It strikes me as to why it is only people that are good in their jobs that suffer imposter syndrome and yet those that really suffer it never do.
It's called the Dunning Kruger effect. It's been a bit discounted on grounds of statistical error in its experiment, but there is some basis of truth in that dumb people overestimate their ability as they tend to assume that other people function on roughly the same level as themselves, while smart people underestimate their ability for the same reason, basically. Another way of looking at it is unconscious incompetence vs conscious incompetence: the n00b doesn't know what he doesn't know. The expert knows all too well all the things he doesn't. Of course there is also the opposite of imposter syndrome: narcissistic overcompensation. This can be found in people with a lot of unconscious incompetence, but who have been (undeservedly) validated as special. You see that in pop starlets (*cough* Justin Bieber), billionaire children (there's another pressure there: how are you going to live up to your old man who is treated and acts like a god, and make him proud of you?) and here in the UK particularly in Eton educated students who move into politics, not because of political ideals but because they believe that to rule is their birthright. None of these people have a particular talent or ability, but they are raised from the cradle to believe that they have. They usually live cosseted in a cocoon of privilege and sycophancy, but when they inevitably hit the hard brick wall of reality the decompensation can be spectacular. Watch the pop starlet fall from fame. Watch Trump losing the Presidential election in 2021. Watch Boris Johnson be ousted; that one will be a doozy. Apropos, I went to a university preparatory secondary school (like a specific A level school all the way through) in the Netherlands. I and some others came from a working class background (and the smartest kid typically was a farm boy; this was state education so free and accessible to all regardless of income, as long as they had the required ability) because the Netherlands is fairly egalitarian like that, but many of my classmates' parents were doctors, dentists, architects, lawyers, councillors; one was the daughter of the local mayor. And although the Netherlands is fairly egalitarian, it was also made quite explicit to us that we were destined to be among the ruling classes of this country, not its working classes. There was an emphasis on the bond between us, as pupils of this gymnasium. I can only imagine that British public schools are ten times worse.
Top Torying given it's not the first time he's been caught doing something like this... Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date But he didn't commit the cardinal sin of being a Labour MP watching some opera... so he could well survive it... Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date
So Johnson considered it all done and dusted because, well, he has no concept of consequence, morals or rules. Finally suspended as an MP by the rest of the party.
Fun fact: this is Sajid Javid's second time quitting government - it didn't stick the first time - after he resigned as Chancellor in 2020. A move which allowed Rishi Sunak, who mere months prior had been a junior housing minister, to take on the role. The role he's now quit. Wonder who's next? Convenient way to dodge blame for the financial crises (plural, not a typo) the country's heading straight toward, innit?
Zahawi is most people's guess. Well to quit... no idea who'll be Chancellor next... Probably Dorries who can't count past 3 or Rees-Mogg who can only think in £, s and d.
We'll get Dorries as Chancellor and the Haunted Pencil as Health Secretary, and as a country we'll bloody well deserve both. Wonder how those five members who answered "Conservative" in that poll up there are feeling now? Wonder how they'll be feeling in a year's time?
