do this because we’re lazy.
There are two forms of laziness
It’s a sad truth universally unacknowledged, that it’s easier to sit on a settee than to go for a walk. Eating pizza out of a box means less washing up. Buying processed food is quicker to prepare than cooking. Drinking a lot of alcohol is far easier to drown out internal howls of pain or fear than confronting the demons. I could go on, but I’m not talking about diets.
I’m talking about laziness. I think there are two forms of laziness. The first is the well-known not-standing-if-you-can-sit-and-not-sitting-if-you-can-lie-down sort, an art practised assiduously until perfection by many teenagers. I know, because that was me too. This is so obvious that I don’t need to describe it. I’m talking about the second sort of laziness.
The most pointless thing in a list of pointless things
We spend a lot of time worrying about health and money. Sometimes a lot less than we should, and often far too much. We worry about waste too, our natural resources dwindling and prices going up because things become scarce. But we don’t seem to care about the biggest waste of all. We’ve been gifted through evolution with the most astonishing ability to learn and think and invent and solve puzzles, but we positively avoid anything that means we have to use any of those resources other than trying to work out whatever the Pointless thing is that’s the most pointless thing in a list of pointless things.
We look at the world and we see it’s complicated. Instead of reading about it and studying it, we feel afraid, and we find something we don’t like so we blame that. This could be the loss of National Service, or the invention of the computer, or bad schools, or immigrants, or the Daily Express, or Europe. Having made a snap decision, we then pursue the idea that if we got rid of long hair or modern teaching methods or Europe or immigrants of one particular colour or shape, suddenly everything would be simple and everyone would be happy.
Never at any time in history
We do this stubbornly in the face of the whole of human history. There never was a time when everything could be actually blamed on one thing or group of people, and getting rid of the blamed thing or group never ever made anything better or solved the perceived problem in any way. Let me repeat this. There are no examples of this sort of thing ever being right or working anywhere, at any time in history.
The only times when things have gone well for us is when people have started to think about problems and decided after much discussion what is the right thing to do. The right thing to do often involves much work and trouble, and is usually resisted by everyone else because they don’t want to think and keep blaming others for the problem, but when the reformers finally get the change made, nobody ever wants to go back to how it was before. Because it’s better.
Better lives for all people
So. What am I really talking about here? Let’s start with the abolition of slavery, and universal democracy. There’s the introduction of universal education, the NHS, clean water laws. Clean air laws. Proper sewerage. Safety laws, the Police. The legal system. I could go on. All of these were fought for. All by people who thought through what was wrong and chose to work towards a better way. A way that would be better for more people, leading to better lives for all people.
Nothing is perfect. It never will be. Problems don’t get solved without creating more problems, which need to be addressed as well. It’s never-ending. All of us live here as well as we do on the backs of campaigners and thinkers and people willing to work and take risks for results that benefit others. Nothing was ever achieved by people who just complain and blame anyone else for anything they don’t like.
When did that ever work either?
You’re probably wondering why I’m having a (very satisfying) rant. Is it because of the Economy? No, not really. Could it be the ridiculous Google tax fudge? That’s just stupid and infuriating. Perhaps it’s because this government wants to spend £100 billion on submarines with nuclear weapons rather than making the lives of the people who voted for them a little less constrained. It’s not even that. I’m not even moaning about all those who voted for this government last year, wanting a strong leader to wave the magic wand and make everything all right. And when did that ever work either?
What set me going this time was witnessing the humiliation of someone in their workplace being unable to fulfil the request of a member of the public and being insulted and belittled for their pains. It’s as simple as that. I know it’s frustrating when you want something and the person you approach can’t give it to you because the item hasn’t been delivered to them. I can’t understand why you decide that berating them for something they have no power to change is going to do anything of any value to anyone.
It makes them feel better to have a bit of a shout
People who treat others badly always have an excuse. They say it’s so that the system will be improved. They say it’s their right to be served immediately and given what they want. They even say it makes them feel better to have a bit of a shout. But it’s not grown-up behaviour. It’s unthinking and lazy. In my book, it’s the worst kind of laziness, because it simply expects everything in life to fall into place and just shouts abuse if it doesn’t.
I’m suggesting that there’s a direct link between shouting at a hard-working and poorly-paid public employee who can’t wave a magic wand, and blaming refugees for problems that are endemic in our own society. It’s unpleasant and ill-informed, it’s an abuse of power or privilege, it’s a willful refusal to engage with actual reality rather than tabloid newspaper headlines, and it’s celebrating ignorance and an unwillingness to face up to real issues rather than fantasizing about other people ruining our nice easy life.
Above all, it’s lazy.
I feel rather tired after all that shouting. I think I need to go and lie down for a while.
If you have been, thank you for reading this.
Image: andrewsbird under CC BY 2.0
Image: We Love Costa Rica under CC BY 2.0
Image: scottchene under CC BY 2.0
Image: XxXCuteBunnyXxX under CC BY 2.0
Image: Public Domain
Image: postmemes under CC BY 2.0
Image: justinlindsay under CC BY 2.0
Image: mulmatsherm under CC BY 2.0
