There is a guy at work that is a grouch. He's cocksure and often grumpy, thinks an awful lot of himself, but is not necessarily a bad person. He is, like (almost) everyone else there, not university educated. He's no Ammonius Saccas or Jesus Christ either (id est someone with knowledge and wisdom received by psychic visions, by revelation). In any case, he gave me a ride home this evening and we had a talk. Interestingly enough, he is in a (sort of) similar situation to myself. He was promised a good job by someone (relatively) important, told to get a qualification (in flying drones), then, when he had earned his qualification, was told there was no work for him, but that he would have to pay more, and more, and more, and get further qualifications before he is able to do any job beyond minimum wage. This is not dissimilar to myself. I was promised gainful employment on the proviso that I became qualified. I did so, worked hard towards earning my first degree. Nothing happened. So, I took out a ten thousand pound loan to earn a second degree (in a copy of Lucan (trans. Robert Graves) I bought, the page always falls open and reads, "You need a master's degree." [or words to that effect]). This is perhaps coincidence, but probably not, considering where I bought it (the provenance is suspect). Alas, I earned my master's degree, and still nothing. That's okay, this is Britain, not France. We do not expect academics or businessmen here, in this country to be as good as their word (and a man is only as good as his word). Everyone in the world knows Britain does not honour its obligations (it is only the British that fondly imagine they do). In France, this is not so. On the merest offer of work there, even just a passing comment made in a bar, if you re-locate yourself and all your belongings several hundred miles to a strange place you've never been before, you can be damn sure that the French honour their word. They are fit for business, and cultivate and appreciate talent, showing that appreciation with very real returns (in that thirty miles of ocean which separates the two nations, there is a world of difference). The only reason I know this, is because I have been there, and done it.
So this guy - like myself - has sat his exams, passed, studied hard, landed himself in debt, and has nothing to show for it, precisely the same as what has happened to me (except he only paid £699 over a single month, whereas I have accumulated £15,000 worth of debt spanning a dozen years and have sat several exams - Latin, not easy - it 'ain't like flyin' a kite [or drone]). So what do we do? We make the best of what we have. Like Richard Harris' character said in Man in the Wilderness, "Complaining never helped anybody." I understand and know well that Britain has no honour whatsoever, that much is plain for anyone to see, evidently. I'm on my own, and if I wish to be successful, I must use what (very little) I've got to make things work for me, rather than me working for thugs and juveniles. There is a problem: I can't bloody stand programming, but I have to get over this until I am able to reap what I have sown. There is a line from the Corpus Hermeticum which is particularly relevant here (it is a prophecy):
How much more is worked out by God, who is present, and the power of everything? For anything done in a leisurely way, left unfinished, is said to be imperfect and is contrary to God’s divine law. Therefore God makes everything complete. Now my time runs short, O Maximus Mercurius, I hand it over to you, so have your wits about you. You will quickly understand the whole work of God. The inevitable work was to be here, so that they could be there, what is, or what was and what will be in the future. However, O my most delightful Maximus Mercurius, life is it. It’s truly beautiful yet it’s good, finally it’s God. If however you should aim at this, so it’s through the examples of your works I would place an example before your eyes. You must turn to face what might strike at you, not wanting something similar to this of your opponent. If indeed that man has no job satisfaction as an assistant they don’t spread out. Nature itself, working, is often turned by a particular energy, him always existing in work, wherever he could, having always done something for a living.
Corpus Hermeticum 11.12-13. Trans. Max Latham (2020, pp.56-57).
This is the situation I am in. This is not the Abbasid Calpihate in 11th century Baghdad where translators were paid £30,000 a month: it's Dark Age Britain. One is only paid after the work is finished, and even then only dribs and drabs.
As for the law degree, well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
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