Twits and Tall Poppies
By Debbie Dawson, 10th Oct 2010 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutWritingColumns & Opinions
Schoolgirl behaviour from Grown Ups who should know better!
Introducting the Twits
I recently read a blog by someone well known in the New Zealand Pagan Community. He is an egomaniac of the worst kind. He is also, in my humble opinion, severely unbalanced. Any who make the foolish mistake of disagreeing with him are ranted at, belittled and insulted. If you should happen to be of the feminine gender, then you must have “brittle girl syndrome” and be about to cry because the big bad mean man is oppressing you. Everything you say is twisted around to mean something else and be the source of snide remarks for months to come.
I met Mr Twit in the flesh last year, he described to me an incident that he took great offense from. Someone used the wrong pseudonym for him in an internet forum. This was (somehow) a breaking of oath, and he was determined to destroy this person on every level of his life. He took it as far as digging up some pretty weak claims of sexual misconduct, turning it into something much worse than it was and trying to get everyone else to fight this battle and ostracise the wrong-doer.
What is worse is that his wife is cut from the same cloth. She likes to think that one degree from Oxford and one very bad book (and when I say bad book, the only positive review I’ve been able to find was written by Mr Twit – her husband) makes her an academic and so much smarter than everyone else. Together they work in some twisted tag team to tear apart any poor unsuspecting soul who can think for themselves. They both think they’re terribly clever and because they’re British, then us poor colonials should automatically fall on our knees and beg them to allow their searing wit and wisdom to flow over our poor starved-for-anything-real heads.
Twits Behaving Badly
In the last year, they really have gone too far in a number of areas. As such they have been ostracised from the community. Those who still choose to associate with them are few and far between, and keep that association very quiet. This has even gone so far as to have the Police involved, and then emailed libelous comments from him mostly, telling others that such and such has been formally warned by the Police, when in fact, the Police saw no case to answer.
I now see on his blog, that they consider themselves to be victims of Tall Poppy Syndrome. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life. There’s even a very long-winded explanation of what Tall Poppy Syndrome is and how the term came into being. He really is putting himself on a par with many of the world’s greats. He paints an unrealistic view of New Zealand culture and society, and talks about how anyone who has achievements and success is torn down to be equal with everyone else.
Even funnier, he then goes into how we’re all just jealous of them and their successes. Their what? What successes would this be? How to alienate the community you tried to dominate? How to show yourself to be a complete twit in public? How to waste Police time when someone tells you to back off and leave them and theirs alone? Please explain to me how this is success in anyone’s eyes, unless your goal was to become the biggest pariah in any society. I know every Religion and culture seems to have their “nut-jobs”, but I didn’t realise that becoming that nut-job was something to aspire to. At what point would you make it your life’s goal to become the biggest nut-job in New Zealand Paganism?
Ego and Jealousy
‘We’re all just jealous’ had me giggling for a long time too. Wow, that’s a phrase I hadn’t heard in roughly 20 years, around about the time I left high school. What a silly teenage response to being disliked – I won’t say hated, because hate requires a certain level of energy and they’re not worth it. What will come next? A complaint about Religious Discrimination? We’re discriminating against you because you’re Gardenerian Wiccan? How about we don’t like you because you’re a twit, and have proven it over and over.
The problem with any magickal path is ego. There is a level of ego that is required and even healthy, but too often our “elders” become too full of ego, and that colours their attitudes towards everyone else and even their ability to work effectively. I see these two twits rave on about their work with Goetia and demons and High Magic, but they don’t seem to realise that they’re not as in control as they think they are.
Just before last year’s big meltdown, Mr Twit had the Seal for Andras as his avatar on internet forums. A question was asked by someone who recognised it. Mr Twit ranted on (and filled his blog again) with all sorts of assumptions about the nature of the question, and venom at some ‘little man’ who dared to question his obvious superior in this Art. A big part of the blog went into an explanation of what Andras was traditionally summoned for – it involved discord and disruption. Not long after this, the Twits managed to upset the entire community to the point where almost no one wanted to be seen to be connected with them.
It seems to me that they truly believe that they’re in control here, that their workings are successful and that they’re at the pinnacle of all they’ve strived for magickally. However, it looks more as though their workings have back-fired and that they’re really the victims of their attempts to dominate and destroy everyone else. Somehow the Twit’s colossal egos are not allowing them to see their abject failure, and treat it as ‘achievements and success.’
But what would I know, I’m just jealous.
Comments
11th Oct 2010 (#)
Hummmm . . .
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11th Oct 2010 (#)
Wow on the money. That ego thing is such a trap
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12th Oct 2010 (#)
Debbie, people like that, just need to be let go.
Heck, I have ganied more knowledge from a
older farmer I knew, with a 6th grade education
than I have from most "so called" intellectuals.
Thank you for sharing.:)
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