Rising to the Bottom - Alcyonenews

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Posted November 15, 2024

Rising to the Bottom

Prior to the 2024 Election, the BC NDP government “diluted” the local Law Society. Prior to the 2020 Election, the NDP government diluted the BC Association of Professional Engineers. These are, or rather were, assemblies of Professionals instituted to govern their respective professions and ostensibly to protect the public against unqualified practitioners. And, indeed to shelter the people from the association’s own members turning unethical.

When I was taken to the hospital with a broken leg, I knew of no one fit to mend bones. I did not need know about bone fixers any more than to know pastrami makers. The College of Physicians and Surgeons had knowledgeably assessed the competence of practitioners and was protecting us against charlatans and assorted perilous characters. Trusting the College was justified. My bone was done 56 years ago and I could play sohcker (did I spell it right?) now, were it not for “bad” people discriminating on the pretext of my age to deny me inclusivity and to impose on me exclusivity from the League of Soccer players.

Stephen Timoshenko is the “Father of the science of Strength of Material”. Once upon a time, a steel fabrication company built a large pressure vessel and was in the process of loading it onto a barge for delivery to their customer. A crane chain snapped and the vessel kissed the barge deck. This meant X-raying it anew, fixing any found faults and re-certifying it. This would cost a fortune. When done pulling his hair, the engineer in charge of the transfer operation got an idea, and cleared it with the authorities: Yes, they would accept an assessment of the vessel’s integrity by Timoshenko in lieu of the stipulated rigmarole.

Timoshenko “veni, vidi, vici” (= went, looked and conquered – © Julius Cesar): Do this and that, some minor fix-ups, and the vessel will be fine was his verdict. All were happy and laughing until Timoshenko’s bill arrived; “To inspect and certify dented vessel $3,000", it read. The fabricator telegraphed back reasoning that it was “too much money for a few minutes of chalk-marking”. Timoshenko readily agreed and revised his invoice: To chalk-mark crucial spots: $5; to know which spots to mark $2,995.” The invoice was paid.

“Professions” are, in general, fields of activity, the skills to perform which are learned in a University. Such as Plato’s Academy, the U of Leibnitz, Padua, Oxford and UBC. Professions such as Medicine, Engineering, Lawyering, Military Arts, Theology and Dentistry. The “theoretic” knowledge needs to be supplemented with dexterity. Hence Physicians “intern”, lawyers “article”, Engineers “practice”, and soldiers play “war games”. But how can citizens sleep assured that the spillway of a dam an engineer designs will protect the towns and their denizens downstream when a storm comes? We can ask the engineer’s peers to certify “capable” him who designs spillways. This results in reasonable assurance that he/she know how to do a science, and where his/her ignorance begins so that he/she does not go beyond his/her capability.

Learned Professionals are paid higher wages and accorded higher social status than their non-professional co-workers. Sometimes these raise the envy of non-pofessional collaborators.

Let’s backtrack to my visiting the surgery shop (“Operating Room” they call it in the trade). In there the Bone Mender was the indisputable boss, bar none. Next to him, was a young “intern” eager to learn from my bad luck. And the anaesthetist; and the nurses dispensing the tools of the trade. The janitor, I presume, had washed off the floor the blood spilled in the previous operation so that people will not slip on it and break their legs. All these workers have to cooperate for a good foot-fix job to be done.

But this does not mean that each one’s contribution is equivalent to that of any of the others. Surely Wayne Gretzky deserves more rewards than the Zamboni driver. But some sophists taught “sympathetic” ears, the high “principle of Inclusivity”. This would direct that after-game, both Gretsky and the Zabonista will have Gin with the King (if available).

Envy is a vice, one that harms both the envious and the envied. Hence the call to “equality” resonates with those who feel excluded.

In childhood, I envied the high-rope walker in the circus. My mother explained matters: “to make a hand takes three fingers, a pinky and a thumb”, and you aren’t in that she reasoned conclusively. No one can make a Luciano Pavarotti of me so instead of lamenting my inadequate voice, I celebrate the happening of Pavarotti. Now I abhor the suggestion that “Inclusivity” entitles me to sing duets with Pavarotti. And I much appreciate that “Exclusivity” protects the Society’s ear from me belting out “O sole Mioooooo ... !

“Diluting” a Profession means eliminating the gradation of its membership. It means ending the exclusion of “ordinary seamen” from the ship’s helm that would give the sailors “inclusivity”, lest they feel hurt. But, just a minute ... wasn’t it exclusivity at the helm that prompted Christian Fletcher to cast overboard Captain Bligh and establish inclusivity at the helm in “Mutiny on the Bounty” movie? Be darned ...

Unfortunately “Diluting” the Learned Professional Associations yields bunches of votes for the politicians who do the Diluting. I also imagine how fulfilled apprentice horseshoe forgers and nail drivers feel when allowed entry into the professional association Albert Einstein and Stephan Timoshenko belonged. But the rest of us cry, or we would cry us a river, if we understood the harm the politicians do us. Among which is weighting us down to suffer their feather-weight-minds. It is time to exclude the Politicians from the helm and to include Reason before they drag us down the slippery slope to “national oblivion”.