Friday, November 24, 2006
GET A JEORB!
Christop's recently been involved with the G20 protests and has been blogging about it. A paragraph that stood out in particular to me:
We had a lot of people tell us to get jobs. Was talking to Ben about how it seemed as though people presumed that because you do something you strongly believe needs to be done, people presume that you're only doing it because you don't have a paid job, and therefore just don't have anything better to occupy your time. Also found it interesting that people think it's fine to abuse people that they believe to be unemployed.
The phrase 'Get a job!' seems to be overused to the point where people don't even think before they say it any more. I think Christop may have been giving those people too much credit by suggesting that they put much thought into what they were saying. I think that it is the typical response by people who don't want to think about why the protesters were doing what they were doing. Most people don't seem to want to think outside their own little circles, and when they are confronted by people who clearly do, they feel the need to dismiss them with a knee-jerk reaction of some sort.
It could also be because they feel powerless or oppressed, or because our society seems to promote the 'Somebody Else Will Take Care Of It' mentality.
(Lucas, keep yelling it out to a random selection of people from my car window. That's a different situation. After all, we both know those people probably have jobs. The point is, they get confused, and we get cheap laughs.)
We had a lot of people tell us to get jobs. Was talking to Ben about how it seemed as though people presumed that because you do something you strongly believe needs to be done, people presume that you're only doing it because you don't have a paid job, and therefore just don't have anything better to occupy your time. Also found it interesting that people think it's fine to abuse people that they believe to be unemployed.
The phrase 'Get a job!' seems to be overused to the point where people don't even think before they say it any more. I think Christop may have been giving those people too much credit by suggesting that they put much thought into what they were saying. I think that it is the typical response by people who don't want to think about why the protesters were doing what they were doing. Most people don't seem to want to think outside their own little circles, and when they are confronted by people who clearly do, they feel the need to dismiss them with a knee-jerk reaction of some sort.
It could also be because they feel powerless or oppressed, or because our society seems to promote the 'Somebody Else Will Take Care Of It' mentality.
(Lucas, keep yelling it out to a random selection of people from my car window. That's a different situation. After all, we both know those people probably have jobs. The point is, they get confused, and we get cheap laughs.)
Comments:
Hmm. If the phrase bothers you, I could change it to "Get a Haircut!". That's equally old-fashioned and equally confusing. Especially if the person is bald.
Yeah, I don't think people actually put any thought into why they're saying it either, but I still think some of what I said is behind it - just not consciously.
We were also thinking of yelling, 'Get a sabbath!' at people.
Post a Comment
We were also thinking of yelling, 'Get a sabbath!' at people.
