04:00 Jeg står
tidligt op og kigger lidt på nettet. Jeg får lidt af et chok, da jeg kigger på
vores bankkonto – nogen har brugt Lois’s betalingskort for at købe noget fra en
autodelebutik i byen Andover på næsten 800£. Du godeste – jeg ringer til
bankens hotline , men jeg finder ud af, at det var Lois’s betalingskort, der
blev bruget, så banken må tale med hende personligt om sagen. Selvfølgelig er
hun ikke vågen endnu, så jeg må venter – pokkers!
Autodelebutikken i byen Andover, der nu har 800£ af vores penge - pokkers!
07:30 Jeg
hopper tilbage op i sengen til Lois og vi drikker vores morgenté. Jeg fortæller
hende om den dårlige nyhed om vores bankkonto. Vi står op og hun ringer til
bankens hotline. De vil kreditere vores konto med 800£ indenfor de næste 2
dage, mens de undersøger sagen og diskuterer den med autodelebutikken i
Andover. Du godeste – sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!
11:30 Vores
ven, ”Magyar” Mike, og hans kone, ”Magyar” Mary, kommer og vi går hen ind i
landsbyen, og spiser frokost på den lokale pub, King’s Arms. Vi kommer hjem og Mike
tager sin bærerbare frem. Vi sætter os i stuen og Mike viser os de billeder,
han tog under deres nylige ferie i Prag.
Jeg sidder i
sofaen ved siden af Lois, så hun kan nippe mig i armen, hvis jeg viser tegn på
at falde i søvn under Mikes diashow.
Mike,
Mary og deres barnebarn, Stephen, i Prag
tidligere
på året
Jeg snakker
lidt med dem om Prag-lufthavns dårlige omdømme, som
verdens værste lufthavn, ifølge en rapport fra Business Week/Onion News – jeg
indrømmer til dem, at rapporten nu er 8 år gammel. De siger, at lufthavnen
siden da har indledt en masse nye forbedringer.
Tilbageblik til
2009: Prag Lufthavn blev stærkt kritiseret i sær for
sine ”ubehjælpelige
skiltning” og ”og elendige kundeservice” –
Lufthavnen har
siden da indledt en masse forbedringer, siger ”Magyar” Mike
15:00 Mike og
Mary skal af sted, og jeg går i seng for at tage mig en kort eftermiddagslur.
Jeg står op og måler mit blodtryk. Sarah, min læge, bad mig om at måle det
engang imellem, men det har jeg gentagende gange glemt at gøre. Heldigvis viser
det at være ikke særlig dårligt: 126/79 og min puls er 65. Tidligere på året
bad Sarah mig om, at holde op med at tage mine blodtrykpiller, fordi min
blodtryk var for lavt, men det var højere igen, den sidste gang hun så mig, og
hun vil have mig til at overvåge det. Jeg må prøve at måle mig selv igen i
morgen samme tid.
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, der handler
om den berømte Oxford University filosof, Isaiah Berlin.
Lois smækker benene op i sofaen, mens vi lytter lidt til radio
Vi kunne godt lide Isaiah Berlin, på grund af, at selvom han var filosof, var han en venlig mand, og han havde ingen illusioner om farerne ved kommunismen, i sammenligning til sin kollega, Bertrand Russell, der i 1950’erne kæmpede for ensidig nedrustning af de vestlige kræfter. Berlin så faktisk i sin barndommen den russiske revolution udspille sig i Sankt Petersborg. Hans familie flygtede senere til England.
Isaiah Berlin
Han er berømt
for, at han opdelte intellektuelle (men også almindelige) mennesker i to
grupper: pindsvin og ræve. Ideen stammer fra en isoleret brokdel af et
forsvundet digt af den græske digter, Archilochos (ca. 680 f.Kr. – ca. 645
f.Kr.): ”ræven ved mange ting, men pindsvinet ved én stor ting”.
Fortolkningen
af dette er, at ræven er en snild væsen med forskellige færdigheder og
taktikker, som han bruger for at opspore og dræbe sin bytte, mens pindsvinet
har kun en taktik – at rulle sig i en bold for at beskytte sig: det kan ikke
andet. Det er pindsvinets svar på hvert problem.
Berlin plejede
at sige, at der er ”ét spørgsmål fanatikere”, der ser på verden i lyset af én
stor idé eller ét stor princip og prøver at relatere alt tilbage til det der
princip (pindsvinene).
Tværtimod har
vi rævene, der er glade for variationer, som ikke ser noget særligt mønster, og
følger efter sandheden, hvor som helst det fører dem.
Berlin brugte
idéen generelt for at kategorise intellektuelle mennesker men også almindelige
mennesker. Han indrømmede, at han selv var en ræv. Han troede på variation, på
individualitet og pluralitet, og ikke at lægge mennesker i spændetrøjer. Sikke
en klog mand!
Han brugte
idéen oprindeligt for at tale om Tolstoj, den berømte russiske forfatter af
”Krig og Fred”, og Tolstojs syn på historie. Han syntes, at Tolstoy af natur
var en ræv, meget dygtig til at forstå og beskrive individuelle menneskers
personligheder og egenskaber, og de små detaljer af hverdagen. Men han længtes
efter at være et pindsvin, at finde et eller andet system, der ville forklare
livet, universet og alt det der, og ifølge Berlin nåede Tolstoy aldrig at løse
denne spænding – stakkels Tolstoj!!!!!
Tolstoj
i 1908
22:00 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzz!!!!
English
translation
04:00 I get up early and look online. I get a bit of a
shock when I look at our bank account - someone has used Lois's debit card to
buy something from a car dealership in Andover for almost £ 800. My god - I
call the bank's hotline, but I find out that Lois's payment card was used so
that the bank has to talk with her personally about the case. Of course she is
not awake yet, so I have to wait - damn it!
the car dealership in Andover that now has £800 of our money - damn!
07:30 I jump back into bed with Lois and we drink our
morning tea. I tell her about the bad news from the bank. We get up and she
calls the bank's hotline. They will credit our account by £ 800 within the next
2 days while investigating the case and discussing it with the car dealer in
Andover. My goodness - what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
11:30 Our friend, "Magyar" Mike, and his wife,
"Magyar" Mary, come and we walk into the village and have lunch at
the local pub, the King's Arms. We come home and Mike takes out his laptop. We sit
in the living room and Mike shows us the pictures he took during their recent
holiday in Prague.
I sit on the couch next to Lois so she can pinch me
in the arm if I show signs of falling asleep during Mike's slideshow.
Mike, Mary and their grandson, Stephen, in
Prague earlier this year
I talk a little to them about the bad reputation of Prague Airport as the world's worst airport, according to a report from Business Week / Onion News - I admit to them that the report is now 8 years old. Mike and Mary say that since then the airport has introduced a lot of new improvements.
Flashback to 2009: Prague Airport was strongly criticised in particular for
their "unhelpful signage" and "miserable customer service".
The airport has since introduced a lot of improvements, says "Magyar" Mike
15:00 Mike and Mary have to leave and I go to bed to take a short afternoon nap. I get up and measure my blood pressure. Sarah,
my doctor, asked me to measure it now and then, but I have repeatedly forgotten
to do that. Fortunately, it does not turn out to be very bad: 126/79 and my
pulse is 65. Earlier this year Sarah asked me to stop taking my blood pressure
pills because my blood pressure was too low, but it was higher again the last
time she saw me and she wants me to monitor it.
I have to try to measure myself again tomorrow the same
time.
18:00 We have dinner and listen a little to the radio, an
interesting program all about the famous Oxford University philosopher, Isaiah
Berlin.
Lois sticks her feet up, while we listen to the radio
We liked Isaiah Berlin, because although he was a philosopher, he was a friendly man and he had no illusions about the dangers of communism, in comparison to his colleague Bertrand Russell who campaigned in the 1950s for unliateral disarmament by the Western powers. Berlin in his childhood actually saw the Russian revolution play out in St. Petersburg. His family later fled to England.
Isaiah Berlin
He is famous for dividing intellectual (but also
ordinary) people into two groups: hedgehogs and foxes. The idea stems from an
isolated fragment of a lost poem by the Greek poet, Archilochos (c. 680 - 645 BC):
"the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing".
The interpretation of this is that the fox is a wily
creature with various skills and tactics that he uses to track down and kill
his prey, while the hedgehog has only one tactic - rolling himself up in a ball
to protect himself: he can't do anything else . It is the hedgehog's answer to
every problem.
Berlin used to say that there are a lot of "one issue
fanatics" who look at the world in the light of one big idea or one big
principle and try to relate everything back to that principle (hedgehogs).
On the other hand we have the foxes who are fond of
variations, who do not see any particular pattern, and follow the truth
wherever it leads them.
Berlin used the idea generally to categorize intellectual
people but also ordinary people. He admitted that he himself was a fox. He
believed in variation, in individuality and pluralism, and in not putting people
into straitjackets. What a wise man!
He used the idea initially to talk about Tolstoy, the
famous Russian author of "War and Peace," and about Tolstoy's view of
history. He thought that Tolstoy was by nature a fox, very good at
understanding and describing the personalities and qualities of individual
people, and the small details of everyday life. But Tolstoy longed to be a
hedgehog, so he could find some system that would explain life, the universe and everything, and according to Berlin, Tolstoy never resolved this tension - poor
Tolstoy !!!!!
Tolstoy in 1908
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!
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