CONSIDERATION
I guess i probably shouldn't be blogging this whilst in a "mood" but tomorrow will be no different as i know i will be facing more of the same.
As stated in a prior blog post, the so called "house" next door to me has been sold. Becuase of the prior tennants ( trailer trash type) the new owners have had to gut the place and start from scratch with the remaining shell. They have been renovating themselves, and appear to be a nice family with a 4 yold boy. A marked improvement on my last load of neighbors over the last 10 years. I have seen "tree men" coming and going giving quotes on two very very huge gum trees and the owner has told me he intended to cut the 2 trees down, i for one am elated at the prospect as in cyclone season i live in fear that they'll end up in my bedroom!!
Well folks, today was the day the first tree was to be cut, only thing is........i was not told.
I had a full washing line, my out door furniture lives on the verandah, the pool was not covered and my cat who thankfully is never interested in venturing outside was to be inside on her own as i was in court for the morning and of course "A" was at school.
I came home at 12.30pm only to turn into my street and see a number of trucks and a crane that could reach the moon. My heart sank..........oh crap.....the washing.
I drove into my carport and jumped out the car and went out to check wtf these guys were doing. It appears they had started to cut one of the trees down and were putting it through their mulching machine.
So off i trot inside my place.......dust and sawdust everywhere and a whole layer on top of the pool..........just great. Round the corner to take the washing off the line, wonderful....its covered in fucking sawdust too. Walk onto the veranda....great all the outdoor furniture is covered. Open the door, the cat practically leaps on top of me.......she is shit scared of the noise the poor pumpkin. I left the rumpus room windows open, lounge windows open and kitchen windows open......the whole house has sawdust in it..FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK.
So i put the coffee on, close up all the windows and turn on the air conditioning. I was so pissed off. Why couldn't they have let me know they were doing the tree today? Even when i got home no prick came over.
So sat down with coffee in hand and tried to calm the cat down...she was so distressed.
I had to go pick "A" from school.................my car is now covered in saw dust...only took 2 hrs.
By this time i am really working myself up because i know they have to do the other tree.......i am home tomorrow but i have a telephone link up to another state at 10.30 am........htf am i going to speak to my collegues with a fucking chorus of chainsaws???
What is wrong with people?? Has common courtesy gone out the door?? It's not just this episode. The other night we had a power blackout for 2 hrs at 10pm. My dickhead neighbor over the road switches his generator on!!! It was like listening to a jack hammer for 2 hrs..........ggrrrr its a small residential estate for godsake not the fucking desert.
Am i being a pain in the arse?? A whinger?? I don't think so. All i ask is for some courtesy.
30 Comments:
Do you realise you're racialising people you perceive as being lower class? Your obvious pleasure (do you celebrate?) in the permanent abscence of the 'trailer trash type' is based on little more than aesthetics. Surely ridding the world of the grotty looking people and taking relief in the new perceived order makes for a better society. Doesn't it? Well it didn't exactly work out that way did it. So much for order. Are your new neighbours now worse than you're old ones? Will you elevate the status of the 'trailer trash people' above the inconsiderates?
:)
jack! well.. there ya go sis.. a cabana boy to serve those drinks...
and who the hell is that psycho---oops.. social worker to pick on MY lil sis??
at least YER neighbors sound just a little negligent in neighborliness.. where MY stupid neighbor does shit like that ON purpose! TRYING to get my horses hurt... shit. AND SHE"S A VET FER GAWDS SAKE!!!
(I got her back yesterday. good. threw a long dead chicken over her fence to her bloodthirsty dogs.. and watched her all squatty trying to pick up feathers ALL over her yard today)
Michelle, that sux! My neighbors on BOTH sides of me have been renovating, including during the freaking night, on holidays and in the rain. I am self -employed and work at home so I Can't hear on the phone, etc...Yep the freaking noise...OMG I can relate.
I hope it abates soon for ya! (Our neighbors didn't tell us either and blocked our driveway; the workers didn't speak English, but my gesticulating got through (polite, not to the point of that finger...then.).
I retreated to the quiet of a library b/c it was too cold to paint outside.......but it's going on TWO YEARS of renovating for one of the neighbors. I hope it's over MUCH sooner than that 4U.
SHeesh, I just saw that "Sh*t* "socialworker" crap comment. Someone needs to work on people skills and it ain't Michelle.
Gosh, I thought Social Worker was probably a friend being facetious--I guess not. I'm not sure how calling someone "trailer trash" is "racializing"--it may be offensive to some, but I don't see the racial component.
Maybe they've never owned a home before, and don't understand neighborhood etiquette about such things. Hope it gets better soon!
social worker: "trailer trash" may be offensive in a way, but does not have a racial component. "White trash," now you're talkin'.
What is the difference between trailer trash in Oz and that in the U.S.A.? Or France (exists, I know this)?
I'd get some sleep and fruck the neighbors.
Bookfraud and English Professor,
I astounds me that you do not see the racial component. Bookfraud's very last sentence is a perfect example of how one can construct a racial catergory. He basically says, look the 'trailer trash' race can be found in other parts of the world too. Don't you see, you're giving it a racial component! Racism is not limited to skin colour variations. It has been well documented that racism took it's form in the racialisation of the lower classes that at the time were regarded by the upper classes as somehow less human/less civilised. The fact that your comment seems to imply it is acceptable to differniate between the coloured variations of 'trailer trash' (you talk about 'white trash') people is evidence, is it not, that you believe skin colour to be an acceptable measure of difference.
Meanwhile, your sister Magz (as she identifies herself), celebrates the fact that she intends to behave in a terribly poor fashion which, I inquire, do you believe (and do you Justitia?) to be, in fact, still more acceptable/appropriate than just looking poor i.e. 'trailer trash'?
Jack~ heh,lol! A whinger is aussie for someone who complains endlessly. Yeah i do have an attitude don't i. It's a build up of people's attitudes i guess that has me fired up. You know selfishness is a sad trait to have. it costs nothing to open a door for someone....call someone to tell them you'll be late....stop for someone who has a flat tyre and no mobile phone...to say thankyou.........i appear to have my fair share of people over the last few months that don't think others equate into their lives.
And YES, i want a cabana boy!!! (i won't say fair haired otherwise i will be called a racisist)
Magz ~ LOL i am sorry to say this young no it all who knows nothing is an aussie :( LMAO @ "sqatty"! Yep..i know its so true, you've had neighbors from hell :(
G.E.L ~ OMG 2 years...i feel so bad for you...what a saint you are to put up with it for that long. I don't mind noise now and again but lets face it it does become wearing after a while.
EP ~ Like you EP, i know that its not racialising..this kid has no clue and should stick to reading his recommended readings for his lectures, he may learn something. Thanks for your sympathy :o)
BF ~ Absolutely, offensive perhaps, racsist never. LMAO..trailer trash are the same globally BF...no different!!!
Socialworker,although i use the term loosely, as i suspect you are certsinly not one with your lack of people skills, i thank you for putting forward your views.
Basically you need to go back to Uni or continue on with your studies. It is blatently apparent you have no idea on the definition of rascism. Let me help you, pgs 167 and 183 in Social Sciences in Australia has tons of information regarding dualism, class, gender and racsism. Do yourslef a favor and go buy it before making a fool of yourself again.
Your way of thinking would mean that calling some one a white collar worker or a blue collar worker is rascist too......wrong!
Let me tell you something, just because you may ( although i doubt it) have a degree in social work means nothing over 25 years of learning experience and hands on work with people such as myself and many others out there have. People skills take years of hands on experience...nothing a book can teach you. Personally, i think your "clients" are in big trouble if all they have is you to cling to.
Go study, work for 25 years, listen to your peers then come back and harass me.
Ad hominem.
You don't plan on giving me reasons why you think it isn't racialising?
Its Labelling. Your putting labels on certain sterotypes. You can't call some one who classifys a person as a blue collar worker a racist.
Look i can give you a long winded essay on what racism is..the definition etc but firstly i don't have the time and i have already done my study. Go research the labelling theory and you'll see what i mean.
Let me say this.......racism is an attitude of superiority and inferirority from RACE relations as the structuralist inequality between different racial groups.
Racial grouping is a social contruct. It implies imaginary differnces. Your definition is inadequate because it fails to recognise this. Your definition implies that races are real, fixed and unchangable. Racism in essence is when you regard another human as somehow 'less than'. I would argue this concept of 'less than' is implied by the negative label you have given the people who you enjoy referring to as 'Trailer Trash'. Not only that, you appeared to express relief that these 'trailer trash' types were now gone and you initially took comfort in the fact that these new neighbours, who obviously weren't 'trailer trash', were going to provide you with some relief. And they didn't, end of story.
In relation to your labelling of working classes as white/blue it is only racialisation if you somehow regard either or as somehow inferior, lower in status or less than the other.
Here are the origins of racist modes of thinking:
"The rising bourgeoisie of Europe inherited from the court aristocracies of earlier times a perception of peasants and poor city people as a lower breed of humanity. The lower classes were 'racialised' as innately inferior beings considered biologically ill-equipped to access human forms of 'civilisation' which included particularly 'human dignity and hope'."That is exactly what you're doing. You're labelling a group of people implying they're somehow inferior because they are from that group.
Listen here, i'll decide when its end of story, not YOU this MY BLOG.
As i said, it's labelling theory...go back read your material, get an education most of all LISTEN to your fellow sociologists. You have a lot of growing up to do. You better start taking on board other peoples opinions, thoughts and ideas its the only way we learn. Be open minded and don't quote stuff straight out of a book........go research properly.
LABELLING THEORY.
Now...go away.
Justsid ~ Welcome :)
I apprieciate your views and many a good point is made by yourself. I still stand by my learnings and stress to call someone "trailer trash" is not being racist it is labelling someone.
Thanks for your recommendations :)
Greetings. BCS (Bachelor Computer Science), Grad. Dip. Arts (Phil), FOSW (Friend of Social Worker) here. :) Okay, I'm only 80% through the Grad Dip, but I do have honours average. Of course, that doesn't mean what it used to either, but I digress.
A little philosophy can clear this mess up easily. Ludwig Wittgenstein was a great man. He has this thing he called "Language Games". It's a way of understanding how people can use different words for different things. The only question to be resolved is whether you use the term "Labelling" in the same spot SW uses "Racialising", and if not, why not?
Clearly (waves hands), calling a group of people "trailer trash" is different to dehumanising them, but the first can be a symptom of the second. If you not only call them trailer trash, but feel morally superior to them, adjust your ethics to apply different standards to them than to other more acceptable social groups etc, then you are doing what SW is calling "Racialising", regardless of what you call it. If you want to call that Labelling, well go ahead. Words mean different things to different people. However, if you are calling it labelling, but think that is in some way a lesser crime, then there is a genuine disagreement. If you feel that you can excuse SW's "Racialising" behaviour as only being "Labelling" and try to use that as some form of justification, then you are arguing badly.
I am making no claims as to how I judge your behaviour, merely attempting to bring a little clarity to the terms of the argument. You may now continue the discussion in order to establish whether, or which, of the above terms might be applied to your actions.
Signing out,
-MP
MP Welcome. I feel morally superior to nobody. I like yourself have many academic achievements but don't feel the need to spruke about it, like i said i am no better than anyone else. Since you are a student of philosophy then surely you should understand that there are many theories that up make philosophy/ethics what it is. The same can be said for sociology and my own personal field Criminology. Not all criminologists share the same theories as to why a criminal commits a crime. Some believe in biological, some social some environmental....then there are those like myself that say all 3 are involved. It doesn't mean that the one theory is the right one.
Your friend SW ( as i said, no way is he one) needs to go back and research the meaning of racism as do you. His points are very weak and very outdated. Once again i say LABELLING THEORY.
Now, i suggest you both get over it. This blog is meant for short opinions not long winded essays. I have no time to keep arguing points of sociology with either of you, i suggest if your looking for arguments, go look on your uni forums.
Again LABELLING THEORY.
You are attacking me unnecessarily. I was not spruiking merely stating my vantage point.
Yikes, people! It is one thing to disagree with someone's post, it is quite another when you drag your pals in for a bash-fest.
It was two little words. Two words that caused all of this hateful spewing. Two words. Now, if you have read any of Michelle's previous posts, you will see that she's not a mean, ignorant person. So cut her some slack. She's obviously had a rough day.
Michelle, had I been in your place, I would've thrown the mother of all hissyfits. Someone should have notified you ahead of time so you could cover the pool and furniture and close your windows. That was very thoughtless of them and not the way to make a good first impression. Hope the rest of your day was better.
Not to keep this shoulda-been-killed-a-long-time-ago discussion alive, but as to theSocialWorker: nothing like a sanctimonious know-it-all who willfully misinterprets other's (i.e. my) statements to show his moral superiority. SW's reasoning is about as sound as a rotting old trailer, and he approaches an extremely broad subject with a textbook mentality (I'll quote something from a book, so it must be true!).
If you're going to take someone's words and assign motives to them, at least realize that there's a difference between saying something and endorsing it.
Hi Michelle, your right, it was lack of consideration on their part. you should have been warned, I would have been upset myself.. as for the other stuff here, just thank them kindly for the counter hit. some people just don't get it and they never will.. why waste time and energy with them. hope your having a better day.
LMAO.. Hey I can.. in order to even get to my house you have to drive through the trailer park then 1/4 mile down a dirt road before you get there.. I so agree with Jack on this one.. LOL
Wow, Michelle, you started something here! But I'm with you all the way - it's not a case of categorising people - you take them as you find them and if this is the way they behave, they deserve to be criticised!Social worker - well, I never did go much for them - especially the kind who has commented on your blog. I wonder if SW has ever been in a similar position?
yaHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO meesh! you have validated my theory of bloggers changing the entire structure of the Internet.. from passive to (well, I'm sposed to say interactive here.. but cant resist the temptation re; above windies to say )...passive/aggressive R (all OVER the)FLMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
and hey sis... just cause I'm a beer-swilling tabacco spitting tite t-shirted chesty braless bleached blonde bimbo who cusses like a sailor and sleeps with truckdrivers and lives in a EFFIN TRAILER.... dont mean I'm trashy... rite?
you, dear sis.. have inspired me to design and market a brand new line of REALLY tacky sexist flaunty clothing, each emblazoned with the logo
TRAILER TRASH AND DAMN PROUD... YA WISH YOU COULD TOUCH EM.. HUH.
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?
(i COULD not RESIST THIS EITHER... TELL YA HERE TOMORROW.. OR E ME!
I just came back to this string, and, sorry, but I can't let it go quite yet.
SW, your authority on this is a text "originally published in The Australian Financial Review, 7 September 2001"? (BTW, you should have cited it as well as provided the link.) Do you suppose that any other theories of racialisation that bear examination have ever been promulgated, or is this the one text that clears everything up for all of us?
MP, If "a little philosophy [could] clear this mess up easily," the world would be a much simpler place. Wittgenstein did indeed have a theory on language games, just as I.A. Richards had a theory that words have no meaning apart from their context and that all language is metaphoric. We could mull that for a while.
Perhaps everyone should give SW a break; s/he is probably young, idealistic, full of new learning, eager to cure the ills of the world through enlightened discourse, and unaware that you rarely change anyone's mind by pouncing on their perceived shortcomings. I also doubt that SW has ever lived next door to the neighbors from hell, but I could be mistaken, and that is another topic for some other time.
OMG!! I had an early start this morning so i have not been around any computers till now 3.30pm. Holy Cow..LOL what on earth have i done..LOL...those that know me pretty well will already know its not out of the norm that i find myself opening my mouth before i think. One thing, for all my faults and i have many, i speak from the heart, i am a loyal friend, if any friend i have is in trouble no matter what they've done i will always help. I mean no harm to any specific person,group or race and if i have offended anyone,well i am sorry i have hurt your feelings but i stand by my convictions.
EProphet ~ your quite right, i did have rough day, thanks so much for your thoughtfulness :)
BFraud ~ lmao@ "rotting old trailer", am still laughing, i am so glad i found your blog, your a true breath of fresh air!!
Jade ~ Hi you!! Yes, that was my whole point..Lack of consideration.
Jack ~ Your a pussycat and i luv you ..xx
Jade & Jack ~ LMAO @ you 2 sharing trailer park stories...too funny :o)
Magz ~ Sis...WTF!! LOL.. i want a cut of your profits!!
Jen ~ I did didn't i LOL !!
EProfessor ~ I bet his Uni tutors get up him for inadequate bibliographies!!
since i promised... here's the translation of the Latin phrase above. this is straight from dkgoodman at chezgoodman, who finds and posts the SILLIEST stuff... this page had a bunch of goofy familiar sayings rendered in classical Latin. what i said above (meant to be humorous, dear SW)
"IS THAT A SCROLL IN YER TOGA? OR YA JUST HAPPY TO SEE ME?"
signed, maggie (I speak trailer trash in several languages) b, aka magz
BTW sis... i just had to add.. since i'm pretty sure our socially challenged worker will be back to check up on ya..
that the truth is, I'm just too much of a trailer trashy LADY to have done more than fantasize about tossing the dead chicken.. it's still being disassembled slowly in MY yard, by dogs and weather.
you know our Mom taught us how to behave, but she said it was ok to THINK about doing evil wicked mean and nasty things.. ROFLMFAOOOOOO
Sis, i think you've just confused the living crap out of SW!!!
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