Monday, October 15, 2007
Performance indicators
Further evidence of the way in which the performance indicators with which our governing classes are so in love can have unexpected results. I am told by an electrician in TB that he has an indicator about how he must not withdraw electricity from paying customers. He also has a rule that he must not climb up any pole higher than 2 metres without putting on his fall restraint harness. This can take a little while if one wishes to retain one's integrity after a fall. The result of the combination is that the harness is discarded but if one falls one will not be covered as one has not done what one should. The fact that the fall restraint does not kick in until after a 3 metre fall only marginally dents the point...
Been re-reading about whether it was Paul or Jesus who invented Christianity by one Hyam Maccaby. Started by idly turning the pages, thinking that I really did not care whether it was Jesus or Paul who was a Pharisee. But then the story became interesting again - presumably why I bought the book in the first place. On this story, Jesus was more or less a main stream Pharisee who was executed by the Temple party because he was seen as a threat both to the Temple and to Roman rule. A political, not a religeous offence. Paul was a convert to Judaism who did not pass the Pharisee exams (as it were) and so wound up as a sort of sleasy fixer for the high priest. During the course of a nervous breakdown had the bright idea that Jesus was the son of god (with dual citizenship of heaven and earth) and that on this basis he could set up a new religeon, attractive to the many people - mostly Gentiles - already dabbling in the various mystery cults of the day. More or less in opposition to Judaism and taking care to tweak accordingly those gospels which had not already been written. He turned out to have been onto a very good thing. On the way, packaging up a lot of pre-existing material about how to better behave, into a package which lots of people would buy into. So not a waste of space.
On the matter of behaviour, have been reminded by the postal strike of the idea that we should get according to our needs and give according to our abilities. Having started off by thinking that the postal workers were killing off their livelihood in the same way as the print workers before them, I was then reminded by one of them in TB that while a lowly postal worker might get £25,000 pounds a year for his trouble, them at the top of the heap might get £1,000,000. A multiple of 40. Now does the chap at the top of the heap really need 40 times as much dosh as the chap at the bottom? After all, he can only take a leak in one pot at a time. And I do strongly believe that massive inequality of this sort is the cause of a lot of trouble in the world - despite the counter example of the US where the population seem massively tolerant of massive inequality on the grounds that it is a level playing field and that a sufficient number of people do in fact move from the bottom to the top of the heap in the course of a life time. And trouble apart, a world where the everybodies (everybodys'?) main business is to squeeze as much out of the system as possible in order to go in for as much conspicuous consumption as possible, does not seem very attractive. Must be the cold talking.
Back at the allotment have now had the annual fire to remove the various dead pallets and other combustible junk that has accumulated since the last one. Starting to clean up the ground underneath the gooseberries. And discovered that Jerusalem artichokes have very handsome yellow flowers - if, at two inches across, a little small compared with the plant. In the course of all this came across two large live frogs, one dead mouse and one dead snail. The dead mouse had crept into a plastic bottle, presumably not been able to get out, and expired. Amazing what a foul smell such a small thing could make. The dead snail had climbed up a three foot iron bar (of reinforcing bar dimensions) and into the inverted plastic bottle which lived on top of said bar. The idea being that the interior of the bottle would stay clean and thus be useful as a water container for use during picnics. The snail was presumably overcome by heat in his personal sauna bath.
Been re-reading about whether it was Paul or Jesus who invented Christianity by one Hyam Maccaby. Started by idly turning the pages, thinking that I really did not care whether it was Jesus or Paul who was a Pharisee. But then the story became interesting again - presumably why I bought the book in the first place. On this story, Jesus was more or less a main stream Pharisee who was executed by the Temple party because he was seen as a threat both to the Temple and to Roman rule. A political, not a religeous offence. Paul was a convert to Judaism who did not pass the Pharisee exams (as it were) and so wound up as a sort of sleasy fixer for the high priest. During the course of a nervous breakdown had the bright idea that Jesus was the son of god (with dual citizenship of heaven and earth) and that on this basis he could set up a new religeon, attractive to the many people - mostly Gentiles - already dabbling in the various mystery cults of the day. More or less in opposition to Judaism and taking care to tweak accordingly those gospels which had not already been written. He turned out to have been onto a very good thing. On the way, packaging up a lot of pre-existing material about how to better behave, into a package which lots of people would buy into. So not a waste of space.
On the matter of behaviour, have been reminded by the postal strike of the idea that we should get according to our needs and give according to our abilities. Having started off by thinking that the postal workers were killing off their livelihood in the same way as the print workers before them, I was then reminded by one of them in TB that while a lowly postal worker might get £25,000 pounds a year for his trouble, them at the top of the heap might get £1,000,000. A multiple of 40. Now does the chap at the top of the heap really need 40 times as much dosh as the chap at the bottom? After all, he can only take a leak in one pot at a time. And I do strongly believe that massive inequality of this sort is the cause of a lot of trouble in the world - despite the counter example of the US where the population seem massively tolerant of massive inequality on the grounds that it is a level playing field and that a sufficient number of people do in fact move from the bottom to the top of the heap in the course of a life time. And trouble apart, a world where the everybodies (everybodys'?) main business is to squeeze as much out of the system as possible in order to go in for as much conspicuous consumption as possible, does not seem very attractive. Must be the cold talking.
Back at the allotment have now had the annual fire to remove the various dead pallets and other combustible junk that has accumulated since the last one. Starting to clean up the ground underneath the gooseberries. And discovered that Jerusalem artichokes have very handsome yellow flowers - if, at two inches across, a little small compared with the plant. In the course of all this came across two large live frogs, one dead mouse and one dead snail. The dead mouse had crept into a plastic bottle, presumably not been able to get out, and expired. Amazing what a foul smell such a small thing could make. The dead snail had climbed up a three foot iron bar (of reinforcing bar dimensions) and into the inverted plastic bottle which lived on top of said bar. The idea being that the interior of the bottle would stay clean and thus be useful as a water container for use during picnics. The snail was presumably overcome by heat in his personal sauna bath.
# posted by Jim @ 9:10 AM 
