No One Expects the Spanish Revolution? | 102 comments (102 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: No One Expects the Spanish Revolution? (4.00 / 4)

My experience of working in London for 4 years was that I thought I had lots of friends - in work and around the fringes of work. However when I left the UK (but not the company) hardly any stayed in contact - although I remained on the same corporate e-mail system. The friendship seemed largely instrumental, about career advancement, getting the work done etc. Even those I had helped very substantially in their careers disappeared.

Whereas in Ireland, friendships originating in a work context often transcended the work context, to the point where the work context becomes irrelevant or incidental. Perhaps it was because I never saw myself as settling down in the UK, or because it is much larger, more urbanised and more mobile society. People rarely stayed with the company more than a few years in the UK - whereas in Ireland the norm was lifetime employment increasingly undermined as the "English" managerial culture became dominant.

Certainly there was no sense that the English would ever challenge the corporate system, whereas many Irish prided themselves on their subversive capabilities. Perhaps it is reflective of the difference between a colonised and a colonising culture.

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by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 06:26:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: No One Expects the Spanish Revolution? (4.00 / 4)

There used to be a culture of subversion and challenge with the unions, but the British - like the most aggressively independent and ¨individualistic¨ Americans - are basically timid but angry conformists.

You won't find much direct confrontation or challenge in the workplace, but you will find epidemic levels of passive aggression and sullen incompetence.

As for friendships - I wouldn't expect much from corporate friendships. But I do have British friends who've been anything but trite and transient - very much the opposite - so I'd expect the impermanence to be more about the situation.

Britain hasn't had a positive image to aspire to since the end of the 50s, which is when the old benign middle-class paternalism became impossible to take seriously.

The end of empire confused everyone, and there's been no leader with a positive vision - as opposed to a negative, mean-spirited, and racist vision - of what the UK could be.

The UK could become a very interesting place if someone like that appeared - like a Brtish Obama, but for real.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Mon May 23rd, 2011 at 07:50:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: No One Expects the Spanish Revolution? (none / 1)

ThatBritGuy:

There used to be a culture of subversion and challenge with the unions, but the British - like the most aggressively independent and ¨individualistic¨ Americans - are basically timid but angry conformists.
You won't find much direct confrontation or challenge in the workplace, but you will find epidemic levels of passive aggression and sullen incompetence.

very true...

ThatBritGuy:

The UK could become a very interesting place if someone like that appeared - like a Brtish Obama, but for real.

i wonder if that's true of anywhere on the planet...

ThatBritGuy:

Britain hasn't had a positive image to aspire to since the end of the 50s

don't forget beatlemania, albion's last enduring global image success story!

the positive, paternal image got upsided then, but brits still knew how to have irreverent fun.

watching that spirit of freedom turned into a fashion industry has been a heartbreaking hallmark of the late 60's onward and downward spiral of brit kulcha, now mostly a sorry parody, except of course what's under the msm radar, still innovative and real, vital and edgy.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue May 24th, 2011 at 04:48:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]

No One Expects the Spanish Revolution? | 102 comments (102 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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