Where does suspicion lie? Old age makes you suspect innovation, even when the new thing turns out to have been discarded aeons ago by the rest of the world.
I mean, when was shower gel invented? Not too long after showers arrived, probably. At least twenty years ago someone left shower gel behind in our bathroom. I couldn't conceive how a gel worked under a shower and was too lazy to find out. The plastic tube mouldered. Today, following a discussion with VR, I'm ready to give gel a trial. The reasons don't matter. What does matter is the threat of ingrained suspicion.
Smartphones were introduced in 1992 and many Brits became ecstatic. The years rolled by and I continued to find reasons for not acquiring one. Especially I-phones and their potential link to bankruptcy. Recently I was persuaded when I discovered a smartphone could overcome having to retain enough coinage to pay small cash sums such as parking meter charges. Which, ironically, I've not yet done. Residual suspicion remains. I am not prepared to access my bank account by my Motorola.
Where you come from (especially if it's the West Riding of Yorkshire) can lead to embedded suspicion. Not only did I, born a Tyke, regard credit cards as the Devil's plastic, I lived in the USA for six years without one. Even rented cars. I cracked some time in the eighties/nineties; ever since I've paid off the total each month. Perhaps through fear rather than suspicion.
The above suspicions may be pathological. But to suspect politicians is a sign of good mental health, Especially now. One may even succumb to terror. Our lives in the hands of a cabinet of yes-people whose only known policy was to support Brexit.
I do wish I had the enthusiasm for new things that some people do. But I don't. Even when I buy new clothes I tend to let them hang, unworn, in my closet for weeks while they become familiar. I totally agree with your last paragraph.
ReplyDeleteColette: I will weave this into my next post.
ReplyDelete"...Old age makes you suspect innovation," This may be true of some but the "you" in this sentence is not me. I'm old and have been old for some time, but I've never been suspicious of innovation. On the contrary.New technology interests me,especially if it has creative potential. My first computer ovr 20 years ago was a Mac and an exciting toy. I taught myself how to use various kinds of software and built my own website then moved on to blogging etc. I have a smart phone but it doesn't interest me and I hardly use it. Too small and fiddly to do anything interesting with. Anyway, suspicion: yes, I suspect all politicians and also most persons in positions of great authority and power. Not necessarily because they're wrong in their dictates. They may be right but I'd be inclined to check the facts before trusting them.
ReplyDeleteNatalie: Car? Electric car? Kindle e-reader? Electric tooth brush? Electronic metronome? Good champagne at less than £15 a bottle? Wi-fi keyboard and mouse for internet use with TV? Streamed opera? GPS with smartphone? Online prescription? Post Office Credit Card preloaded in UK with foreign currency? Voucher subscription for The Guardian? Auto-toll payment for French autoroutes? Free musical scores? The Wine Society membership?
ReplyDeleteInclined to check facts. But do you? And how?
Whoa! Too many things for me.I have boringly simple tastes in household goods etc. Have no interest in cars and don't drive. But I like creative toys like a keyboard (I have one,not WI-fi), video camera, software that helps to do things. And I have a Kindle but hardly use it. Too much else to do.
DeleteFacts: I look them up. If one is persisten and stubborn it's usually possible to get reliable information, at leasr for some things. Unless the information is deliberately hidden,as it often is.
Natalie: The proposition was: "...Old age makes you suspect innovation," Having a reason not to go with some new development doesn't get you off the hook. I knew you didn't drive, but perhaps you should (eg, are there people you don't see because the journey by public transport is too complex, too fatiguing?). GPS can be an aid when you use public transport. Not using your Kindle is another way of saying you don't read. You admitted to having problems with your teeth; perhaps an electric tooth brush may have forestalled these problems (my dentist recommends an electric brush). "Boringly simple tastes in household goods" may add up to wasteful practices with electricity.
DeleteThere are contradictions. You have too much to do to read your Kindle and yet you are willing to be persistent and stubborn in finding out whether someone in public life is or isn't a crook. A whole load of questions arise from that one
Look, none of these points I've raised are worth discussing individually. But in a broad brush statement you say you've never been suspicious of innovation. Which invited me to test that statement. The world shrinks down to technology "with creative potential" but does that include Photoshop which I for one couldn't be without. (Parenthetically my brother uses PS to modify photos into what he considers to be pleasing designs). Fiddly smartphones are presently at the heart of the Skype sessions by which VR and I maintain contact with our family during The Plague, an enormous improvement on mere phone calls.
My proposition was a generality but there is ample evidence to support it. Government solutions to The Plague (half-hearted in all conscience) often discriminate against older people because they lack smartphones. Why? Perhaps because they suspect they are fiddly. Or they have one and "know" it is fiddly.
I liked the Title of your Post very much, so True that Villains may Smile... and a Smile can hide Evil intent. Not everything is as it seems on the surface. That is where my suspicion lies... because beneath the superficial, a lot lies that we may not be privy to.
ReplyDeleteBohemian: Much as I would like to take credit for that sneaky title (So obvious at first glance, but doesn't it grow on you?) I fear it was created by a certain ex-resident of Stratford-upon-Avon in the county of Warwickshire. Yclept William Shakespeare (and don't you also love "yclept"?).
DeleteI am unveiled as a plagiarist and my plagiarism doesn't stop there. "Such stuff" comes from the same source as does "Rounded with a sleep". I was under-educated, you see, and my blog is a pathetic series of attempts to show I'm trying to catch up. You could also say my blogs are, at heart, a string of opportunities for me to use "rebarbative", my all-time favourite adjective. Go on, psycho-analyse me.