Wednesday, January 28, 2009

You Bastard!

David SimsOf course, I understand we're all different. But I can't work out where you're coming from. You probably have your reason for doing what you're doing, and in some parallel universe you might be right. I'm a very liberal person, accustomed to seeing other peoples' viewpoints, and that makes it all the more strange that I can't see yours. What sort of character are you? I just can't make any sense of what you're doing. I can't imagine what sort of story you think you're living out. Don't get me wrong, I realize you might just be very stupid -- but that stupid? As it happens, I'm one of the good guys. We defeat the bad guys; that's how we know we're the good guys. If that hurts, then so be it; you've brought it on yourself. You've forced me into seeing you in a way that I don't really approve of, and that makes me even more angry. You Bastard!

-- Professor David Sims, Cass Business School, London, UK, acceptance speech for the Ig Nobel for Literature, for his paper "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations"

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