Why do some people inform an adult person who is tall of the fact that he or she is tall?

And for those who would like to watch it all over again, all seventeen episodes of The Prisoner are on Britbox.

Therein lies the danger of poor question phrasing because, of course, one doesn’t know who the competition is. Having to infer what people mean is a necessary skill in language interpretation. By the best candidate they meant a good candidate, your opportunity to say why you were a good candidate. Have you watched the film The Imitation Game about Alan Turing? Some good examples of language miscommunication in that as well as some literal language interpretation which changed the course of events.

Yes, you’ve got me there. It works in small numbers but extrapolate it to a larger group not necessarily organised in linear fashion and you are back to picking out physical attributes - schools a prime example.

Margaret Atwood prefers to call her novels speculative fiction rather than science fiction or dystopian - The Maddadam Trilogy, for example, and Haidmaid’s Tale and its sequel The Testaments. These are more recent, of course, but I think her writing may be scarily prophetic.

Novels such as Sarah Hall’s Carhullan Army and Colleen McCullough’s Creed for a Third Millenium examine the consequences of climate change. Floods and a new ice age in those books but the principle is the same. Large populations squeezed into diminishing habitable land mass, food scarcity and brutal totalitarian governments.

Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven is the story of the very few survivors of a swift and deadly pandemic.

Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind examines the immediate aftermath of a global power failure.

All of the books describe totalitarian goverments or the catastrophe's that could lead to such.

Chewbacca

^Maybe everyone here does not understand to what that is a reference.^

I think you do everyone here a grave injustice EP

What I was intending to mean was that I was providing the link because some people here might not understand to what that is a reference.

So I wrote

Maybe everyone here does not understand to what that is a reference.

I realise now that I worded that incorrectly

Perhaps I should have put

Maybe not everyone here understands to what that is a reference.

Is that right?

Try it again differently

In case some people here do not understand to what that is a reference, here is a link.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner

Chewbacca

4 weeks and 3 days Callistemon and I'll be there! ??

Lovely! I'd like to go again some time

4 weeks and 3 days Callistemon and I'll be there! ??

You might like to read some books by Shelby Foote, EP. He abhorred the idea of a perfect world as he felt it would bore him to tears.

Yes, a birthday surprise

You been to Portmeirion too Callistemon?

ElderlyPerson

MayBeMaw

I have heard of Brave New World but knew nothing of it until now
Really? Never read it?
It’s time you did Elderly Person !
.

Yes you are right.

As it was written in 1931 that is 90 years ago and so I have a double motivation as I like to read books written long ago that predicted the future and consider how accurate or inaccurate they were.

You might like to read 1984 as well if you have not read that either.

Maybe everyone here does not understand to what that is a reference.

I think you do everyone here a grave injustice EP

Chewbacca

^I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my^ ^own. Number 6 : Be seeing you. Number 6 : I am not a number.^

It was in a loop on the telly in our apartment at Portmeirion

Chewbacca

^I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my^ ^own. Number 6 : Be seeing you. Number 6 : I am not a number.^

Maybe everyone here does not understand to what that is a reference.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner

MayBeMaw

^I have heard of Brave New World but knew nothing of it until now^
Really? Never read it?
It’s time you did Elderly Person !
.

Yes you are right.

As it was written in 1931 that is 90 years ago and so I have a double motivation as I like to read books written long ago that predicted the future and consider how accurate or inaccurate they were.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own. Number 6 : Be seeing you. Number 6 : I am not a number.

M0nica

What about 'Stepford Wives' ? All these books that make us all uniform are books about dystopias, not Utopias.

Even China, under MaoTse Tung, with everyone wearing the equivalents of boiler suits was a dystopian country, which did not work and in the end, to make economic progress and become a world power it was necessary for it to break away from this uniformity and allow difference.

Oh I saw that film about the Stepford Wives.

But it can also extend to some employers in relation to their staff. They employ people because they are bright and enthusiastic and creative with new ideas then have a work environment which restricts the very qualities that so impressed them at interview.

I read somewhere some time ago that in World War 2 care was taken with the austerity measures needed that civilian clothing had variety so that everybody did not all end up dressed identically because it was feared it would be bad for morale. So there were rules, like the maximum size of the repeat on dress fabric, and a maximum of four colours, but various colours and designs.

Silverbridge

^I am wanting a society where regardless of height, girth, gender, education level, skin colour, wealth, disability, hair colour, and so on, everyone is treated with respect and is not stereotyped.^

Most of us do, but in this very long thread (in which you have over and over again drawn attention to your own height - the very thing you argue you don’t want attention drawn to), I’m struggling to think of one incident you have described which shows that you have been disrespected or stereotyped. I think you have to discount incidents of male aggression. I'm not saying they are unimportant, not at at all, but it is how male bravado works. It’s atavistic and animalistic.

A few pages back you were telling anecdotes about having not been successful in job applications suggesting that the decision makers (shorter men) had rejected you because you were taller and had been educated to a higher level. There's no evidence of lack of respect or stereotyping. There may just have been a more suitable candidate for the job. Where is your evidence? I could turn it around and argue that you thought you should have got the job because you were tall and had a degree. I'd argue you were not showing the decision maker respect in accepting that he knew which candidate was best for the job and who would suit the organisation. It's not always and only about skills and qualifications.

Three teachers sitting next to one another in a staff room all wearing plain grey suits and all reading a copy of the TES. One is tall and has dark skin. One is medium height and has a beard. One is shorter and has blonde hair. All teach different subjects. A new student comes into the room and tells a fourth teacher that he has been sent to speak to the geography teacher. How does teacher four point out which of the three men is the geography teacher? Which is he or she more likely to do? Use a quick and efficient descriptor (in which case which is acceptable) or tell the student it’s one of those three over there but as it would be disrespectful to mention any of their bodily attributes so he needs to go over to ask who's who?

Yes, you are right, I have drawn attention to my height. I suppose that that was implicit in me starting the thread. Even if I had added 'Asking for a friend' but that would not have been true and I may be mistaken but I think it has become an idiom.

Ah yes.

idioms.thefreedictionary.com/asking+for+a+friend

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/asking_for_a_friend

Oh I have been to various job interviews and the fact is most candidates don't get the job.

Lots of people who go for such jobs are graduates, some better qualified than me and having better experience.

Most times height does not come into it. People do not know height when drawing up a short list of people to invite for interview. I was not always shortlisted. When I have been shortlisted some I got some I didn't.

I just mentioned those two because of sudden dramatic changes that occurred when up until then things seemed to be going well.

I went to one job interview where the interviewer asked me "Tell me why you are the best candidate for the job" and I replied "Well I can't say that I am, I may not be, I have not seen the other candidates". Which was correct, though perhaps not the answer wanted.

For the puzzle of indicate the geography teacher. Then one of

The gentleman at the left.

The gentleman in the middle.

The gentleman at the right.

According to which one is the geography teacher.

This thread is very interesting for me, I now have a different perspective to some aspects. Hopefully it is interesting for other readers.

What about 'Stepford Wives' ? All these books that make us all uniform are books about dystopias, not Utopias.

Even China, under MaoTse Tung, with everyone wearing the equivalents of boiler suits was a dystopian country, which did not work and in the end, to make economic progress and become a world power it was necessary for it to break away from this uniformity and allow difference.

Adaunas Thank you for summing it up so succinctly.

I have heard of Brave New World but knew nothing of it until now
Really? Never read it?
It’s time you did Elderly Person !
.

I’ve just see this thread and confess I haven’t read all the posts, but I read Silverbridge’s and thought of this year’s classes all in uniform. As I gaze at the photos and the class lists, I think, Zoe, blond curly hair, AJ tall, black hair, etc and that’s how I communicate them to other staff if I’m asking them to find someone for me, or to be aware of them for some reason.
I used to start with labels, but that’s now a safeguarding issue if they forget to take them off before leaving school.
Also, when faced with whole school assembly, there’s not a chance I’ll know children in all 14 classes. I’m sorry you're so sensitive about your size EP but I haven’t found any other way that works.

I have heard of Brave New World but knew nothing of it until now.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

M0nica wrote

> ... 'she always wears low heels' (was this a criticism of my footwear).

Ah, Gulliver's Travels now.

Having done job interviewing, by the time the short list of who will be interviewed for a job is reached, you have a list of candidates, who will all have reached similar levels of education and have similar experience, plus the occasional wild card.

The interview process is about probing experience and knowledge specific to the post advertised and whether that person has the personal aptitudes which you are looking for, enthusiasm for the work, or an enquiring mind could be important. One person might have work experience that is particularly relevant, which you, as another candidate for the job, would not know about. And the personal side will always come into it. Will the person fit in and contribute to the team. I have been in situations where one disruptive and difficult member of the team has caused endless problems.

I cannot envisage a situation where in the normal run of interviewing, someone would be preferred or rejected for any of the physical traits you mention, height, hair colour , size etc. It is not possible to say 'never' over anything, but it would be quite exceptional, and if known a justified reason for complaint.

Some people have conditions that mean they are unable to abide by social mores. I know autistic people who might say something about someone’s appearance because they’re not able to understand the niceties of what passes for polite society. You can’t tell someone is autistic by looking so maybe EP has unknowingly been in their company.

ElderlyPerson

Why do some people inform an adult person who is tall of the fact that he or she is tall? The person already knows of this fact.

thetallsociety.com/when-comments-go-too-far/

I think it’s the same as people who say ‘you’ve lost weight’ when you are thin and desperately don’t want to lose weight.,The same people would never say to somebody more rounded ‘you’ve put on weight’ ?

Rushes off to find the tweezers