CaptCloudbuster
2nd Jun 2011, 05:07
If you have worked in the Aviation game long enough you will definitely have come across a fellow Pilot / Engineer / Cabin Crew who will do whatever it takes to look after number one.
Like me you probably wonder what makes them tick, how could they possibly live with themselves after the choices they make. I've often wondered if it is a condition which is predisposed in the very fibre of Aviation Professionals in a far greater proportion to the general population.
A prime example in the QANTAS ranks are those amongst us who headed our AIPA as President before switching immediately to become servants to QF Management. We still have on QREWROOM one such individual re contracted as a consultant, at the pleasure of the Chief Pilot, who continues to stir the pot.
I am currently reading an excellent book titled "If This is a Man" (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/If-This-is-Man-Primo-Levi/9780349100135?b=-3&t=-20#Fulldescription-20), by Primo Levi.
It is the memoir of an Auschwitz survivor. He was a Chemist and his writings take on a scientific examination at times to the human condition he observed.
The following extract bears powerful witness to the nature of Humanity.
The Jewish prominents form a sad and notable human phenomenon.In them converge present, past and atavistic sufferings, and the tradition of hostility towards the stranger makes of them monsters of asociality and insensitivity.
They are the typical product of the German Lager: if one offers a position of privilege to a few individuals in a state of slavery, exacting in exchange the betrayal of a natural solidarity with their comrades, there will certainly be someone who will accept. He will be withdrawn from the common law and will become untouchable: the more power that is given, the more he will be consequently hateful and hated.When he is given the command of a group of unfortunates, with the right of life or death over them, he will be cruel and tyrannical, because he will understand that if he is not sufficiently so, someone else, judged more suitable, will take over his post.
Like me you probably wonder what makes them tick, how could they possibly live with themselves after the choices they make. I've often wondered if it is a condition which is predisposed in the very fibre of Aviation Professionals in a far greater proportion to the general population.
A prime example in the QANTAS ranks are those amongst us who headed our AIPA as President before switching immediately to become servants to QF Management. We still have on QREWROOM one such individual re contracted as a consultant, at the pleasure of the Chief Pilot, who continues to stir the pot.
I am currently reading an excellent book titled "If This is a Man" (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/If-This-is-Man-Primo-Levi/9780349100135?b=-3&t=-20#Fulldescription-20), by Primo Levi.
It is the memoir of an Auschwitz survivor. He was a Chemist and his writings take on a scientific examination at times to the human condition he observed.
The following extract bears powerful witness to the nature of Humanity.
The Jewish prominents form a sad and notable human phenomenon.In them converge present, past and atavistic sufferings, and the tradition of hostility towards the stranger makes of them monsters of asociality and insensitivity.
They are the typical product of the German Lager: if one offers a position of privilege to a few individuals in a state of slavery, exacting in exchange the betrayal of a natural solidarity with their comrades, there will certainly be someone who will accept. He will be withdrawn from the common law and will become untouchable: the more power that is given, the more he will be consequently hateful and hated.When he is given the command of a group of unfortunates, with the right of life or death over them, he will be cruel and tyrannical, because he will understand that if he is not sufficiently so, someone else, judged more suitable, will take over his post.