Cultural Oddity

Whipping works

 

Public consiounsness in US is used to positive stimulation, a "carrot" so to speak. It frowns upon negative reinforcement, a "whip". Nonetheless the said whip, or even a hint of it, works quite well. It works in a workplace, where a shadow of layoffs forces lazy workers to do stuff. And it works in the public sector. In San Francisco, the adopted law of obligatory composting doubled the amount of the sorted material. With no fines applied.

 

 

Bullied bullies

 

I find it amusing, as of lately, how insecure bullies are. Just two examples.

Sara Palin. The lady does not seem to think twice before accusing everybody and his brother of all sort of sins. Given her large following, this basically amounts to public bullying. Her "reload" message is outright sinister. Yet she totally freaked out when a reporter merely rented a neighboring house. She even constructed a fense.

A certain reporter Dan Noyes got a "nice" confrontation with a PR guy Slavin when persuing his story. Slavin kept touching Noyes while saying that he wants to whelcome him to the meeting taking place. The touching is usually not acceptable in USA, especially after repeated warning "don't touch me". It might even be law-suitable. But at the basis of it the reporter was very invasive and pushy in spite of the meeting people declining the interview. The PR guy was discharge to take control of the situation. Which he did, by bullying the bully. And that clearly got to the reporter, who is usually the one on the offensive.

(My observations above pertain strictly to the bullying behaviour. There can be legitimate reasons why certain people show up in certain places. In particular, the reporter story might have persued certain impropriaties of public funds. Which hardly justifies bullying.)

 

Missing Mind

 

One of the hidden beauty of communication is that people tell you different things from what they intended. A recent article in San Francisco Chronicle meant to feature the new and wonderful iPad software. How it allows you to communicate with the holder of your lost device, and trace it, and (maybe) recover it. What it really told me is that the author is mindless and aloof most of the time:

"How could I have done this again? I once left my purse in a phone booth at San Francisco airport. I rushed back. Gone. I left my late grandmother's engagement ring on a bathroom sink at Macy's. I rushed back. Gone. I left a new leather jacket on a coatrack in a restaurant. I rushed back. Gone. Umbrellas. Earrings. Scarves. Cell phone chargers. Shoes. Glasses. Medication. I have left pieces of my life in rental cars, airplanes, hotels, cafes and cabs."

Obviously something is  profoundly wrong with this person's life. I doubt that any amount of technological advances with iPad can cure it.