Kimberley Verburg ([info]sierra_le_oli) wrote,
@ 2007-07-03 15:26:00
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Entry tags:london, terrorism

Scary Terrorists, Not
It doesn't pay to immediately comment on things like the failed terrorist actions in London because it takes a while for solid facts to surface above the nonsense. However one thing was quickly clear: these guys deserve a zero for effort. The Register has an article by a bomb disposal guy on why their methods sucked (via [info]silly_swordsman)

Wingnut's route to and from work last Friday was interesting. On the way in, he couldn't go over Haymarket so had to detour and on the way back Park Lane was closed too. He said it was odd to see the normally packed Piccadilly Circus so quiet. But he's to be envied: not only does he earn green points and health points for cycling, he can now "defy the terrorists" twice a day as well. Too easy really. I have to settle for defying them the next time I order a plate of yasai yaki soba at Wagamama's or on my five-yearly visit to the New Zealand Embassy.

Personally, I want to smack the terrorists for giving the media an excuse to go into a frenzy. I never thought I'd say this, but some of that famed British stiff upper lip would be good right now and I say that based mostly on the coverage by the supposedly respectable BBC. Once again, I've been reminded why I so rarely watch TV news.

Fortunately, back in the real world, there was no indication that less people were out partying in the West End on the weekend. And the only things that could put a dampener on Saturday's Gay Pride were the rain and, much worse!, the Dr Who finale not being shown as promised.


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[info]furrfu
2007-07-03 02:44 pm UTC (link)
Stiff upper lipness:

http://www.retrotogo.com/2006/06/keep_calm_warti.html

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[info]gmh
2007-07-03 03:33 pm UTC (link)
I noticed those a couple of weeks ago.

Part of me wants one; part of me has a definite resistance to wearing anything depicting the crown.

(...and part of me says "well, really, why do you feel as though you have to Make A Statement at anyone else anyway?")

I suspect that the English stiff upper lip is viewed largely as a middle-class product of empire these days; something that never really existed per se except in self-regarding media portrayals such as Mrs. Miniver, Brief Encounter and Swallows and Amazons.

It's also an intellectually-manufactured idea; straight out of the Stoic school via Empire-era Oxbridge; if you read up on histories of the Blitz and so forth, it becomes clear that the majority of people involved were no more inclined to a 'stiff upper lip' than people are today.

...and yet I know some English people who are like that to some extent.

(The esteemed Mr. Smythe, for example)

As with so many things, the stiff upper lip is both a blessing and a curse, depending on whether you're talking about heroic chaps keeping their heads in crises or people so conditioned against complaining that they will ignore a trivial medical complaint until it becomes really serious.

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[info]sierra_le_oli
2007-07-03 04:39 pm UTC (link)
Great poster, but I must also confess to a slight twitchiness about the crown. But I didn't mean it for us, but for all those excitable people in the media.

I disagree with you about the stiff upper lip, though I'm sure it's been mythologised to a certain extent. There is a definite difference in how much the English in general are prepared to complain compared to the Dutch, French and a number of other cultures I'm familiar(ish) with.

The stiff upper lip was also taken to New Zealand by English colonial settlers and I observe a similar difference in how Kiwis don't complain compared to Dutch, French, etc. (Although that's also because the Kiwis have been influenced by Polynesian laidbackness, but of course cultural character traits don't live in isolation.) The positive and negative side of it you mention is exactly what I think of when it comes to Kiwis.

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[info]ailbhe
2007-07-03 06:08 pm UTC (link)
Is it stiff u--er li-or "mustn't grumble"?

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[info]sierra_le_oli
2007-07-03 09:50 pm UTC (link)
Part of having a stiff upper lip is not grumbling but also mean stolidly carrying on regardless through adversity. I think "mustn't grumble" comes more from a feeling that one mustn't put oneself forward.

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[info]ailbhe
2007-07-03 09:54 pm UTC (link)
similar results, different motivations- 's wy I asked.

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[info]sierra_le_oli
2007-07-03 10:02 pm UTC (link)
Good you asked, I think was in danger of getting them muddled while trying to keep the my argument as narrow as possible instead of rambling all over the place. :-)

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[info]bonnie_j
2007-07-03 09:33 pm UTC (link)
Based on my own travelling observations, I think Kiwis are even less likely to complain about something than Brits. I saw a few Brits getting agitated in Greece, but they'd waited until they were irate before they did anything about it.

Has Richard Dawkins said anything about this bloody silly plot?

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[info]gmh
2007-07-03 09:36 pm UTC (link)
I disagree with you about the stiff upper lip

Far less than you might think, even if I prefer the Epicureans to the Stoics.

When describing it as a middle-class product of empire, I was talking about the way that the dominant culture appears to view such things, rather than my own personal views on the matter.

As such, the BBC is no longer characterised by smartly-dressed middle-class white men speaking in impeccable RP accents; if anything, the RP accent is less favoured than some form of regional accent, because it is felt to be less approachable.

As such, I think that there is some form of backlash against the stiff upper lip still going on in the British media; an effort to get people to express their emotions in the public sphere.

Look at the number of articles asking people how $emotioned they were at $event, rather than what actually happened there.

Personally, I remain rather fond of the stiff upper lip; even if there are times when you need to recognise its limits, there is something very comforting about the idea that people won't automatically assume that you want to hear their life story.

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[info]sierra_le_oli
2007-07-03 09:55 pm UTC (link)
I misinterpreted what you wrote sorry, I see what you mean now. Also, my understanding of the whole class thing is definitely imperfect, but I'm trying to work on that.

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Nice!
(Anonymous)
2007-07-03 05:57 pm UTC (link)
Great link, I really ought to read the Register more (quite apart from all the other stuff I should also be reading more...), I've used it in my own blog. If this is what Al Quaeda is up to, then indeed the war on terror is won, and we can start doing sensible things again instead of filling the news with lazy clowns like these :) We need more sanity!

ttfn,

Michel

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