Kaptain M, it’s been said before on this thread, but I’ll say it again – I believe you’re making a mistake in allowing yourself to be diverted by the likes of CitizenXX into endless debates about pre and post 89 pilot cost bases. I think it’s pretty well accepted by all that any half way decent accountant (is that an oxymoron?) can arrange the books so that the bottom line comes up with whatever result he wants it to read – look at Enron and all the other recent scandals in the US to prove my point.
But that’s an aside. What really led me to posting today was the recent plethora of posts from CitizenXX. (A quick question, CitizenXX. You say you were with AN until its demise, but your address says you hail from ‘SE Asia’. However, I seem to remember that, buried somewhere in your many posts, were comments about your imminent employment with Singapore Airlines ‘but only if they allow you to take up an Australia basing’. You’ve got me confused, C.)
On to my reason for posting: I’ve always been a bit of a film buff, and one thing I saw in quite a few of the old black and white Brit ‘war-ies’ made back in the 50’s that quite mystified me at the time was the recurring theme of what happened in France in 1940 when the Germans invaded. It was the way some (quite a few, actually) Frenchmen appeared to throw in their lot with the invaders and turn against their erstwhile allies and countrymen who continued to resist the invader “when it was obvious the fight was lost and further resistance useless”.
But now, thanks to CitizenXX and a few like-minded posters here on Pprune, the mystery’s been solved for me. Those [/i]pragmatic[/i] Frenchmen were simply “being realistic” (and how many other quotes could I draw from the posts of CitizenXX and his like on this very thread).
It’s also interesting to see how many of these “realists” became instant members of the pro-Allied Resistance in August 1944, when that became the “realistic” course (or cause) to follow. The French had a word for such people. It’s a bit longer than the one we use to describe the 1989 crop, but just as descriptive. The Norwegians had another name for their lot, and that too, has been incorporated into everyday language as a term of utter opprobrium.
It’s sad to have so clearly proven to us by the likes of CitizenXX that, had the Japanese taken over Australia 60 years ago, there would have been no shortage of “realists” among our population either.