A Bloody Halloween Story To Dye For - Mwhaha

I thought I'd tell you the scary story of my blood drenched neighbor who came knocking on my door in the dark. Can you imagine opening your front door to a sight that looked like it came straight from the horror movie Carrie?

That's what happened to me one October night. My next door neighbour was an artist who often worked late into the night. She was finishing her portfolio for her Masters degree in fine art when something dreadful happened.This spooky short story can be read in full here A Bloody Halloween Story To Dye For

What Do You Wish For In All The World?

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Does the way you use a paper clip say something about your inner motivations? Do you use it for its intended purpose? In which case are you meticulous and ordered? Do you twist and break them into pieces? In which case are you tortured and troubled? Or perhaps you shape and combine into new creations in which case you might be an innovator and artist.



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Inside The Mind Of A Looter and Rioter

It's tempting to think  in terms of single cause and effect for the riots affecting the UK. This naturalistic scientific approach however doesn't really work with psychological and social issues. Things are much more complex and stratified.

There is the situation, the social psychology, cognitive psychology and the impenetrable unconscious. This means commentators will be pre-disposed to emphasise their favoured lens of explanation.  The aftermath will be a TV full of expert opinion. That's why we some people suggesting its upbringing and social background, others will describe the power of crowds, others will paint a picture of sociopathic behaviour and criminality. The riots are surely a deadly cocktail of all these. The perfect social storm. And the trigger?

I like this article from Zoe Williams of the Guardian who refers to Alex Hiller's analysis that alienation of individuals incapable of feeding the consumerist habit that they have been trained in for decades by business underpins their drive to take what they apsire to but have no means to buy. The advertisers are skilled psychologists who ensure we all feel inadequate unless we buy into the dreams only their products can satisfy.

And so we have stratified problem that needs stratified solutions. The immediate requires robust action, the social will take longer, and the attitudinal might never be achieved in decades. The Feral Rats are outside of societal norms.Ultimately there is evidently a lack of belief in consequences. This can only be addressed at home and in school. The consequences will be becoming apparent  to the culprits to be sure.

The Psychology Of The London Riots

The London riots are the manifestation of a value and attitude system that is based on sullen selfishness and a perverse sense of entitlement. The rioters, of course, claim that society has let them down. Well those of them who are capable of fairly sophisticated rationalisations do.

The riots are explicable in many ways. Idiocy, greed, criminality. These things however are surface manifestations of something far darker and deeper. A whole sub-class of young people have had their desires and needs tweaked in such sophisticated ways by consumer goods suppliers they have been become addicted to the labels and technologies that feed their ego centric craving for social identity.

When the opportunity to get hold of the materialistic baubles that are dangled in front of them 24/7 like high tech designer carrots they are already wound up into a feeding frenzy. As soon as the constraints (either physical, social or psychological) are removed then what we have seen with London riots is readily explained.

Add these extrinsic motivational factors to intrinsic factors that have been developed over decades of a particular type of socialisation that foregrounds entitlement and cosseting and you have the form of Frankenstein-esque petulance that we see on our TV screens today.

Working away underneath our society is a managerialist 'customer' discourse that has generated the twisted and unexpected side effects of the London riots. Years of fawning to people as customers in every walk of life has created an attitude of 'you owe me, I don't owe you anything'.

Its not just young people in the areas we see on TV either. Recently in a lecture on Imagination to some final year students, the lecturer was interrupted from someone at the back of the room who said "I don't need to listen to this crap! I just need you to tell me how to get a good grade".Why? because the student is being told he is a customer. They have been hot housed by the secondary education system and fed like chicks. Gaping mouths incessantly demanding sustenance and attention. Entirely passive and incapable of fending for themselves.

The rioters don't care. There is no point of appealing to a value set that simply doesn't recognise or 'get' the values and norms of our society in general. This is why stringent constraints need to be applied. The application of some straightforward Skinnerian reinforcement is probably the only way to teach these people the social limits of acceptable behavior.

In a liberal society rights come with responsibilities. The London rioters want rights without any responsibility and actually believe that it is OK to think that too. It is time to stop pandering to these self indulgent, poor me's and treat them with the stringency that is equivalent to their disregard for the rest of the community.

Why Rupert Murdoch's News International Big Business Is Too Big

There's nothing new in the idea that big business, big media, and big pharma are not necessarily good for society. Arguments against big business run along the lines of consolidation of wealth in a few hands, the homogenization of society, exploitation of scarce resources, and risks associated with single supply.

The scandal that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch and News International hint at another consequence that might be of direct concern to business owners rather than markets customers governments and suppliers. The elephant in the room involves the capability of any business owner to be in touch with what their business is doing operationally.

Taylorian approaches to management have implied that division of labour and hierarchical structures will solve that problem. Corporate Governance rules approach the solution to size from legislative point of view. These mechanistic processes have little hope influencing human action on the ground in advance of mistakes. Large corporates and large institutions per se are in this fundamental sense un-manageable.

Financiers and economists will hanker after economies of scale. This excludes any conversation to be had about the organisational downside of scale. Systems have a way of re-balancing themselves. This homeostatic effect seems to have tripped in with News International. Too big, too obsessed with profit, and too out of control. Put arguments about monopoly to one side and business leaders need to think about the size of an organization in proportion to capability to manage what it does.

There are unintended consequences for any action. Owning a big business means less awareness of the specifics, more distance from the sharp end, more chance of the organisation doing something you didn't expect. The bigger the barrel of apples the more probability you will find some bad ones. Big organizations mean that their owners and senior executives are pre-disposed to reactive fixing rather than proactive leadership and management. Setting up management reporting structures, delegating responsibility doesn't mean a business owner can delegate accountability. Omnipotence doesn't necessarily mean you are omniscient or omnipresent.

Rupert Murdoch Goodbye And Thankyou

What do think this image by the Daily Telegraph of Rupert Murdoch arriving in the UK portrays? Some will clearly think its the cyncial PR stunt of a bare knuckle fighter cum entrepreneur. Others might think its the feeble act of an old man who has lost touch with reality. But...


As media experts know, images have more than one connotation and as psychologists know behaviors are invariably founded upon sub-conscious attitudes.

Just ask yourself what has happened over recent years, and more particularly to the News Of The World News Paper. Now look again at the photograph. This is the picture of a businessman who has arbitrarily shut down a newspaper that was a profitable going concern and put hundreds of people on the dole.

Might it be the case that the picture symbolizes a callous disregard for the social welfare of other human beings? Might it be prima facae behavioral evidence of a person that shows absolutely no compassion for the feelings and opinions of others?

It seems that nobody needs to point anything out here because the act speaks for itself. Anybody working for News International might take stock and consider the nature of their employer at this time.

Open Letter To The Staff Of The News Of The World

Like many people I have read and followed with great interest the developments leading to the final publication of the News Of The World. Like many people I have been astounded at the lack of compassion ex-employees of the newspaper have displayed in their zeal to get a story.

I have also heard and seen the anguish and upset that the closure of the newspaper has created for a huge number of people at the publication and have no reason to doubt whatsoever your journalistic credentials and enthusiasm for your profession. You must also have realised just how expendable the News International organisation has regarded you. It is in situations like this that scales fall off the eyes of many of us who have been loyal servants of organisations, passionate about the brand, and committed to quality only to find that the rhetoric of organisational loyaty and being a team is a shallow facade.

It is a common belief that we depend on organisations for our livelihood and therefore we must be fore-lock touchingly grateful for the employment provided. The organisations in their turn dupe they talent they employ into feeling this is true and they totally depend upon the organisation for their survival. Of course there is reciprocity here. However when talent is treated in the way you have been treated it must be obvious who really needs who.

Today you and only you produced the final edition of the News Of The World. Your talents and know how created the content and brought it publication. News International its founder and his acolytes didn't do this. This means that real value of the News Of The World was its people and that the paper was an manifestation of your capability.

I would urge you to set up independently. Capitalise on your talent. Never again become beholden to a vast organisation that treats your talent with contempt and places before you a senior executive who bumbles managerialist patronising rhetoric at you. The world of media is changing and it is changing the model of reader engagement.

Have faith in your capabilities. Pursue your journalism on the principles you have stated. Set up on your own and your readers and advertisers will follow. Good luck to you all.

The News Of The World Does A Ratner

The instances of phone hacking allegations that are being associated with the News Of The World newspaper seem to be confronting the newspaper organization with a Ratner Moment. The ruthless competitiveness of the newspaper industry clearly creates circumstances in which certain individuals might be pre-disposed to deceptive, ethically questionable behaviour.

If the allegations are proven (invariably there is no smoke without fire) then I would like to see the culprits questioned on live TV in order that we can hear their rationalisations, ans so that their ethical credentials can be exposed for eternity. It is significant that the Royal British Legion has dropped the News of The World whilst allegations that the paper hacked the phones of families whose family members were killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan serving their country. Unlike the News Of The World journalists who seem to prefer to serve their own interests.

If the phone hacking allegations are proven then the roaches who committed the act should be castigated for betrayal and dealt with accordingly. Here Hugh Grant reveals how he identified and trapped a roach reporter.
Paul McMullan and Andy Coulson stand at the centre of the NOTW firestorm which seems set to engulf the total management structure of the News International group, it will be interesting to see the outcome.

News Update at 20.00 pm 7th July 2011 - News Of The World Prediction Comes True.

The News Of The World is now Old News

News of the World to close amid hacking scandal

The following book probably has too many big words in it for a News International journalist.