[The Enemy of my Enemy] is Still not my Friend

If TalkTalk was not such an odious company I would thoroughly applaud this move by Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk’s Executive Director of strategy and regulation.

[Target Culture] The Processed Life

This Post Is Rated: N for Nothing to hide… yada yada. Warning: More commentary on our total lack of discretion and humanity in today’s culture.

I’m aware that I’m going to reference another ‘old’ news item now but I’m just catching up with some of my saved rss feeds and occasionally I come across an item that is worth my comment but I’m too busy to compile something at the time.

Last month the BBC reported that, now, even the police are fed up of the target culture.

The list of compiled cases showed incidents where officers had been “under such pressure to deliver it has resulted in an arrest or caution when even the officer themselves thinks it is ludicrous”, he said.
“Understandably, when the public hears about this they ask ‘What the hell is going on?’.”

Of course those who read police bloggers will not be surprised, but what people should be realising is that it’s part of a much wider cultural endemic that has been going on for some time.

We no longer know how to relate as human beings. We may even empathise with our victims customers’ personal situation, in the knowledge that we are making decisions that will deeply affect their circumstances, but there seems to be no will to to try and break the cogs of this giant machinery that is called ‘authorisation’.

How many times have you heard the words to the effect of “Yes, I understand, but I’m sorry sir I cannot do that as I don’t have the authorisation” or “I’m sorry I have to process this now, I can’t stop it”. What they actually mean is:

“I can stop it, but if something goes wrong, it will be my head on the block, or I am financially disincentivised to do anything to help you”.

I’m glad the police are concerned, we should all be. We are moving towards, nay, already in a society that sees people as assets to be put in boxes and processed. If someone doesn’t fit into the box, discard them or fail them. Why should we be concerned? Let me give you an example from my own life,

You may already be aware of the trouble I had with TalkTalk at the beginning of the year. I ended up cancelling their contract to go with Pipex in February. Today I received the 3rd ‘Final Demand’ for money on an account that should have been closed 4 months ago (2 phone calls, 1 letter). This is no longer a human looking at the details and realising the error of their ways, this is a machine, that has not been given the right instruction and without intervention, followed through to logical conclusion will pass this onto a debt collection service.

I don’t trust those who currently stand for authority, not until I can see an example of a person or organization who can utilise technology responsibly, and not rely on it to cost cut human decisions over human lives.

To slightly modify an old mantra used on this site:

Databases exist to for people, people do not exist for databases.

Technorati Tags: checkbox culture, database culture, big brother, predatory systems, customer service, target culture

[Blog Reboot] Post Zero

As you can see AAF has undergone some major retconning. Alex Fear has been fully realised.

He doesn’t apologise for the new comic feel of AAF, and before anyone makes assumptions it is not inspired by another excellent new US import. His obsession with superheroes began a long time ago with the likes of Judge Dredd, Batman and Swamp Thing, to name a just a few.

The good news, as you may have sussed, is that I now has broadband once again. Pipex came to my rescue when TalkTalk FailFailed.

However, this still does not mean normal blogging will resume straight away. As you know I also now has a wife, whose powers of persuasion far exceed my own.

[Blog Reset] Origins

A new hero will rise to take on the culture of fear… the transformation is already underway.

Oh and btw I have abandoned TalkTalk. I signed up with Pipex today on the recommendation of this blog. They claim to do it in about 10 days on their website. No doubt CrapCrap will screw my credit rating further when I cancel my direct debit, but it’s a small price to pay.

I advise anyone living in the slowest and stupidest city in the world not to go with TalkTalk for their broadband solution. They are all TalkTalk and no ActionAction.

[Bad Company] TalkTalk WaitWait

I hope my readers had a good New Year, FYI Mr & Mrs Fear are still awaiting TalkTalk to install the broadband connection.

A quick google for “talktalk problems” doesn’t bring much confidence. In the meantime I am still reading your blogs and been able to leave the odd comment. While I’m offline I’ve made use of the time to start improving Abandon All Fear and very shortly a change will be happening. Alex Fear gets a transformation… got you interested now? Don’t worry no link changes or anything like that, but it’s time to shed some skin.

Anyway, I can’t wait to get back online and weighing in on some controversial topics:

• Immigration – Yup, this one isn’t going away soon
• Homosexuality and the Church
• Companies and Organisations to avoid
• Traffic Regulations
• Big Brother (the government stupid!)
• EnvironMENTALISTS
• Loopy London(ers)
• Middle Class Mentality
• Ken Livingstone, Rupert Murdoch, George Bush, Tony Blair and other pharisees
• Anti-theists and other uncircumcised philistines
• The religious right in the UK and other little Hitlers
• The housing price crash- which will happen!
• Plugging more great bloggers
• The War Against Terror (TWAT)

If you find anything on this list that doesn’t offend you, please let me know. I will try my best to find a subject that does.

[I’ll Be Back] Whatever Happened to Alex Fear?

Well in short, after getting married in October I’ve had no time nor (free) Internet connection to do any blogging. We came back to the UK early November and immediately went flat hunting in West London. Having now found a flat in Ealing, we are awaiting free broadband from TalkTalk which I am told will be installed at the latest 26th December. Which means my posts will be few and far between.

I’ve found a free WIFI connection in Chiswick at the Natural Cafe. I’m not much for organic food but I suspect I shall be ordering multiple latte’s on a Saturday as I make use of their generosity.

Currently I’m at my parent’s house this weekend so I’m making use of their WiFi connection, and I have much to tell. Aside from comments to make on my observations of the news both in America and the UK, I have some comments to make on some organisations of which we have been unfortunate enough to require their services.

I’ve done some rethink on the ethos of Abandon All Fear. I’ve decided that AAF is going in a new direction. From now on Abandon All Fear will be about real experiences with inept organisations and companies and based as much as possible on my own personal experience and observations. On the other hand, the Dark Side of the Light is going to be devoted to challenging the accepted wisdom and bringing my own insight and understanding, particularly with regards to faith. Of course these will both continue to be laced with my own peculiar brand of humour and satire. I also intend to reserve my comments on other blogs, instead referencing and addressing interesting posts here.

If all goes well, normal blogging will resume in January 2007, hopefully sooner.

[Fruitless Endevours] I Needlessly Stayed At Work for 3 Hours

I got home to discover that my TalkTalk broadband has been activated… After all the trouble I went to as well, sweet-talking my friend in the hardware department for the WEP key!

So I don’t know what that call agent was going on about with the 2nd October prediction. My broadband connection is supposed to be 8mb but it’s just that teensie bit faster than the old one (Tiscali)- it’s free, that’s the main thing as we need to save.

Meanwhile, expect normal blogging to proceed shortly. Here’s a little taste of what I’m working on:

Links – My blogging links are starting to grow and I’m having difficulty deciding which blog to add them to. So I’m working on a separate page to house them all and link to that from all my projects.
AAF Forum – As long as I can determine a desire for one. I am working on a no-holds barred forum where for all where politics, social justice, theology and ideas can be discussed with all people believers and non-believers.
T-Shirts, Books and anything else I can market – I know there is currently not much selection going at the moment, but I intend to expand the designs and book recommendations in the not so distant future, I may also be stepping away from the Christian theme.
Abandon All Fear website – Still developing this.
Money-making scams – Just kidding, however, I really do want to make some money on the side as you can tell by all the ads and merchandise. I have yet to find a niche. I think about it constantly though and will let you know when I find one. Just don’t be too judgmental if I try an idea out and it doesn’t work.

Tags: Abandon All Fear T-Shirts TalkTalk Broadband Merchandise Forum Politics Social Justice Bedworthian Money Making Scams Books

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[Me Against The World] Events Conspire

Only just got over the Blogger Beta disaster… and I have now lost my broadband connection at home! This is due to the fact I ordered TalkTalk free broadband 2 months ago and they have only just got round to connecting.

They’ve booked me in to go live on October the 2nd, but my current provider pulled the plug yesterday. It’s not even worth my while subscribing to a hotspot- it would cancel out the benefit of the free broadband. So I am now consigned to using a mixture of the wireless network at work (which means staying at my desk late) or using a dial-up connection at home.

It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact I’m only going to enjoy the new wireless connection for a week and a half till I leave for Hawaii. Then I have to start all over again with another broadband provider in November.

I will try to blog, but it won’t be as regular now, and I don’t think I will be able to resume a more regular blogging pattern till mid November at the earliest.

Storm clouds are gathering… I am hoping to find a way out of this £45 parking fine I have been fighting for the last 5 months (where I will get £45 now I don’t know so I am only able to continue dialogue now with the courts), I’m hoping it gets to 6 months so it will time out- providing the courts see it that way (the issue has already been brought to them once and sent back to the police). Part of the difficulty is that in less than a months time I will be away for a month- if they send a letter for court appearance during this time I won’t get it. This could get ugly.

I still have my outstanding tax bill, I have yet to be able to contact Inland Revenue and ask them to spread out the payment- if they will let me. Sure when I start the job I’ll be able to cover all this stuff but it seems like events conspire to head me off at the pass- try and bury me before I get to solid ground.

At least things are going in the right direction… marraige, new job, more money… eventually. What we are counting on right now is enough money to carry us through for the month I don’t get paid between jobs, finding accomodation in London and the last part of the wedding plans coming together.

I’ve been blessed, God has raised me out of some incredibly difficult situations, he will continue to do so. My resolve is only strengthened against earthly authorities and critics, since I answer to a higher power.

Tags: Abandon All Fear T-Shirts Events Conspire Blogger Beta TalkTalk Broadband Parking Ticket

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