That'll do

Let’s be honest. We all thrive on positive feedback. A little slap on the back, an encouraging smile, two thumbs up, anything will do to enliven our minds, to quicken our tread, and to render us just a bit more willing.

It is as simple as it is cheap. The need for reassurance is alive and well in us. Like morning sickness it’s not something that ever goes away although we think we have it under control.

In some unhealthy way it probably tabs right into our fear of rejection and imminent abandonment and likely death. And that’s what makes it just as powerful.

Life here in London provides a realistic insight into the power of that ever-lasting craving. People here seem to be mad with ambition. And while some actually get some monetary return for their breathless strive most of the chaps, mates, and blokes, and laddies who make their way into their little back room offices every day do so on little more than the hope that someone (preferably the front room gray back) at the end of a long day might stretch their pinched lips into a smile that says it all: “Well done.”

I hope nobody who actually has the power to bribe with a smile will be reading these lines. In fact, I am quite sure they won’t. But believe me, accolades are far more manipulative than scorn or disinterest. They are the cheap way to assure compliancy.

That’ll do, pig.