2010/02/24 New York
Objects
Violence
A very funny article in yesterday’s Times about Gordon Brown.
Sarah Lyall writes: ‘Stories of Mr. Brown’s poor interpersonal skills have wafted around Westminster for years. But Mr. Rawnsley’s book, “The End of the Party,” which was excerpted in The Observer of London on Sunday, lays it on particularly thick. It portrays Mr. Brown as paranoid, bullying, chaotic and exhausted. It says he is prone to making profanity-laced tirades, shoving his employees, stabbing the upholstery of his limousine with a pen, smashing office equipment and using unsecured objects as projectiles.
“Over the years I’ve had all sorts of things thrown at me — newspapers, pens, Coke cans,” one aide is quoted as saying. An applicant for a Downing Street job says in the book that he hastily withdrew his application when asked in his interview whether he was prepared to enter a workplace full of “ ‘extreme physical abuse’ and violence done to objects.”’
I have to admit that I committed violence to objects more than once.
Best sentence of the article: "In an effort at self-humanization, Mr. Brown has occasionally positioned his mouth into a smile."
That's politics: vain efforts at self-humanization.
10 comments
Enjoyment
When did you last get violent with an object? What prompted you? Have you ever tried violence on a person, and if so what was more satisfying: mistreating the person or the object?
The last time I used violence on an object was when I hit my head on the dryer while transfering wet laundry to it from the washing machine below. I slammed the door of the dryer so hard the locking mechanism broke into a several pieces. A few days later I bought superglue and patiently put it together. It worked a treat. The door locked perfectly again. Fixing the broken door was infinitely more satisfying than slamming and breaking it. I can recommend breaking things in your life purely for the enjoyment of fixing it again. It works with well with objects, but why not try it on relationships from time to time?
J-M, my former boss, all is forgiven…
(I always apologise to objects abused by my hands.)
Hanging out dirty laundry.
Did this violence to objects involve your mother's cloathespins?
GT
I have nothing against her clothespins.
I see you are not trying to self-humanize, that is a relief. Maybe Gordon stole the pins when he was practising keeping a smile! Admitting this would surely humanize him instantly. And perhaps more importantly, he would get your mothers sympathy.
Puzzling
It's odd that Mr. Brown occasionally positioning his mouth into a smile is seen as a succesful self humanising effort. His anger attacks seem much more humane than the fabricated smiles, probably advised by his pr advisors. It always puzzles me why the public seems disappointed whenever their leaders display perfectly normal human behavior such as lying, engaging in oral sex and having anger attacks. At the same time, one hears complaints when a politician does not project a warm and humane personality that people can relate to. The public's expectations of their leaders are not merely too high, they seem confused and somewhat impossible if you ask me.
Yesterday one of my students pointed out Gordon Brown's reputation. So it was a nice suprise to read the blog today. To me it is still incomprehensible why the British love personal info of politicians etc. so much. Often they seem obsessed by it. I think there is a national compaign ongoing to get rid of Labour and to vote in the Tories in the parliament asap and this is just a nice, populistic part of that whole campaign. It find it awful, cheap and easy. I guess content just doesn't matter.
Lies
What exactly is wrong with having an interest in 'personal info of politicians'? It seems perfectly humane to me. It doesn't naturally follow that people always vote on this kind of information. British voters are probably more concerned with the state of their economy, the way their government is handling it and what the opposition promises on the subject. Can they not enjoy a bit of gossip on politicians at the same time?
Philip
Sure, there will be people that have concerns about the things you mentioned, but firstly I have the impression that the campaign: 'Who doesn't hate Gordon Brown' started already before the recession (sorry I didn't provide any evidence) and secondly I do think that making fun of Brown etc etc and the obvious charm Cameron is trying to display will have a significant effect on the election. As long as you indoctrinate people long enough it will have some effect to my opinion. Even if it is all gossip. Just an example: I live in Ireland and most Irish people I've met, tell me that the weather used to be a lot better here in summer than it had been in the last few years. A lot more sun, a lot warmer etc. When you look at the statsitics you notice that these interpretations are incorrect. The weather has always been shitty. I don't disagree with you that a few hilarious facts can spice up life, but I really dislike campaigns that are obviously designed to focus on things that clearly don't have anything to do with the message, but are just there to make a person look horrible.
I don't care how someone does his job, as long as he does it well it's okay with me. I must admit that I do not follow British politics all that much so I really have no clue about how mr. Brown does his job. As for his employees, throw back stuff at him. The attack is the best defense.
