Be careful how you agree

[caddyman]

The world is indeed a bizarre place.

I have just had a long telephone conversation in which the person I was talking to agreed with me so aggressively, that I was very tempted to reverse my decision just to shut him up.

I think he was expecting me to say 'no' and was all geared up to argue his corner. I caught him offside by saying 'yes' and he started to argue the point anyway before realising what he was doing.

I should have suggested that I would reconsider as a consequence of his impassioned argument and put the phone down. That would have left him on tenterhooks…

Comments

Loonies on the phone

[drjohnsilence.livejournal.com]

I recall towards the end of the futile exercise popularly known as 'rail privatisation,' we had one chap ring up and begin with the expression, "I'm not mad, you know." He proceeded over the course of the next hour and a half to disprove this statement comprehensively.

Thirty minutes into this, I was saved by the good old longstop, "Would you like to speak to my superior?" at which point I was able to pass him on to my Grade 6, who had looked over and taken pity on me. David then attracted a crowd of Grade 7s around him who were eager to hear this chap's wonderful view of the world (he was speaking loud enough for anyone to hear him even when David had the phone at his ear). At one point, one Grade 7 called out to the Perm Sec's PS who was passing by that "David's got a real loony here" in a voice quite loud enough for said weirdo to hear, but he was so engrossed in his rant that there were no negative repercussions.

Part of his worldview was that the Department of Transport should have inspectors on every train making sure that passengers were being treated fairly in the privatised railway. Now there's a policy...