The Perception of Excellence

Guest Author Uncategorized

Today’s Guest Poster is Jaycee, with another acerbic take on politics and meeja Oz-style in these strange times. To explain the lead picture (not, unfortunately, one of Jaycee’s OH) – Jaycee’s OH shows Hanoverian horses, with Jaycee as strapper, stable lad, and Mellors (his words, not mine …).

Perceptive Pubsters will be aware that Jaycee posted this as a comment earlier today. I thought it excellent, and asked permission to republish as a thread-starter. Jaycee kindly agreed, so – once again – many thanks, Jaycee, for another thought-provoking piece.

(Image Credit: Equestrian Life)

Something interesting came to my attention over the weekend. I was assisting my partner at an equestrian event where she competed in several classes with her two horses. She is a good rider, and I have been her strapper and video recorder for around a dozen years…so both she and, even more so, I have been able to assess the standard of rider opposition and judging levels over those years.

Of course, as everybody who rides horses knows, it can all come down to “the horse on the day”, but there are consistencies and they are the judging criteria that make or break the ride. These criteria are the ones handed down from eons ago using a set of standards of excellence for each level of competition. These standards evolved from centuries of cavalry manoeuvres required to keep a squadron of horses manageable in a battle situation. I hardly need tell you what sort of discipline THAT would require! Of course, such “hard core” training has been eased somewhat to accommodate the use of sporting horses in a social day out.

But … a strange realisation came to me this past weekend. My partner had competed in two events at the same competency level, with the same horse, same competitors, and with me observing. As I have said , I’ve been watching these competitions for around a dozen years and am not deluded enough to “gild the lily” on my partner’s behalf, so I was surprised when she came in second-last in one event and second place in the other! – with little discernible difference in performance in both rides, but with two different judges.

If you Google “Methods of training for horse riding”, you will come up with a plethora of individual styles, from “Rough-riding” to ‘Touch-therapy’ for horses. I won’t go into it – for my real purpose in this missive is to discuss ‘Perceptions vs. Standards of excellence”. Sufficient to say that, along with the creeping in of many and various breeds of horses, some quite unsuitable for the competitions they are entered into, along with the many and varied styles of training and riding of competition horses, has come softly, slowly , with a generational change, the “sympathetic” assessment of horsemanship down from a set standard of excellence to more of a perception of excellence. So, while both the horse and rider may be exhibiting those moments of in-the-frame composition, both have not been brought there by setting the solid / correct foundations to create that frame, but have been confected to behave as if has been trained thoroughly in horsemanship skills

This confected perception of excellence has permeated through many branches and skills of our society, from excellence in manufacture, to science and medicine, to management, to politics. It has damaged our society and left it vulnerable to persuasive propaganda that shifts opinions and sways decisions on little more than false-reality instant gratification.

(Image Credit: Modern Analyst)

Self-esteem is everything in our society … no-one is a loser. Sure, there are many ways of skinning a cat, but in some things, near enough is NOT good enough, and you can’t get away with “fake it till you make it”. In my trade, building, structure is everything, and it is too late and too dangerous to get wisdom in hindsight. There are standards of excellence. In lens-polishing, for instance, a milli-point or two from perfect would be disastrous. As in any demanding profession, there ARE set standards of excellence that MUST be adhered to for success to be achieved. We cannot let these slip, yet that is exactly what has happened in our politics, in our parliament – and the judges of those standards have foolishly let themselves be persuaded that it was THEY who had “got it right” when they allowed the outrageous destruction of House Procedures to slide into the mire of LNP corruption that is the present government.

Like those sympathies that have corrupted the set standards of excellence in many skills, the MSM Press Gallery journalists were spoon-fed, in small increments over a long period of time, the perception that Labor were incompetent, even though they had moved swiftly to alleviate the hardships of the GFC,

(Image Credit: Peter Martin)

not to mention the collapse of Storm Financial Limited, moved on climate change legislation, tried to apply regional refugee solutions. Then there was the NDIS,

(Image Credit: Alex Ellinghausen)

the NBN,

and all the rest.

But somehow, all the press-gallery could see was “leadership, leadership, leadership” … Why? Because the moguls who owned them told them so, the LNP press releases told them nothing more, their own egos sought to be the “first with the latest” … In short, they reported Labor as a lost cause because of a mistake with their perception of excellence, and reported the Abbott opposition as the best thing since sliced bread, in spite of his many quite glaring and ghastly failings. Because of their failure to report with the standard of excellence – once the cornerstone of their job-skill – their stupidity and gullibility is now written in Australian history.

This dangerous twisting awry of what is required to make an action standard best practice to accepting an action as perceived best practice has leeched into the electorate and allowed the lie of the “motherhood” statement to be accepted as a near-enough perception of done-deed. Thus, the LNP’s “200 policies costed and ready to go” and “We will bring the ‘out-of-control’ budget back in the black by 2016″…were embraced as actual policy. promised and delivered …

Or should I say, Perceived as delivered?

The electorate, by allowing its self-esteem to be stroked and massaged in this way, has given away democracy for the price of a couple of magic beans. Someone is going to have to tell them that fairy-tales do not come true: magic does not happen, God does not save little children from drowning, and economic rationalism is not going to deliver a better standard of living …

But with this whole-hearted and utterly deluded embracing of a perception of excellence, it is going to be a bloody difficult job!

(Image Credit: Grabzon)

879 thoughts on “The Perception of Excellence”

  1. Powerful stuff from Mark Kenny:

    Howard used to rail against Labor’s tendency to govern for section interests.

    But this week, it was the Abbott government which turned its back on mainstream opinion to pander to

    * a couple of mouthy conservative commentators wanting to legalise hate speech,
    * a cloister of protected banks wanting to reintroduce skimming, and
    * a tiny cluster of 19th century monarchists.

    Little wonder the Prime Minister has been ashen-faced in parliament this week.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/tony-abbotts-prebudget-fortnight-of-blunders-and-stuffups-20140327-zqnkm.html#ixzz2xCJErm1d

  2. Ian…the thought that you’d wish to inflict such twisted, torturing imagery upon myself, for one, who, with an already overstimulated imagination, now has to endure throughout the rest of the day, such hard-core imagery that can only be overcome with spasms of arm-jerking (and I mean THAT in the nervous sense!) and nervous twitching denial and deletion of ghastly, gross perversions….I beg you to next time consider my feeling before implanting such imagery into my consciousness…I do think in pictures, you know!!!

  4. The gentlemen here don’t seem too keen on any sweeping off feet or eloping. Might I suggest you hire a professional Lothario? This bloke isn’t doing much these days, he might take the job – for a fee of course.

  5. Try as he might, Shanners can’t put a good spin on this –
    Tony Abbott’s pledge for deep budget cuts

    TONY Abbott and Joe Hockey are convinced the government will be punished electorally if it does not produce a tough budget, and they believe there is a “public appetite” for decisive action to get the economy back on track.

    The Prime Minister and Treasurer have locked in harsh measures at “razor gang” meetings in the belief that the bigger political threat to the Abbott government in its first term is disappointing those who expect it to act quickly on repairing the budget

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/tony-abbotts-pledge-for-deep-budget-cuts/story-fn59nsif-1226866987460#

    since when has there ever been a ‘public appetite’ for being kicked to the ground? Abbott and Hockey had better not be planning on accepting the next pay rise, due mid-year. It would not be a good look after all this austerity and slashing.

  7. puffytmd,

    Scorps
    You are a bit of a Lothario, right? One pair of silk breeches and you can take Bronny away from all this…

    Going by the look of love in Bronnie’s eyes towards the Rabbott, I wouldn’t have a chance in hell of even catching a sly glance from the Speaker! 😉

  9. Yeah, Ian. I reckon you would be a much better chance than any of us you mentioned last night! 😉

  11. http://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/EmploymentProjections

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/latest/coalition-pressures-department-on-jobs-forecast/story-e6frg90f-1226862822273

  12. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-28/hockey-looks-to-convince-states-on-asset-sales/5350752

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-28/peter-cosgrove-sworn-in-governor-general/5351436

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/australia-opposes-uns-sri-lanka-war-crimes-investigation/story-fn59nm2j-1226867242902

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/george-brandis-race-change-draws-ire-from-state-liberals-20140327-35lri.html

    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140325/10074526680/corporate-sovereignty-provisions-called-into-question-around-world.shtml

  13. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-27/back-tracking-on-carbon-pricing-will-damage/5350724

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bill-shorten-would-reverse-reinstatement-of-knights-and-dames-if-elected-prime-minister-20140328-35mtn.html

  14. Will the prime idiot ever learn that thick, syrupy speeches come across as insincere in the extreme? I felt sorry for Quentin Bryce having to sit through her farewell speech and marvelled how she was able to with-hold the waves of nausea she must have suffered. Likewise, I felt for GG Cosgrove as he had to withstand the same treatment.

    I notice that the prime idiot does not acknowledge the welcome to country which has caused me to wonder if this was just a Labor thing. However, I notice Cosgrove did so. Although Shorten’s speech contained a heap of flowery words these ‘tributes’ were not encased in thick syrup and I notice that Cosgrove appeared to be more comfortable listening to Shorten than he was listening to the abbott.

    Is it just me and my absolute loathing of the prime idiot or does his speeches have the same effect on others?

  15. Now, this is what you call justice!

    Former Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson has been jailed for at least five years for systematically defrauding the union of almost $1 million and hindering a police investigation.

    Williamson showed no emotion as he was sentenced to a maximum seven-and-a-half years at Sydney’s District Court on Friday.

    http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=961998

  16. Speaking of Madman Speaker, this popped into my head. Can’t think why.

  20. http://indaily.com.au/opinion/2014/03/28/richardson-5/

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/liberals-are-losing-ground-in-act-as-foot-soldiers-for-tony-abbott-says-gary-humphries-20140327-35m4a.html

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/long-march-in-the-wilderness-ahead-for-local-liberals-20140327-zqni1.html

    https://theconversation.com/senate-committee-draws-battle-lines-ahead-of-carbon-price-fight-24894

  22. RE: The Canberra Liberals

    As someone who lived in the ACT while I was at uni between 2007 and 2010 and who campaigned for an ALP candidate in 2008, it bemuses me that the Canberra Liberals are still tearing themselves apart and insisting on lurching to the right. But then again the ACT Libs have been pushing aside moderates in favour of spear carriers of the right for a number of years now.

  24. Poll in Sydney Morning Herald offered options as to what disturbed you the most about the past fortnight and the Abbott govt. No facility to tick all options which were what I would have done. One option was They had a good fortnight but no option for All of the above.:(

    If State and Federal Libs sell off all assets what will they do next time with no assets to sell?

  27. Can I get in super early for the raffle please? Any three, just as I am in WA I am always late – so thought I would reverse the trend today. Thanks!

  28. Catalyst

    You are on the absent friends list so you will be in the draw every week.

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