Читать книгу Positive Thinking: Everything you have always known about positive thinking but were afraid to put into practice - Vera Peiffer, Vera Peiffer - Страница 19

The male or female Patroniser has a clear-cut picture of the world in his or her head. Whatever they hear, see or experience, they manage to label unambiguously as either good or bad, right or wrong. Patronisers have made up their mind once and for all which items belong in which category, and that is that. The Patroniser does not worry about any grey zones between the black and white areas in life.

Endowed with a loud voice, the Patroniser then proceeds to spread the gospel. Whether you want to hear it or not, the Patroniser will let you know what his or her opinion is on any given subject. If you have ever been to hospital you will recall that bossy nurse who stomps into your room at 5 a.m. to take your temperature, booming, ‘Aren’t we lazy? Still asleep! Come now, Mr Winterbottom, open your mouth!’ And if you want to know what these new tablets are that she has just given you, she will look at you reproachfully and reply, ‘Now we must follow doctor’s orders, mustn’t we, Mr Winterbottom?’ In other words, she is putting you in your place because, according to her book, the patient is not allowed to question the doctor’s (or her) authority, and that’s what you have just been doing.

Note also the permanent use of ‘we’ instead of ‘you’. You are no longer a person in your own right and, anyway, nurse knows best, so she takes you under her matronly but infuriatingly patronising wing, integrating your person into her own. Thus, ‘we’ is born.

Criticism comes hard and fast with Patronisers, and it is not always constructive. Even though they have good ideas, people tend to reject their suggestions purely because of the way they are put across.