Offensively Defensive
Ask someone how to spell 'shame' and they may tell you they've never heard of the word. So few people feel it nowadays. Anything seems to go. No one will accept censure or criticism of any kind of behaviour irrespective of its harm or potential harm to others. It's how children behave when they're caught out: "not my fault!", "or I didn't do it!", or the defiant "what's wrong with that?".
And when they reach adulthood they have learned the lesson of successful denial; when attacked, attack right back. Offensive-defensive.
Unions are great at doing that kind of thing; police unions will close ranks to protect their members. Public service unions have become adept at denying their members have done anything that might run counter to their contract. And no sin appears too grave not to have a union solidly behind their members, who are "overworked" and vastly "underpaid", "misunderstood"; their "human rights" having been abridged.
Imagine being a passenger in a public transit bus, along with a whole host of other passengers, on a busy road, and the bus is speeding along in traffic during rush hour. Most of us have experienced that kind of thing; jerking stop-and-starts and drivers who seem to think they're race-car operators or highway cowboys. It's not the most comfortable drive in the world.
Imagine idly glancing over at the driver if you're seated at the front of the bus, and witnessing the driver, steering the bus casually although it's eating up the miles in heavy but steady traffic and the driver is double-tasking. Attending to filling out paperwork. Fixing his eyes on the road ahead when he feels he really has to, but otherwise attending to the paperwork.
Seemingly oblivious to his obligation to provide safe passage to his passengers. Seeming not to care overmuch that his actions with pen, paper, briefcase, dashboard and wheel appear to the person observing him to be manifestations of reckless inattention with the potential to deliver harm to those whom he is conveying. And who have paid handsomely for that privilege.
Imagine an enterprising passenger capturing it all on video and posting it online where it receives thousands of hits and makes the news. Imagine how angry this makes the Gatineau bus drivers' union, insisting that the YouTube video represents an unforgivable intrusion into the privacy owed the errant bus driver and they won't have it.
The STO union insisting that it be made a by-law offence with a fine attached, for anyone to carry a camera on board a bus for the purpose of filming the actions of a bus driver who is entitled to the dignity of his privacy. The bus driver has his immutable rights, the trusting passengers are obviously incidental to the occasion.
Imagine the cynical manipulation.
And when they reach adulthood they have learned the lesson of successful denial; when attacked, attack right back. Offensive-defensive.
Unions are great at doing that kind of thing; police unions will close ranks to protect their members. Public service unions have become adept at denying their members have done anything that might run counter to their contract. And no sin appears too grave not to have a union solidly behind their members, who are "overworked" and vastly "underpaid", "misunderstood"; their "human rights" having been abridged.
Imagine being a passenger in a public transit bus, along with a whole host of other passengers, on a busy road, and the bus is speeding along in traffic during rush hour. Most of us have experienced that kind of thing; jerking stop-and-starts and drivers who seem to think they're race-car operators or highway cowboys. It's not the most comfortable drive in the world.
Imagine idly glancing over at the driver if you're seated at the front of the bus, and witnessing the driver, steering the bus casually although it's eating up the miles in heavy but steady traffic and the driver is double-tasking. Attending to filling out paperwork. Fixing his eyes on the road ahead when he feels he really has to, but otherwise attending to the paperwork.
Seemingly oblivious to his obligation to provide safe passage to his passengers. Seeming not to care overmuch that his actions with pen, paper, briefcase, dashboard and wheel appear to the person observing him to be manifestations of reckless inattention with the potential to deliver harm to those whom he is conveying. And who have paid handsomely for that privilege.
Imagine an enterprising passenger capturing it all on video and posting it online where it receives thousands of hits and makes the news. Imagine how angry this makes the Gatineau bus drivers' union, insisting that the YouTube video represents an unforgivable intrusion into the privacy owed the errant bus driver and they won't have it.
The STO union insisting that it be made a by-law offence with a fine attached, for anyone to carry a camera on board a bus for the purpose of filming the actions of a bus driver who is entitled to the dignity of his privacy. The bus driver has his immutable rights, the trusting passengers are obviously incidental to the occasion.
Imagine the cynical manipulation.
posted by Pieface @ 6:17 PM
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