Misfits

We finally got round to watching the film 'Syriana' last night. I found it completely engaging and at the same time confusing. I generally don't mind confusing in a film because it gives me mental cud to chew on. I think to a certain extent the confusion wasn't just mine, I think it was intentional to show how complex issues become when Politics, Business and religious fervour all become intertwined. It was also fascinating enough to be able to watch again. Nice to see Deep Space Nine's Dr.Bashir get a role that he can get his teeth into at last. He was excellent in this, as was George Clooney, a good enough actor to put on serious poundage for a role.

In the book 'Blink' that I am reading, I was interested to read about the American President Warren Harding who, according to the book, was one of America's worst ever presidents. He seems to have made it to the White House by way of looking right for the part, ie sending out subliminal signals to people that made them think he would be good in post.
The reason this section interested me particularly is that I have myself been able to pick out successful candidates for jobs twice on exactly this basis, that's to say not that I picked out the people who would necessarily do the job best, but those who would be appointed. I should point out that neither of these people were ones whom I appointed in my own department.
In Senior Management positions in Education in Britain, all the candidates are wheeled in at the same time and given all sorts of challenges over the day. They should televise it really, it's exactly the sort of reality show people watch. In both cases, I was able to tell in a split second, just by seeing the candidates, not even talking to them, who would get the job. On another occasion I was able to tell that no appointment would be made.
'Blink' shows many examples of this and makes you wonder just how useful the batteries of tests are.

I can't not mention the fascinating news story about the poor Chinese man who has had to go through the triple trauma of first losing his penis in an accident, then having a dead man's grafted on and finally asking for it to be removed because he can't deal with it psychologically.
Wherever I have read the story, it is presented as mildly humorous, and yet it's actually a most horrifying and tragic story.
We were watching the tail end of some TV programme the other night about the comedy act 'Puppetry of the Penis' where a couple of Aussie blokes made strange shapes with their willies. I don't have one myself and it made my eyes water. I'm not sure we saw enough of it to judge whether they had good material, I'm sure they must have done, but the show was making a comment about why it is that we find sexual organs amusing. Actually I think they just pointed out that we often do but without much comment.
And now that I re-read the news reports, maybe they're not in fact humorous, maybe you just think they must be.

At a school in Guildford in Surrey, not the one here, the one near where I used to live, three girls consistently bullied and eventually attacked another girl with a pair of scissors because she was more intelligent than they were.
Ok, I say that to make it controversial. They bullied her because she was 'a metaller'. But my experience from every class in every school I ever taught in, was that the metallers were always the more intelligent ones. What is the connection? I don't know and it was something I thought about a lot. They were also the more interesting ones. Although there is a difference between Goth music and Heavy Metal, there is also an overlap and sometimes you couldn't tell the Goths from the Metallers and nor could they. They were the ones who could relate to the teachers too, not by any means the ones who would do any work, but they might come and talk to you, there was some connection there.
And oh my dear lord, can anyone bully as obsessively as school children? And make no mistake, they can and do bully teachers too. It's always a game of perceived strength where the Vicky Pollards and their entourages are concerned.

Misfits, all of them, one way or another, apart from the Aussie blokes who made money from playing with themselves in public. Yeah, maybe them too, jury's out. But what makes the difference between a misfit and someone who stands out?
It's just a trick of the mind I'm sure.