Blackadder's Christmas Carol is more accurate than the original

[miss_s_b]

Blackadder's Christmas Carol is a basic reversal of the original: nice Mr Ebeneezer B discovers he'd get much further in life if he was nasty. It's hilarious. And part of the reason it's funny is because it's true. If you're nice, people will take advantage of you and use you and you'll get much less back than you give out. If you're nasty, people won't like you, but you'll get ahead. This makes me very cross indeed, because people who are nasty SHOULDN'T get ahead, they should be put in their places.

I have seen in the newspapers today comment from two people associated with the Lib Dems who got to their lofty positions by ruthlessly using and abusing other people, and never giving credit to the giants whose shoulders they strut upon; they seem to get rewarded for this, whereas people who work co-operatively and help others out never seem to be the ones that the MSM have on speed dial when they want a rent-a-quote.

Needless to say that the people in the former group are almost exclusively male (and mostly white, cis-gendered, and able-bodied too) and the people in the latter are those that don't fall into privileged groups. On occasion you'll get a bit of handwringing about diversity and inclusiveness from one of these middle-class white boys who has trampled on everyone else to get to the top about why there aren't more women/BME people/disAbled people at the top... Sometimes I wonder if they are taking the piss. I mean nobody has that low self-awareness, surely?

And then I realise, you have to be that low on self-awareness to behave like that. Otherwise you'd hate yourself for it, and stop. I ,ean, there are times when I've done stuff that could be interpreted that way, and I tie myself in knots about it daily...

This post has been brought to you by the letters G (for grumpy), S (for Scrooge) and the number 0 (which approximates the amount of patience I have for arseholes today).

---

Comments

Liberal vision

[po8crg]

I suspect if you spoke to Liberal Vision or other such right-wing outfits, they would say that the way to the top is to trample on people, and the problem is that women, BME, etc. don't trample on enough people.

I suspect that some of them are entirely self-aware, but regard it as being everyone else's fault. It's not lack of self-awareness, it's lack of empathy. They haven't (and never will) worked out that others who try that aggressive self-aggrandizing style without their advantages will get stamped down even harder.

Re: Liberal vision

[lizw]

They haven't (and never will) worked out that others who try that aggressive self-aggrandizing style without their advantages will get stamped down even harder.

Excellent point. My previous workplace was a lot like that - women would get told to behave more like men, particularly with regard to client entertainment, and then our expense accounts would get taken apart with a fine-tooth comb in a way that men's never were.

Re: Liberal vision

[(Anonymous)]

Hello po8crg,

I'm afraid your suspicions are incorrect - I suspect that most LV members believe that people get ahead through voluntary trust and collaboration, and getting the best out of themselves and those around them. Not through "trampling on people." And I've never heard any classical liberal claim that women or (even more bizzarely) non-white people "don't trample on enough people." As Eamonn Butler (who you probably also consider "right wing") explains, the vast majority of market interactions require no enforcement, as they are based on mutual understandings of what is reasonable and a fair deal.

This is admittedly different to the political world, however.

Julian, LV