We've had riots in the UK.
Including in my own town: Middlesbrough 😡
I haven't posted as I knew it would be wise to wait until I'd chilled out a bit and gathered some perspective. My general view is that the riots were djinned-up i.e. that they weren't entirely organic. I had my little hissy fit about that on Twitter at the time though, so now I want to leave any 'conspiracy theories' behind and get back to playing things with a straight bat.
I do try hard these days to avoid poking behind the veil online. Sometimes though, these things go far too far, and I get sucked back in. The fiery big-mouth of my younger days suddenly reappears. I think when houses, cars (and sometimes people) in your own home town are being damaged it's probably justified, but now the moment has passed it's probably also time to let sleeping dogs lie. (Or lying dogs sleep maybe.)
On here before I've compared governments (and the media) to school headmasters.
The school headmaster steps up during school assembly. He tells a sombre story about some serious event.
In a faraway town, in another part of the country, 'little Billy' and his friends thought it was funny to go and play games down by the railway lines. Unfortunately, one of little Billy's friends didn't realise a train was coming when he jokingly pushed Billy onto the tracks..
The story itself is made-up. Little Billy never existed. His tale entirely fabricated by the headmaster. However, the headmaster doesn't tell this story in order to mislead the children. He's not rubbing his hands together like some evil genius in the school staffroom behind the scenes. He tells it as he doesn't want the children playing on the railway tracks and getting hurt. Yes, the made-up "Billy" doesn't exist, but elsewhere, other children - real children - have fallen victim to such tragic circumstances. It would be somewhat morbid and disrespectful to use those actual examples though. Dramatising and sensationalising a real child's death, just to make a point in a lesson or school assembly would be quite crass. So the tale of "Little Billy" serves as a more appropriate stand-in. And the headmaster presents it as real to the children listening, as a real story has a much more emotional impact than one that is admittedly fictional. So will be much more likely to dissuade the children from heading down to the railway tracks.
From Headmaster to Music Teacher.
We can take this example further. Let's say you're a child sat in that assembly, and you don't quite believe the tale your headmaster told. Maybe there were inconsistencies, or the plot just didn't ring true. Perhaps the headmaster hammed things up a bit too much in his dramatic performance of it.
You then cheekily ask the music teacher about it in your following lesson. "Sir, the headmaster just made that story up, didn't he?"
What does the music teacher respond with?
Obviously, he isn't just going to say, "Yes, the headmaster is a liar." For a start, he wouldn't last long in his profession if he was going around calling other teachers liars. But more importantly, he understands perfectly well why the headmaster was telling the story. It was done with a wider good intention in mind. The point of the story much more important than the white lie it contained.
So he gently tells the child off for accusing the headmaster of lying, and advises him to focus on the actual message of the story.
[Incidentally, (and I am poking behind the veil a little bit here 😈), when people ask, "How could so many people take part in such a BIG conspiracy?!" This is part of the answer why. Because all those people are teachers in the staffroom, so to speak, who understand it's perfectly normal and routine for adults to tell stories to children (the public) to get children to take on board a message, or behave in a certain way.
It's just the way of the world to some extent. A thing most people only learn when they become parents themselves. If you get my drift.
Likewise, just as real children sometimes get killed playing on train tracks, there are sometimes real terrorist attacks too. Carried out by real terrorists. And similarly, it's difficult to use real, actual examples to promote awareness, or to help the public understand the dangers.
- (As with earlier) it's distasteful using real deaths.
- The families might not want the deaths being used in such a way.
- The families might not want the public attention.
- They might not be very good at speaking in public, or appearing on camera (as most people aren't).
- Publicising a real terror event may compromise spies/whistleblowers/informants/witnesses/etc.
- It may take years for such crimes to be processed through the courts, meaning they can't be publicised immediately.
- Real life is often very messy. So it's much harder to present the public with a clear, easy-to-digest narrative when using real life examples. With a simplified, scripted imitation of a real event it's much easier.
- And so on.
So there are logical reasons why "tales from the headmaster" are sometimes used at the national or international level. Again, it's not because the headmaster is evil, and enjoys deceiving people (though he might take it to an art form at times). It's because he wants to protect the children or maintain order in the classroom. The only problem is, we, the childlike public, have to trust that the stories are solely being used as illustrations to inform the public about similar, real life situations. And aren't just being used to push the interests and personal politics of the people telling them.]
Anyway, that big detour aside, this is where I find myself these days. Do I want to be the honest, but brattish child, disrupting the class, and pointing out holes in these various dramas? Or do I try to be more like the sensible, but slightly less honest music teacher? Paying lip service to the stories of the headmaster. Understanding that this is just the normal way people higher-up in the social hierarchy manage those that are lower down; and that they're trying their best to manage difficult and sometimes dangerous situations.
Personally, I don't agree with it all in principle. Adults shouldn't be treating other adults the way adults treat children. Especially in supposedly democratic countries. Were I school headmaster I wouldn't be doing it, and I'd get the cane out and ban all the other teachers from doing it too. However, maybe I'm just naïve. Perhaps the response would come, "Ha, good luck with that, you try managing and keeping safe millions of sheep-like and emotional people without using these techniques."
Either way, I've reached a point where, though I discuss the wider methods, I never discuss the specific individual events anymore ..unless those individual events are happening in Middlesbrough, that is.
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