We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

“We are all capable of hypocrisy. When someone says at a party, `I’m a great listener,’ you just know they are going to yak on about themselves for hours.”

Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph. (£)

6 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Paul Marks

    language now often means the opposite of what a literal interpretation would indicate, for example in the context of the United Kingdom “decolonise” really means “colonise” – get something that is British and make it not British (indeed anti British).

    If someone says “I am great listener” it may not be simple hypocrisy – it may be worse than that. It is quite likely to mean “I am a good, Woke, person – you must do everything I tell you to do, and if you say something I do not like, I will have you dismissed from your job and persecuted till you commit suicide”.

    Why should the “Woke” not behave in this way? Who is going to stop them?

  • Martin

    My favourites from working in Customer Service related work for years were ‘I’m not one to complain’ and ‘It’s not about the money….’ The former were almost always serial complainers (usually spurious) and the latter clearly were almost always after money.

  • Johnathan Pearce (London)

    Martin, in my experience, some of the most unreliable people to do business with are those who work for not-for-profit organisations. They are also often dishonest and sneaky.

  • bobby b

    Beware of anyone who says “but I’m not doing this for my own gain!” Of course they are. They’re just hoping you don’t notice that they measure gain in terms unlike yours.

  • Kirk

    Know how you can identify a “great listener”? It’s the poor bastard introvert that never comes to parties, and avoids social contact. Why? Because people keep telling them things, things they don’t want to know, but are somehow things that these benighted talky-talky types are driven to impart against the will of the “great listener”. It’s like a form of orally-inflicted sonic rape.

    I’ve had that problem for most of my life, and it’s only recently that I enjoyed the epiphany that if I’m not in a social situation, then these sick bastards won’t be able to confess their perversions to me. I have had people tell me sh*t that their psychiatrists ought to be charging extra money for, having had to endure it. I really don’t need to know, Tim, that your first sexual experience was with your sister. I really, truly do not need to know that. Why did you have to inflict that on me? Why?

    Great listeners are the people you can easily identify in any social setting; they’re the ones who’re “engaged in conversation” and not saying anything, with pained expressions on their faces, as though they’re being tortured.

    Because they are being tortured…

  • Paul Marks

    JP – correct, as in a “non profit” people make money by ripping off the thing itself (as there is no legitimate profit and no legitimate owners).

    This does NOT apply to a “non profit” which is run by unpaid volunteers, but as soon as paid managers come in – run away, as those paid managers will be seeking to maximise how much they can loot (and they do not care who they loot).

    It is either a charity or it is not – and if managers are getting lots of money out of it for themselves, it is not charitable.

    In “Reclaiming the American Dream” (1965) the author warns against paid managers taking over American charities which were, traditionally, run by unpaid volunteers.

    When wealthy people stopped giving their TIME (the time actually doing the paper work and so on) and started to think that just “writing a cheque” or attending an “event” made them good people, the rot set in to the “independent sector”.

    These days these “non profits” work hand-in-hand with governments and are totally on board with the international collectivist governance agenda, when anyone hears the letters “NGO” (supposedly “non profit organisation”) they should be very careful indeed.