Tuesday 8 February 2000

Pic of the day: Winter in Daggerfall. (Luckily it's not like that outside here, not right now. But it was a nice picture, so I snapped a screenshot.)

I have been late for work two days in a row now. Digestion was upset in the morning, but improved after a while. Heh. "Morning sickness". Heh.

Once there, though, there's plenty to do. Been lots of phone calls. I hate phone calls. But people are generally very nice these days. I think the irritating ones are dying out. The whiny, the aggressive, the overly confused. I think that generation is fading, and a better breed of humanity is replacing them. Good thing too. Even better would have been if the old ones could learn. This happens too, but not with all.

I remember when I first got a full-time job, ca 20 years ago. At that time there were many elderly customers which were shockingly stupid. My favorite is the man who complained: "I pay 15% of my income and my wife pays 15% of her income too, and 30% is way too much!"

Add to this that their social intelligence were on the same level, and you see why it could be quite challenging. Elderly people being petulant like toddlers. Immunity to common sense as well as the most rudimentary courtesy. Not being used to elderly people, except my grandparents, I was shocked. (Well, my grandmother could be rather childish too at times, but not on that level.)

I guess that generation had it strengths too. I guess they probably could do things that we could not. Like fight on the beaches and stuff like that. They hailed back to a time when things were so much simpler than now. When the enemy wore easily recognizable uniforms. Unlike now, when the enemy is at best hiding among civilians, sometimes hiding among us, and at worst hiding within ourselves.

Whatever the world is today, it is not simple. And most of us seem to be moving towards an understanding and acceptance of this. We learn to live with the complexity, to navigate it. And sometimes to limit it, by deliberately keeping things simple. In the future, it may be that simplicity will be taught at schools, so future generations can learn to choose where they can simplify and where not.

For there is always the risk of choosing simple solutions where they do not fit. During history, "simple" solutions have often ended in tragedy: Blame the Jews, the foreigners, the capitalists, the communists, the blacks and the whites.

Recently a new government was inaugurated in Austria, an alliance between a conservative party and the right-wing "Freedom" party based on a simplistic view: Anything not Austrian is suspect. Send the foreigners away and all will be well. Now, the fact that this party is currently the largest in Austria does not bode well. (Nazism was quite strong in Austria, and they did less than some to root it out after the war, seeking reconciliation instead.)

The truly worrysome thing is that the European Union is reacting to this problem in a simplistic way too: By confrontation based on expecting the worst. I am all for publicly hounding the Austrian government when it perpetrates some crime. But condemning anyone for their expected future behavior is hardly wisdom either. As James Redfield so nicely points out, negative expectations run in front of us and draw the things towards us that we fear. Already the reactions from the outside world has greatly increased the popularity of the right-wing party in Austria.

It is a well known fact that one of the best ways to alienate people is to indicate that they might be doing anything wrong. Even if they say that they are doing something wrong, it is still a horrible insult to agree with them. On the other hand, it is incredible what people can be shamed or guilted into doing, if you continue to expect the best from them and of course keep an eye on them at all times. :)

Or at least send them an e-mail now and then...