My friend Dennis Howlett has been giving this blog some plugs, and has even been saying some kind things about me. He does so in this article which is worth reading for far more reasons than that.
What he says, in a nutshell, is that a couple of curmudgeons are a good thing for a company. They provoke change. I think he's saying I'm such a character.
George Bernard Shaw put it another way, which I like. He said:
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
My wife first introduced me to this quote. She thinks I'm an unreasonable man. I think she was using GBS's definition.
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Social and economic progress in a political context can only work if the opinions of all perspectives are considered, even if some perspectives seem un-tasteful. For example, from Marxism on the left to the British National Party on the right, although there is debate from centreist acamedics arguing that the opinion from the percieved far left and far right actually damage the political policy making process.
I do not agree with this opioion, possibly because I am an unreasonable man, and unreasonable men and women are actually benificial to politics, business and other aspects of out lives.
If being unreasonable is part of the work of men like Richard Murphy, then they should keep on being unreasonable.
One (perhaps inflammatory) observation here.
Most people live in societies where public functions are funded by taxation, paid by all.
In this context, are not tax evaders what would normally be considered to be unreasonable people? In contrast to those who pay their taxes who would normally be regarded as reasonable people?
So are you not saying that progress depends upon (inter alia) tax evaders?
Roger seeks to apply his usual perverse (and I am aware, tongue in cheek) logic.
But for those not aware of that fact the difference is obvious. GBS referred to the higher plains of thinking. Tax evaders are in the lower echelons; they’re just criminal. Not quite the same thing, I think.