When pondering Jonathan Burrows
The brow assumes multiple furrows.
Though a big millionaire
He still dodges the fare!
The man should consult some good neuros.
********************
UD thanks Dirk.
When pondering Jonathan Burrows
The brow assumes multiple furrows.
Though a big millionaire
He still dodges the fare!
The man should consult some good neuros.
********************
UD thanks Dirk.
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Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
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George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
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University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
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Notes of a Neophyte
December 16th, 2014 at 8:41AM
There might be something pathological about fare-dodging in this way – that it, when the person is clearly capable of purchasing a ticket. C.E.M. Joad, the celebrated radio personality of the 1940s, was undone by the same thing:
Joad once boasted in print that “I cheat the railway company whenever I can.” On 12 April 1948, Joad was caught travelling on a Waterloo to Exeter train without a valid ticket. When he failed to give a satisfactory excuse, he was convicted of fare dodging and fined £2 (£63 as of 2014). This made front-page headlines in the national newspapers, destroyed his hopes of a peerage and resulted in his dismissal from the BBC.”
December 16th, 2014 at 8:52AM
Alan: Yes. I’ve only glanced at the Burrows commentary, but some of it goes that way. The low-level but global anti-social pathology that might make you a hell of a hedge fund guy must be pretty much indistinguishable from a commitment to something like fare dodging. A very basic passion, in all areas of your life, for cheating people, systems, and institutions. Fueled by… sociopathology? Simple, unremitting, hatred of society?
December 16th, 2014 at 11:49AM
don’t see any evidence that this sort of narcissism exceeds the relative norms of all-too-human cognitive-biases, I was more struck by the fact that he was penalized as he was for this offense.
December 16th, 2014 at 12:29PM
Dmf, I just find something odd about wealthy and privileged people taking risks like this which seem on the face of it completely irrational. Neither Burrows nor Joad had any material incentive to cheat the railway company in this reckless way. It all boils down, I think, to Joad’s boast: fare-paying is what little people do. I am exceptional; I am far too clever to be caught. Classic symptoms of psychopathy, actually.
December 16th, 2014 at 1:01PM
Alan, dmf: We’re playing with a number of different theories here. One is that this guy is no different from the rest of us. Given the capacity to figure out how to cheat the system, many (most?) of us would. I disagree. I think if you live in a lawless state for which no one has any respect (see the list of the most corrupt countries in the world), a systematic cynicism might produce everyone-does-it outcomes. But in a country like England (or the US, or Norway… or tons of others), I think it’s pretty non-standard to see this length and degree of cheating, especially given the guy’s remarkable personal wealth — and the fact that he has (had) a highly responsible job handling other people’s money.
(A pretty spectacular example of the corrupt country effect: Benazir Bhutto’s husband was immensely, immensely rich – always. Became insanely rich after marrying her, etc. etc. Nonetheless, while she was in power he stole through bribery at least 20 million dollars. He was caught, went to jail, etc. Pretty strange, no? But maybe it’s not the corrupt country thing; maybe it’s the class thing: I deserve all the money, and lesser beings do not. Or maybe it’s the I hate everybody and am going to get back at them by taking all their money. I dunno.)
My theory involves obscure deep-lying hatred of humanity (he has spent years robbing public transportation workers and everyone who rides public transportation) and a propensity to regard any system at all in light of its capacity to be gotten around. I guess I’m saying that this seems to me the classic criminal (rather than merely narcissistic) mind. He’s getting back at all of us. For some reason.
Alan’s approach is more class-based. I mean, what’s this guy doing on the trains at all? Isn’t he supposed to be driving a Jag to the bank? It is possible that his self-image was terribly wounded by the mere fact of having to consort with the sort of people who take public transportation, and that his way of dealing with it was by laughing at them all for years as they, sheeplike, gave their money to the conductor.
December 16th, 2014 at 7:50PM
well if one wants to get technical/clinical it would have to be just one aspect of a more universal way of being/relating for him (could be but I don’t know) and would have to be contrary to his socialization/norms (not likely I think in this case), but what do you folks make of our (in the US) systems that don’t punish folks like him (let alone say the Jamie Diamonds) or even torturers? Are these governing officials&bureaucrats also sociopaths?