Boob jobs and missing points....

Just lately the Beard has been hearing quite a bit about breasts.... for some reason, mention of the word on the radio or television seems to grab his attention, for soem strange, hard to fathom reason.... but I attempt to digress...

Specifically the news has been concentrating on breast implants, in particular some slightly dodgy ones from the continent... there has been plenty of discussion on tv and radio, and most of the voiced opinions seem to take one of two points of view... first, that if these implants are dangerous, then the NHS, our fantastic free health care people, should remove said implants, or second, the diametrically opposed view that those who had the implants would have been told of the dangers before the op, so basically stuff 'em and let them fund removal themselves.... Alongside this raged the usual argument about whether people should have had the implants anyway, with the usual "its just vanity" argument being faced down by those with developmental problems and those who have unfortunately had to suffer mastectomies...

In all of this though, the Beard feels that the major argument in favour of the view of those who feel hard done by due to these dodgy implants has been missed... allow one to demonstrate...

Imagine that you have gone to shop at a large, reputable supermarket... it really doesn't matter which one, and I'm certainly not naming names, because this is purely in the realm of the hypothetical... but regardless, you've decided to go there to buy some vodka... remember, this is a reputable shop, that sells foods and drinks approved by the laws of the land...

Now, when you get home, you make yourself a nice vodka and lime... or tonic if you must... personally I'd use the lime, but then again I think that lemon juice goes better on chips than vinegar does.. but I digress... anyway, after drinking your drink, and possibly another, you begin to feel ill... not hung over ill, but really gut wrenchingly painfully ill... and going to the doctors, you find out that the so-called "vodka" was actually industrial cleaning fluid.... even worse, after further investigation, it seems that the people in charge at the shop knew that this vodka was not fit for human consumption, yet made the conscious decision to buy it in and sell it to you anyway...

Now, in that scenario, you'd think that the unfortunate drinker would have a valid claim against the company, yes? And if the firm suddenly went bust and said it was unable to pay the medical expenses of the people it had deliberately poisoned then the NHS should step in and help... yes??

Well, in the boob job case, the company responsible for the implants knew that the silicon used was not approved for use in humans... and that, my readers, is the big scandal... that this apparently reputable company deliberately let these women have illegal and dangerous substances put inside them....it's not a case of the vain woman suddenly changing her mind... this is a whole bunch of women who were prepared to take a risk and have an operation, suddenly finding out that what they got was not what they ordered, and have found that they have taken a risk that they weren't warned about... and that's why we should be hunting down whoever is responsible, and making them pay the NHS to sort this out... or so it seems to the Beard....

It seems that in cases like these, and there are many, peopletend to latch on to just one part of the story, then fit their pet argument into the mix, even if, possibly especially if, their opnion actually makes no sense when applied to the actual stated problem... most simply spout their own, usually indefensible prejudices, without caring about context... it doesn't matter what the actual problem is, someone wil always manage to use it in oder to turn the conversation towards whatever it is they happen to hate... for example, in the above dodgy implant thing, people ignore the fact that people have been sold stuff under false pretences, and simply berate the woman who chose to have a boob job... when the riots happened, everyone was very quick to blame the alleged prevalence of American ghetto culture and the ease with which smarphones can be used, rather than asking why all of a sudden a bunch of people decided to go on a robbing spree... actually though, the Beard knows the answer... it's simply human nature... the only thing that stops us humans stealig and fighting and just doing what we damn well please is fear... not civilisation, that elusive and almost certainly non-existent state to which we aspire, but fear... fear of getting hurt, fear of getting caught... lets be honest with ourselves, if we thought we could have gotten away with it, we'd have been there too, getting a free television and some perfume for the Mrs... just as, without the fear of reprisal, we'd follow through with the threat we made in our head to dismember the person who backed into our car in the car park... and so on...

The Beard, as you know, has no truck with civilisation... the whole idea holds us back, and prevents us becoming truly civilised, or at least seeing whether we can become so... we are so obsessed by the idea that our own prejudices and tribal/personal survival techniques are actually civilisation, that we are unable to recognise them for what they are... tribal survival mechanisms... which is why we see outsiders as not quite civilised.... because deep down we want their land, their resources and their women... The way to go forward is to learn, to accept that we aren't what we wish to be... but our stubborness as a race, coupled with our asertion, however erroneous, that we are civilised, stops us objectively trying to find out what civilisation actually is... which is a shame, because, who knows, we could actually be quite good at it... but then, civilisation could simply mean stagnation... we seem to advance better when we struggle, when we have conflict... it's good for humanity as a whole if not for the individual parts... and stagnation leads to extiction.. which on reflection might not be a bad thing...

But it the night is merging into the morning, and bed and Mrs Beard beckon... so it remains only to be said that until we all accept that we can all make a boob every now and then, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!