A reedited version of
an article I wrote on the original HPANWO blog in 2008.
I guess by now you'll all be thinking I'm a bit bigheaded.
"What a conceited sod that Ben is! Strutting around like that, posing in
his uniform." Well in a way you'd be right. I'm a bigheaded hospital
porter, an arrogant tradesman! But I'm not bigheaded in the sense that I think
I'm better than anyone else. I don't believe I'm worth more than any other
human being; I just don't believe I'm worth any less. I think I've unknowingly
created this image of myself as a persona that is meant to be a kind of satire
of other arrogant tradesmen, simply because HPing is not meant to have them.
It's fine to be arrogant if you're a celebrity or in the armed forces, and this
satirical self-character I've created is a reaction to this
elephant-in-the-room double-standard that is blindly accepted and rarely
questioned. I suppose I want people to ask the question: Why, oh why is it
different if you're a HP, or cleaner, dustman or in any of the other so-called
"lowly" jobs? Why are there even such things as "lowly"
jobs as opposed to "non-lowly" ones? As I explain in the other
articles, the reactions I get from people vary from ridicule to rejection to
hostility and even violence: "But you're only a porter! What do you mean
you're 'proud'!? Hang your head and bow your shoulders in shame! Do it! NOW!...
Please! You have to for my sake! Don't you know what you're doing to me? You're
making my whole worldview fall apart. I have to reassess everything now!"
No comments:
Post a Comment