(First published in the Curmudgeon column, The Dominion Post, June 22.)
ONE OF our least attractive national characteristics was on display last week. I refer to our puerile tendency to poke our tongues out and go nyah-nyah at the Australians whenever we're perceived to have bettered them.
Not content simply to relish the All Whites’ lucky 1-1 draw with Slovakia, we had to gloat at the Socceroos’ 4-0 hammering by Germany. But any side can have a bad day, particularly against a side that’s ranked sixth in the world, and it could easily be the All Whites’ turn to stumble next. Schadenfreude – the enjoyment of others’ misfortunes – has a nasty habit of rebounding.
In any case, what was the point of crowing at Australia’s failure? All it did was announce to the world that we’re a small-minded country with a big inferiority complex.
We even failed to see the ironic humour in the Sydney Morning Herald’s headline: Australasia 1, Slovakia 1. Predictably, we rose to the bait and took it as a slight.
Sporting rivalry between New Zealand and Australia has always been intense but it used to be essentially good-natured. I’m not sure that’s true anymore.
A sour, petty tone is creeping into the relationship, though only on our side of the ditch. Surveys show that Australians still regard New Zealand and New Zealanders with more affection than any other country, which is probably more than we deserve. We should hope it stays that way, because we need them more than they need us.
Rivalry when we’re competing against each other is one thing, but in international competitions like the World Cup we can surely afford to be more big-hearted. In fact we should probably celebrate Australian successes as the next best thing to our own.
* * *
ONE OF last year’s more bizarre moments came when Dr Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, announced the start of the swine flu pandemic. She made it sound as if she was opening the Olympic Games or announcing the winner of the best picture award at the Oscars.
“The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic,” she proudly declared. I waited for her to add “Gentlemen, start your engines” and sound a hooter.
So far this year, concern over swine flu has been noticeably muted. In fact people are now wondering whether last year’s hysteria was a huge over-reaction, largely orchestrated by big drug companies that stood to make billions from the sale of vaccines.
The British Medical Journal has been severely critical of the WHO, accusing it of being less than transparent in taking advice from experts employed by the drug companies.
On Morning Report last week, director of public health Mark Jacobs told Sean Plunket that about 35 people in New Zealand had died of swine flu. And how many could be expected to die in a typical year from normal seasonal influenza? “Probably 200.”
Notwithstanding all the above, I got a flu vaccine this year because my GP recommended it, and he’s a sensible bloke. But the WHO’s credibility has taken a hammering, which is gratifying because this is the same organisation that drives the global phobia over alcohol consumption.
* * *
THIS column recently noted the emergence of a psychological affliction called Acute Sensitivity Disorder, the main symptom of which is readiness to take offence.
The rapid spread of this condition is apparent from the annual report of the Advertising Standards Authority, which contains a list of the most complained-about ads of 2009.
No 1 on the list was a Hell’s Pizza ad which played on a widely reported incident in which a Tongan man barbecued a dog in his back yard. No surprises there, since Hell’s Pizza and its advertising agency go all out to provoke controversy with ads that push the boundaries and were probably thrilled that this one attracted 62 complaints (which were upheld).
But the ad that most interested me was the one that ranked No 2. This was a Stihl chainsaw television ad in which a dying man, with his weeping family clustered around his bed, feebly whispers in his son’s ear: “Look after your mother”.
After the old man draws his last breath and expires, another family member asks the son what his last message was. The son, barely able to conceal his delight, replies: “He said I can have his chainsaw.”
Fifty-two people complained. Some said the ad was in bad taste, lacked sensitivity and was disrespectful of death. Others said it promoted lying for material gain and undermined family values.
Good grief. Whatever happened to our sense of humour? I’m phobic about television advertising, but if there were more ads like this I might stop reaching for the mute button.
To its credit, the Advertising Standards Complaints Board didn’t uphold the complaints. It ruled that the “darkly humorous and satirical presentation of a deathbed wish” saved the ad from crossing the threshold of offensiveness.
Showing posts with label Acute sensitivity disorder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acute sensitivity disorder. Show all posts
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Gordon Brown a victim of Acute Sensitivity Disorder: academic
(First published in the Curmudgeon column, The Dominion Post, May 11.)
NEWSFLASH: Researchers have identified a previously unrecognised psychological phenomenon which they say is sweeping the developed world. They have given it the name Acute Sensitivity Disorder.
Quoted in the latest edition of the British medical journal The Lancet, Dr Fergus Aitken-Humphreys of Edinburgh University says the condition is characterised by quickness to take offence at the merest slight and to demand redress.
An acute allergic reaction to certain “trigger” words and expressions is a common symptom. Researchers noted that someone had recently laid a complaint against a New Zealand television host who used the term “schizo”, Dr Aitken-Humphreys said.
Symptoms of ASD may be displayed by groups as well as individuals. Dr Aitken-Humphreys said the next step for the researchers was to establish whether there were any links with the phenomenon known as identity politics, in which members of minority groups focus on perceived differences with the community at large and are hyper-sensitive to statements that are seen as stereotyping or stigmatising them.
By coincidence, Dr Aitken-Humphreys’ research team released its preliminary findings at the same time as a political furore erupted in Britain over prime minister Gordon Brown’s description of lifelong Labour voter Gillian Duffy as a “bigoted woman”.
Dr Aitken-Humphreys said the reaction to Mr Brown’s gaffe was consistent with ASD. “Some people might take the view that Mr Brown was perfectly entitled, in what he thought was the privacy of his car, to express a personal view about Mrs Duffy.
“It was an off-the-cuff statement made amid the stress of a closely fought election campaign. Some people might take the view that it was a perfectly normal human reaction in the circumstances. But suddenly the entire election result was supposedly hanging in the balance because of it.”
He noted that the news media, which was often complicit in the spread of ASD, had made great play of the Duffy incident. “What we don’t yet know is whether the fuss created by the media reflects community attitudes at large.” He pointed out that despite the adverse publicity, opinion polls showed no drop in Mr Brown’s support.
Some scholars suspect that ASD is closely related to apology fever, first noted in the 1990s, which takes the form of an obsessive quest for expressions of remorse, often over events that took place in the distant past and for which the party apologising had no responsibility.
Dr Aitken-Humphreys said there was some support for the view that advanced societies were becoming more thin-skinned.
“What’s striking about our research is that ASD seems confined to affluent, developed countries. One theory is that people are no longer preoccupied with the business of sheer survival. They have time on their hands to dwell on perceived grievances and allow them to become magnified out of all proportion.
“In the few primitive societies where ASD has been diagnosed, it has invariably been transmitted by activists from developed countries who, ironically, were just trying to help.”
* * *
TALKING of psychological disorders, I was recently seated on a plane next to a smartly dressed young woman who had not one but two cellphones. As she carried on a conversation on one she was texting on the other.
She continued texting after the plane started taxiing out to the runway, despite the usual request to turn off electronic devices. Two or three times, when she seemed on the verge of shutting her phone down, she suddenly remembered one more message – clearly a matter of life and death that couldn’t wait the 40 minutes till we arrived at our destination – and began texting again.
You could sense the mental turmoil when she eventually forced herself to put both phones in her handbag. And the moment we touched down, one of the phones was out and she was at it again.
What causes this compulsion to remain constantly in touch – a compulsion so strong that some people seem to have difficulty stopping even for the duration of a short domestic flight? Should it be classified as an addiction, or perhaps a form of mania?
* * *
TV COMMERCIALS are considered an abomination in our house, and I can hit the mute button faster than Wyatt Earp could draw his Buntline Special. But some ads retain the ability to irritate even with the sound off.
Take the ad for Dettol disinfectant wipes. It shows vile germs rampantly proliferating on every household surface touched by vulnerable children. All that stands between these innocent, unknowing creatures and an outbreak of the bubonic plague is a conscientious mother busily disinfecting everything.
The ad not only panders to a ridiculous hygiene obsession propagated by the purveyors of disinfectants, but misleadingly suggests that everything can and should be sanitised.
The truth is that germs are everywhere, and thank goodness for that. We need them because exposure to germs helps keep our immune systems armed and alert.
Some medical specialists suspect that germ phobia, paradoxically, is to blame for the extraordinary growth of food allergies, and that what we need is more, not less, exposure to dirt and allergens to keep our immune systems on their toes.
I say we should cut Bertie Germ a bit of slack. He has as much right to be here as we have.
NEWSFLASH: Researchers have identified a previously unrecognised psychological phenomenon which they say is sweeping the developed world. They have given it the name Acute Sensitivity Disorder.
Quoted in the latest edition of the British medical journal The Lancet, Dr Fergus Aitken-Humphreys of Edinburgh University says the condition is characterised by quickness to take offence at the merest slight and to demand redress.
An acute allergic reaction to certain “trigger” words and expressions is a common symptom. Researchers noted that someone had recently laid a complaint against a New Zealand television host who used the term “schizo”, Dr Aitken-Humphreys said.
Symptoms of ASD may be displayed by groups as well as individuals. Dr Aitken-Humphreys said the next step for the researchers was to establish whether there were any links with the phenomenon known as identity politics, in which members of minority groups focus on perceived differences with the community at large and are hyper-sensitive to statements that are seen as stereotyping or stigmatising them.
By coincidence, Dr Aitken-Humphreys’ research team released its preliminary findings at the same time as a political furore erupted in Britain over prime minister Gordon Brown’s description of lifelong Labour voter Gillian Duffy as a “bigoted woman”.
Dr Aitken-Humphreys said the reaction to Mr Brown’s gaffe was consistent with ASD. “Some people might take the view that Mr Brown was perfectly entitled, in what he thought was the privacy of his car, to express a personal view about Mrs Duffy.
“It was an off-the-cuff statement made amid the stress of a closely fought election campaign. Some people might take the view that it was a perfectly normal human reaction in the circumstances. But suddenly the entire election result was supposedly hanging in the balance because of it.”
He noted that the news media, which was often complicit in the spread of ASD, had made great play of the Duffy incident. “What we don’t yet know is whether the fuss created by the media reflects community attitudes at large.” He pointed out that despite the adverse publicity, opinion polls showed no drop in Mr Brown’s support.
Some scholars suspect that ASD is closely related to apology fever, first noted in the 1990s, which takes the form of an obsessive quest for expressions of remorse, often over events that took place in the distant past and for which the party apologising had no responsibility.
Dr Aitken-Humphreys said there was some support for the view that advanced societies were becoming more thin-skinned.
“What’s striking about our research is that ASD seems confined to affluent, developed countries. One theory is that people are no longer preoccupied with the business of sheer survival. They have time on their hands to dwell on perceived grievances and allow them to become magnified out of all proportion.
“In the few primitive societies where ASD has been diagnosed, it has invariably been transmitted by activists from developed countries who, ironically, were just trying to help.”
* * *
TALKING of psychological disorders, I was recently seated on a plane next to a smartly dressed young woman who had not one but two cellphones. As she carried on a conversation on one she was texting on the other.
She continued texting after the plane started taxiing out to the runway, despite the usual request to turn off electronic devices. Two or three times, when she seemed on the verge of shutting her phone down, she suddenly remembered one more message – clearly a matter of life and death that couldn’t wait the 40 minutes till we arrived at our destination – and began texting again.
You could sense the mental turmoil when she eventually forced herself to put both phones in her handbag. And the moment we touched down, one of the phones was out and she was at it again.
What causes this compulsion to remain constantly in touch – a compulsion so strong that some people seem to have difficulty stopping even for the duration of a short domestic flight? Should it be classified as an addiction, or perhaps a form of mania?
* * *
TV COMMERCIALS are considered an abomination in our house, and I can hit the mute button faster than Wyatt Earp could draw his Buntline Special. But some ads retain the ability to irritate even with the sound off.
Take the ad for Dettol disinfectant wipes. It shows vile germs rampantly proliferating on every household surface touched by vulnerable children. All that stands between these innocent, unknowing creatures and an outbreak of the bubonic plague is a conscientious mother busily disinfecting everything.
The ad not only panders to a ridiculous hygiene obsession propagated by the purveyors of disinfectants, but misleadingly suggests that everything can and should be sanitised.
The truth is that germs are everywhere, and thank goodness for that. We need them because exposure to germs helps keep our immune systems armed and alert.
Some medical specialists suspect that germ phobia, paradoxically, is to blame for the extraordinary growth of food allergies, and that what we need is more, not less, exposure to dirt and allergens to keep our immune systems on their toes.
I say we should cut Bertie Germ a bit of slack. He has as much right to be here as we have.
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