Not Enough Gravitas
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Said it was 96 degrees in the shade
Ten thousand soldiers on parade
Taking I and I
To meet a big fat boy
He was sent from overseas
The queen employ
William Alexander Clark / Stephen Haldane Coore / Michael Kenneth Cooper (Third World)
1865 (96º In The Shade)
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I was exposed to UK academia for around two decades. During that time I was lucky enough to meet some fairly pompous individuals. A word that was on occasion bandied about was “gravitas”. It meant that someone had sufficient reputation and behaved in accordance with some preset idea of how people in a given position might behave. One needs to have a sense of decorum, use the appropriate language and make social greetings according to some schema or other. Pompous people often have a self-awareness blind spot concerning how pompous and inflated they are. If you are flippant and insufficiently “respectful” they may react poorly and exclude you. Clearly you don’t know the rules of the gang and fail to kiss the ring of the don. They may punish.
I got interviewed for the management board of a London private university in the first decade of this century. I was the youngest candidate. They asked me what I might bring. I said youth, new ideas and energy. They were staid and set in their ways. They did not want a young upstart upsetting the applecart. The CEO and I would have had different views. It is a common problem with boards. They opt for people like them and the quicksand of sameness sets in. Being the same does not mean good or innovative. I did not get the job. Blinded by this clone-think people may not evolve. This is slow board death.
I can say that I am a kudos free zone and lack the sartorial gravitas which might cause people to take me seriously. I do not have a pole up my arse and will consequently probably not die from splinters. I can be unfiltered and this offends.
If I want to be harmless and minimise conflict it is best therefore that I stay away from anywhere where people mutter words like gravitas. I do not fit. There is no Tetris like space into which I might slot.
There is an obvious thing. I cannot be myself and authentic without people getting their noses out of joint. The option is pretend to be something else or stay away and minimise any interaction. Behaving in a non-authentic way can cause mental illness.
Masking is a known behaviour for people with autism and this is known to exact a price on the person masking. Like a chameleon people try to camouflage and fit in. I recognise the chameleon vibe. It is one that I can be good at.
People’s notions of how others ought to behave and the enforcement thereof are a form of social slavery. If you don’t fit you will be made to comply or else. You may not advance. You will be excluded. You will be forcefully sat upon the naughty step.
It is a strange thing that which we do to our fellow sentient beings. We exact cruelty and attempt social subjugation on a daily basis. It is pretty nasty really.
Gravitas is one of the words that “we” in the know use to justify. It is often whispered behind closed doors. Nudge nudge, wink wink.
What we do to each other can be unpleasant, harmful and destructive to the human spirit.
We are not peas in a pod. There is diversity. Clone-think is counter evolutionary.
