January 2006

[El Gordo]

Re Nigel's post....

I just don't agree with that analysis at all, Nigel. The great majority of posts on this forum don't get a direct response. I've given up responding to your pieces on your own forum just because I think they stand on their own, and it seems trite to feel it necessary to say "great post" all the time. Most of them are self-evidently interesting and thought-provoking pieces of writing. It seems almost better not to reply to them. I suspect most people felt that way about Sweder's.

In fact there wasn't a silence at all. Very unusually, 4 people acknowledged it. Compared with the average, that's a major reaction.

As for whether we felt "embarrassed" or not, that's something only we can answer as individuals. I didn't.

Re the British stiff upper lip and all that. For one thing, I'm not really sure what's meant by "the British". We're a pretty diverse lot these days. I suppose we mean the white suburban middle classes. But a bigger question for me is whether the lack of public caterwauling over Sweder's piece is a good or bad thing. I actually found the muted response itself quite touching. You detected a sense of communal embarrassment; I detected an air of commiseration and reflection; an opportunity to check a few of our own memories and experiences. For me, it was a respectful silence.

As for the contrasting response to the dog story, wasn't that just that like the moment when the referee blows his whistle at the end of a minute's silence before a game? We all shout and cheer and clap. Business as usual.

I was rather heartened by it all.