Some People Make me Angry

I get angry sometimes, I don’t tend to rant and scream, but I get angry. I get angry with people usually, well people and traffic lights to be honest, but mainly with people. Not all people, most people I know are great…. The ones that I get angry about tend to attract at least one of the following epithets to them… parasite, liar, hypocrite, time waster, judgemental… Sounds like a particular occupation? Maybe, but in many ways we are all guilty of the last point. Don’t kid yourself… you have been ready to condemn because that lad is wearing a hoodie, because his hair is too long, she is wearing a low cut top and short skirt, he is black, she is fat, he is ginger… yes, you are judging based on a single characteristic without any evidence to support you

I have a few specific people in mind, but I suspect I will get in deep trouble if I name names, or make it too obvious… but I will describe the types of people generically. I think anyone who knows me well wont need telling who I am thinking of, but don’t ask me if you are right… in case I answer!!

So, like many people I know, I do voluntary work, and like 95% of others who do, I do it for one reason and one reason only. I see a need for improvement, for understanding and to defend people who don’t have a voice to raise in their own defence. I don’t seek praise, reward or anything else. The only reward I value is to see someone getting some support as a result of something I have done, fought for… or to see what I think are evil or inept practices being challenged and corrected.

I think I speak for all genuine campaigners and voluntary workers in that. What really frustrates me is when the authority we are challenging won’t listen, but I can live with that.

The people that anger me are people working for charities, campaigning, but who don’t share my commitment and passion to achieve something positive. Individuals who can wring their hands in passion, declaim eloquently about how we have to make changes, but will not take the next step to do something. I have seen people bellow indignantly, strike the table, declaim like an old testament prophet of wrath and eternal damnation, but ask them to approve a stiff letter, or a piece of action, and the answer is always “no”.

I question the motivation of these people… do they really want to see change, to help their nominated sector of society, to improve things, or do they simply want the brownie points of nominally supporting the cause, but in practice simply hold back any improvement. That way they can tell their golf club, or their ladies circle about how they do good works, but without the risk of ever having to get their hands dirty by actually doing anything to help, after all, they don’t want to have to deal with the working class do they?

The second group that I want to highlight are simple liars, people who do not tell the truth, who hide truth behind falsehood for their own gratification or self aggrandisement. Obviously this is wrong, but I wonder how many liars understand the implications of what they do. I am not perfect, like everyone else I have ever met, or ever will meet, I can lie… I can add to incidents for comic effect, the “white lie” to avoid offence (Does my bum look big In this?” “no dear”) these things don’t matter in the great scheme of things.

Where lieing does matter is in people in authority… in people who we need to have every confidence in… such as teachers, doctors, religious leaders, politicians, police officers.

If we are ill, or our loved one is ill, we are whether we accept it or not, vulnerable. We need our consultants to be honest and open. Of course there are times when it is acceptable to blur the truth… a dieing man may prefer not to know that, to live the rest of his life as normally as possible. It is, however, my firm belief that it is totally wrong to deceive his family. The bottom line of this is that a consultant tells you that your loved one is doing ok, will recover and be home in no time… but they die all the same.

Sometimes of course the prognosis is genuinely optimistic, and something happens to change it, but all to often their really is no hope, and, possibly for the best of reasons, the consultant will say all is well, knowing it not to be, to avoid the family getting upset or panicking. For me, these families deserve to know the truth, need to know the truth, so that they can come to terms, make their farewells, and prepare for the inevitable… maybe not now but in a year or too when it becomes imminent, but if they don’t know, they cannot make the arrangements, the appropriate gestures. They will lose their loved one with regrets and greater sorrow.

When a consultant does not tell the truth, they undermine all their own work, and all that of their colleagues immediately they are found out, as they inevitably will be, they lose the respect of the patients and their carers, the word of “the doctor”, any doctor, is not trusted, and this can have serious implications for any subsequent illnesses in the family group.

It is never acceptable for people in authority, where trust is a vital commodity in the process, to lie… there is no problem saying “I don’t know, I’ll check for you and get back to you” or “it’s not good news but…. “. Always better to tell the truth.

Then we have the parasites, they will encourage  the genuine people to do things, achieve things, then their egos or apathies will walk in and take the plaudits… like many I do my share of graft for the causes I seek to espouse… and I aim to get publicity for the cause by writing articles, letters, making phone calls or simply by waffling incessantly at people.

At other times in order to deliver my projects it is essential to work in conjunction with someone else, maybe another group, because I have the skills and they have the money to push it forward… there could be other things of course, but this is a typical one.

I would really get upset if we had an agreement to work together for the good of the sector of society I choose to work with, and the other party provided the resources, and I worked my butt off to deliver the good deeds, only to find that they impose a condition that they tell me how to do the project to tie in with their agenda, rather thn need, and that it will carry their branding and none of mine.

Sadly there are many organisations, often within City and County Councils, who have no real commitment to anything, except using decent hardworking people doing good important works only to take the credit for everything as though it was theirs from the beginning and be handsomely rewarded for it.

It is all about power, taking advantage of the willing, honest person with commitment and passion, sucking out all the goodness and taking it on themselves without doing anything at all to earn it.

All of the above types are time wasters, but some people are time wasters without any of the above sins. How often do you see people asked to do something, or support something, but even knowing it is important and the path forward clearly signposted, will want to give it another 48 hours before doing anything, then wanting not only to review everything from the first discussion, but to have it all illustrated in pie charts, graphs, a 48 page report in triplicate and further discussion.

These people seem to be indecisive, and sometimes they are, and it could be a result of depression or anxiety, both of which lead to difficulty in making decisions. As often as not, however, they are time wasters, hoping against hope that if they prevaricate long enough the need or possibility of action has passed and they can move on to wasting someone elses time.

These people, are called time wasters and can often be found in the corridors of decision in council halls around the country.

Yes, I am frequently referred to as a Victor Meldrew type, forever moaning about things, about people… and yes, I don’t suffer fools gladly and do raise issues when I feel they need raising, but I think I achieve a damn site more for my causes than the kind of people I describe here. They hold back any possible progress and improvement and that makes me angry…