Just Lovely - Walking From Fecamp To Yport (2)

Just Lovely - Walking From Fecamp To Yport (1)

Synchronised Parking

Selective Negligence

'Now it seems, after all, there are signs of intelligence; our students have mastered "selective negligence".  They have learned to be discerning when it comes to our benevolence: the pearls of wisdom we dispense.'

'What?'

'O yes. Indeed. The statistics are bleak. It's a fact full-time students study less than 20 hours a week. They only attend class when a grade is at stake. They've no concept of education for education's sake. If the lecture doesn't aid a summative assignment they'd rather be shelf-stacking or auditing a consignment of goods delivered to Aldi or Waitrose. Terrible, but one suspects they're not interested in critical prose.'

'Really?'

'However, I've just been to a conference and, thank God, help is at hand. There are plenty of books to enable us to understand that - for now - formative assessment exorcises the ignorant and bland. It's a loop-hole in the modular system.'

'Right.'

'While I have the floor, let me address the issue of feedback. We're spending too much time on it; it's breaking one's back. But, despite the energy we expend in responding to student work, according to the National Student Survey (NSS), it's something that we shirk. Now, the NSS is a nuisance and a bore; believe me, collating its data is a dispiriting chore. But the mothers and fathers of the children we recruit take note of that information, so we must to boot. If we're going to succeed as a profit-making organisation, we have to respond to this new form of contagion, where the customer decides the quality of the goods s/he wants to buy. If we don't, the institution will implode and die.'

'Well, that's all fine and good and I could wish them well. But I'm sick of this role and they can all go to hell. However, the notion of selective negligence has a certain resonance. Does this also apply to staff: we eternal artists-in-residence? I mean, is this a ploy that we could, and should, employ? Is a limited perspective necessarily qualitatively defective? If we focussed our attention on the things that truly matter, like research and the creative interpretation of data, perhaps we would end up doing our jobs a little bit better. It's just an idea, after all.'

Being Boring

'I'm trying to sort out my nomenclature; I'm determined to determine from what it is I suffer. I thought it was boredom, but it may be from torpor. I'm currently skimming the literature.

'I read Bertrand Russell in a fit of idleness; an excellent essay free from any kind of dullness. To appreciate it required that I lie in repose. (My preferred position when it comes to good prose.)

'I tackled Adam Phillips from the psychiatrist's chair, where the unconscious and subconscious were gradually laid bare. I learned a Ms Spacks links the novel to tedium; a pertinent discovery for one who loves the medium.

'Carol Mavor's Reading Boyishly is a damned good book. I flicked through the index and then took a look at the pages that referred to boredom and labor [sic]. The stuff, apparently, that made Proust and Ackerman tick.

'It was in a state of ennui that I yielded and gave in to the knowledge that my accidie was, in fact, a cardinal sin. I renounced the modern, espoused Medieval scholarship. Believe me, it's hard to beat self-flaggelation with a horse-whip.

'But, my lassitude's flagging; I'm beginning to get lazy. My aversion to working is driving me crazy. My apathy is starting to make me feel weary. If I don't engage soon, life might begin to get dreary.'

The Health Lottery

From No Id To Just Say No

The Id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all desires.

If these wants are not satisfied, a state of tension and/or anxiety results. 

A baby's impulse to cry when its needs are not immediately met ensures -  in the right (mother's) hands - survival. 

In time, the young child develops the Ego (the reality principle that enables the individual to attempt to obtain what it needs by means which are deemed socially acceptable); and, later, the Superego (a sort of moral map, gauge or guide).

In adulthood, the Superego can become highly-developed, usually as a consequence of childhood needs being ignored, or of some terrible trauma. The adult no longer screams and wails (as a baby would do); instead, she may become pathetically compliant or mute.  Simultaneously, she loses touch with the Id, except through nightmarish dreams where death and destruction reign.

Despite the chronic condition (both causes and symptoms) of an over-developed Superego, the disease is neither progressive nor terminal. Indeed, an external trigger (such as a sympathetic, long-term companionship or collaboration) can jolt the Ego back into action and within months, the individual will find an increased ability to articulate, once again, her desires and wants.

The subsequent articulation of what is - to all extents and purposes - self-presevation manifests itself in numerous ways, according to various controlled experiments and psycho-analytic case-studies.

The Ego may speak eloquently and subtly or more bluntly and simply; expressing itself by a vehement 'no' to all unreasonable and selfish demands. This act of defiance further enhances the Ego's growth: a pleasure in itself.