Over the Half Term holiday, I had a visit from our local Reform Councillor. The first one to be elected in our area, and he was obviously chuffed with himself and his shiny blue rosette. I was loading my car up in preparation for a trip to the tip when I saw him knocking on the neighbours’ doors, and though I didn’t immediately know what party he represented, I had my suspicions.
When he approached and identified himself, I gave him both barrels.
“Turn around, go away and never come near my house again.”
“Very well, sir,” he replied, obviously accustomed to abuse, “that’s your right in a democratic society. But do you mind if I ask why you’re saying that?”
“Because I’ve seen what’s happening in America and I don’t want the same thing to happen over here.”
“Well, America’s very different to here.”
“It won’t be if you lot get in.”
This went on a bit more, and I ended up calling him and his brethren a “bunch of racists”, which he denied, quietly, as he moved on to the next house.
Afterwards, I regretted my outburst. I should have just turned away immediately and not let myself be drawn into any kind of discussion. Why didn’t I?
Because he was outside my home. And as such, he was directly invading my Environment.
You may remember in the last couple of editions of this very sporadic series, I mentioned Dr. R. Douglas Fields’ list of nine triggers for anger, summed up in the acronym LIFEMORTS. I’ve previously looked at the first three letters – L for Life or Limb, I for Insult, and F for Family. The next is E – the anger we feel when something invades our environment, our home, our safe place – even our personal space. In a recent interview, Dr. Fields explained…
“… animals who are territorial will protect their territory with violence. And we can see that in many animals in nature. But humans are fiercely territorial. Trespassers will be shot.”
“One of the main functions of territorial behaviour for humans is the preservation of privacy. Having a place where we can control who has access to us and when is essential for normal day-to-day functioning, and a lack of such control can be quite dispiriting and stressful.”
It goes on to suggest that this is one of the reasons homelessness has such profound psychological effects on people. We are hard-wired to need our own safe cave to retreat to when the world gets too much. And when the sabretooth tiger steps into our cave looking for a meal… how can we ever feel safe there again?
When I was in the Sixth Form and we’d just started passing our driving tests, we would occasionally get to borrow a parental car and give friends a lift home from school. I have a vivid memory of the time we dropped my friend Rachel off at her house only for her to come running back out in tears moments later. Her home had been broken into while everyone was at work / school, and the burglars had ransacked the place. The police even found a shotgun propped up against a wall in the living room, suggesting that the thieves might have had to leave in a hurry – perhaps when they heard us pull up outside.
Rachel and her family were obviously deeply affected by this, but they were tough Yorkshire folk, and I guess they got over it. Her parents stayed in that house for a good many years afterwards, but I know a lot of people never get over a burglary or home invasion, and their only option is to move.
Scientists suggest we don’t have to be in a place for a long time for us to start feeling territorial. One study, cited in Psychology Today, reported that…
“…when a person seated at a table in a university snack bar for five minutes or less was approached by a stranger who asked them to move, they invariably complied and often offered an apology as well. However, if the person had been seated there for a much longer period of time, they usually refused to move.”
Have you ever been sat on a park bench, just enjoying the sunshine and the birdsong, the breeze on your face… and someone else has plonked themselves down on the same bench? On your bench? How does that make you feel? Maybe you’re a sociable soul and you welcome the company. Or maybe it depends how long you’ve been sitting there.
Territorial rage can even exist on the interweb. I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets a bit miffed when I receive spam comments on my blog – but it’s worse still when Mr. Angry From Purley has a rant about something I’ve written. And check out all those people getting into heated arguments on social media – your Facebook account is another safe space. When some dickhead invades that with a comment they’d never make in real life… watch out!
Territorial anger is a natural human reaction then… so next time a Reform candidate comes knocking on your door, don’t beat yourself up about slamming it in his gammony face.
Here's a song about someone who gets very angry when someone invades his space... be warned that it features a fair bit of bad language. Even worse than what I said to the Neo-Nazi.
10cc were my obvious choice for the band to illustrate our final week in double figures on the countdown, although as Jim in Dubai pointed out, I could also have had Ten City, Tenpole Tudor, Ten Years After... or, for that matter, Ten Sharp, Ten Benson, The Ten Fours or the Ten Bob Millionaires.
And my search engine also suggested The Pretenders, Yo La Tengo, Morten Harket, Frightened Rabbit, Suicidal Tendencies, Sharon Van Etten and Tennessee Ernie Ford, among others. All of which made searching for Ten songs rather difficult, since there was no way of editing out songs that included the words Listen, Pretend, Tension, Beaten, Tender... or even Extended. And there were rather a lot of songs with "Extended version" in my library.
So I'm very impressed you all came up with as many great suggestions as you did. So many, in fact, I'm going to keep the waffle to a minimum (again... we'll see how well that goes) and just plough through them, starting with The Swede...
I tell you what, all these songs about The Ten Commandments makes me think back to the originals, carved into stone, and carried down from Mount Sinai itself by the one and only...
...which, given the name of this blog, is a pretty good place to stop. Although The Swede did have one other suggestion, which he caveated: I feel I may be pushing my luck now!
Hmm. We'll come back to that.
Over to George, who only had one for us this week, but it was a big 'un...
Smut. Just pure smut. Or is it? Here's Douglas McLaren...
I have to say I was hesitating to suggest Aerosmith's "Big Ten Inch Record" because of the puerile suggestiveness of the lyrics, until after digging a little, I came across the following quote, said about a different Aerosmith jingle: "Actually, there's very little innuendo here, it's just pure smut. But Steven Tyler is such a rock star caricature, it's hard to be offended by it." (A Certain Blogger, June 23, 2017)
As always, you go above and beyond with your research, Douglas. Thank you.
Over to Swiss Adam, who had quite a few from my library. I'll let you work out which.
Fair play to Swiss Adam there, because the ones I didn't have in my collection, I now want in my collection. (With the possible exception of Sabres of Paradise, sorry.)
Alyson, who tonight, Matthew, will be Ben Elton, adds...
Can't remember what you think of UB40 but One In Ten made a big impact on me back in the day and I still have the vinyl copy. After this crisis it might have to be renamed One In Five, but that's me just being pessimistic again. It'll all be fine (she says wearing a rictus smile).
For the record, One In Ten is probably my favourite UB40 song... I even featured it in Saturday Snapshots a couple of weeks back.
You'll have to excuse me, CC, but this post is long enough with me re-running last week's links as well... besides, you're not going to top Engelbert. I'd quit while you're ahead. Although your Engelbert suggestion did lead me to dig out this...
A lot of songs with 10 in the title but most of the ones I'm finding are not even familiar to me so going to stick with what might be your most likely pick. Although C says she doesn't like it, I think you do appreciate Paul Heaton's lyrics so Perfect 10 by Beautiful South would be a possibility.
Y'know, I used to love that song, but it has started to grate a little in recent years. Perhaps because it sounds like a template for every song Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott record these days. This is better...
He even supplied the link, just in case I didn't know what he was talking about. See, I'm beginning to think you're not taking this series seriously, George.
Back to Dubai, where Jim had dug up the following...
After all those, I don't know about you, but I need a lie down in a darkened room. I doubt that anyone gives two figs for my suggestions this week (if you ever do). Still, I feel duty bound to list them So...
Way, way back in the dim and distant mists of the past when this post started, The Swede made a final suggestion which he somehow thought might be "pushing his luck now". Do you remember that? Of course you don't, you've slept since then.
Anyway, The Swede's final suggestion was a song set on 10th Avenue in New York City.
Come on guys, you've been reading this blog long enough. Was this week's winner really that big a mystery? You know my weaknesses...
This one's for Clarence.
When the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band
Nine next. Hopefully there won't be as many nine songs as there were ten. But just in case... I might start writing that post now. Chip in whenever you feel like it...
