So what is a dunghead?
Yes, it's an insult;
but I am hoping to go beyond that.
I have given a
considerable amount of thought to this; and think that it may be best
to give some examples.
Once I started looking
for them, they were everywhere.
But it is important to
distinguish between a dunghead and an idiot, for example. & it
would be counterproductive to hurl the word at someone for a mistake.
A Dunghead must be determined no to change or concede to earn the
appellation.
Then the mad idea of
charging Cypriot's bank accounts to pay for the rich hit me as a real
Dunghead idea.
However, let us hold on
for a moment. There is so much in the EU that is Dungheady and the
organisation and its predecessors has for many years spent most of
its days firefighting the consequences of what it had previously
done.
This is sometimes
referred to as the law of unintended consequences; but there is no
such law. That is Dunghead science. The would be Dunghead scientist
notes that much or all goes wrong in its plans in ways he or she did
not intend; and comes up with this “idea”: that there is some
principle at work. There is, I suppose: if you do something without
thinking it through then it is likely that something unexpected will
happen. That, of course, is an anti-Dunghead principle.
It is easy to see how,
in the early days of the European Community, just reaching agreement
between former enemies was seen as an achievement; but soon after
there began to develop a Dunghead idea of innate superiority in the
Dunghead way – whatever they actually called it -- similar to
things sometimes said in the USA about their constitution and
history.
This false self belief
has led them to apply an approach that may have helped conflict in
Western Europe to every problem regardless of its approipriateness.
Analysis was not involved at any deep level in anything. So in UK the
number of Polish citizens coming here was grossly underestimated on
the basis of a calculation the terms of which are not available to
us. (Someone began a sentence with the word “Well, it's obvious
that...”) The same is about to happen with Romanians – to the
point where new laws proposed by the ConDems will hurt UK citizens
just in order to deal with the problem Dungheads may have created
vis-a-vis Romanians.
And it is also very
similar to the worries that have been created by the attempt in
Cyprus not to upset Russian investors – one thing at a time, with
no overview, as if one participant in a game of chess were playing
some other game.
So never viewing a
problem in context is a Dunghead method. Widespread reliance on
untested assumptions is a Dunghead approach; so too is reliance on
precedents.
You can hear Dunghead
methods of argument at most party political conferences. I say
“methods of argument” rather than “ideas” because Dungheads
do not really have ideas, only assumptions and delusions and myths.
Thus all political
parties and the EU are my starting examples.
