If a salesman invites you to buy his product and you decline, a simple ‘Why?’ from him (why don’t you want to buy?) could often lead you and me into a labyrinth of defensive answers, including our own ‘white’ lies, that could continue the conversation until he finds our weak spot. But the same is true when you or I ask the same question of him. That’s when his lies begin to come out.
Forget his wish to ‘see you right’, or ‘it would be just perfect for your needs’, or ‘you know it makes sense’. Lies, all lies. His job is to get you to buy his product and, one way or another, his payment depends upon it. Especially in these days of agencies and franchises and no-contract employment. Under those circumstances rare is the salesman who would refrain from closing a sale on the grounds of ‘it just isn’t right for you’. They are out there but they are few and far between.
However, we tend to differentiate subconsciously between the private trader and those who appear to have authority over us, such as police, or men in hi-viz jackets and hard hats, or the man from the Council. Then, we tend not to ask ‘why’. When told to jump, all too often, our unspoken response is ‘how high?’ It’s a very British thing, doncha know? As in, there’s no need for rudeness after all is said and done.
We tend to grant authority over us to those who have the chutzpah to act as though they have it already. (Wikipedia defines chutzpah as: “Chutzpah is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. It derives from the Hebrew word ḥutspâ, meaning "insolence", "cheek" or "audacity".) With that information, I just had to look up Roget’s 21st century thesaurus: Thesaurus.com for synonyms and antonyms.
SYNONYMS FOR AUDACIOUS
• adventurous aweless enterprising smart ass
• bold brassy fearless unafraid
• courageous brave gutty uncurbed
• foolhardy cheeky intrepid undaunted
• resolute daredevil nervy ungoverned
• risky dauntless rash venturesome
ANTONYMS FOR AUDACIOUS
• afraid shy modest
• careful timid reserved
• cautious weak yielding
• cowardly gentle
• fearful humble
• meek mild
Now, use just your best guess, please. In your opinion, which of those two lists best describes “Britons never, ever, shall be slaves”? There is no need for the second, alternative question.
Note, please, that none of those synonyms include the idea of offensiveness, intimidation, hooliganism or rudeness. Nowhere is there a suggestion of PRIDE, which anyway usually goes before a fall. You might even say that these definitions cover my often-used mantra of
Cause no harm
Be honest
Be peaceful
Be responsible
Isn’t that interesting?
Here is another question I’ve been musing about recently. How do WE value things? Do we use the same value system as almost everyone else or are we different in some way?
A couple of thoughts came to me while I was half listening to a news reader on voyeur-vision warbling on about how something had ‘cost’ the NHS so-and-so amounts of money. My first thought was that the corporation known as NHS has no money beyond that which the pollies give from general taxation or, maybe, borrowing from the banks.
The second was to note that whatever it was that was being reported on had been performed by living people, presumably, for the benefit of other living people, but was being valued in money terms. How come? How can we value what we do for the well-being of each other in terms of fiat currency which is created out of thin air and described as interest-bearing debt, or has been forcibly demanded from ordinary working people and described as ‘tax’ or ‘National Insurance’, automatically taken from us under threat of harm if it isn’t paid? (Please excuse the over-long sentence but this subject makes me cross).
Which part of “Cause no harm/Be honest/Be peaceful/Be responsible” best describes those transactions? In asking this, I acknowledge in advance that ‘the labourer is worthy of his hire’ – (Luke 10:7,1 Timothy 5:18, Matthew 10:10, Leviticus 19:13, Deuteronomy 24:15). In other words: It’s in the book that we should be paid for our labour! Even when the corporation has no money.
It has been well observed – and then ignored by most – that ‘The LOVE OF MONEY is a root of all evil’. Another question: Why is this statement ignored by so many? We all know that we came into this world naked, ignorant, and penniless. We shall certainly leave this world penniless, probably dressed to impress, and possibly a little better informed (which isn’t the same as being wiser) when we leave it. But as the pharaohs of old Egypt have shown down the centuries, despite our best efforts, we cannot take it with us, and death and others can still take it from us.
And I wonder, just how dumb are we that we will not understand these things. There now. There’s another question for us to think about.
(MD)
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