I've been a bit irritable of late, made more so by the ongoing debate about what people should do, can do or are permitted to do. However, escaping the chatter and doing things that I enjoy has provided some relief. Sitting outside the polling station in Needham Market, taking electoral numbers and thanking people for coming to vote was fun, watching the count in Stowmarket was fun, taking part in Iain Dale's internet radio show was fun.
The lesson is that I really ought to be doing more things that I enjoy. This may involve beer in moderation, it may even involve some non-political stuff. However, I need some challenge in my life, so I'm going to attempt to be nice to people for the next 100 days.
Politics seems to be more aggressive these days, and the urge to shoot first and ask questions later appears rather harder to resist. Debate tends towards an attack of another's position rather than an exposition of one's own. Anonymity is a cloak used to disguise those who slander and abuse by means of vile invective. Individuals engage in the sort of aggressive exchange that they would never take part in face to face, apparently in a sense that, because they are at the other end of a computer screen nobody gets hurt. Curiously, people do get hurt.
We'll see how long I can keep up this pledge, especially as I hear the sounds of another scuffle on the Liberal Youth forums...
1 comment:
"I've been a bit irritable of late"
Shurely shome mishtake?!
"the urge to shoot first and ask questions later appears rather harder to resist"
No!
"The lesson is that I really ought to be doing more things that I enjoy."
I'm glad you've come to that conclusion. It took me six weeks off work with a "stress related illness" and 12 sessions of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to come to that conclusion. So you've got to it on the cheap! :-)
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