Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Serial_Apologist]

Social engineering

Which is everything, surely?

Clock time
Education
Table, and other manners
Team spirit
Sport
Advertising
Product placement
Religion
Mortgages
Counselling
Mobile phones

So why's it only ever applied to co-operation?

[Nick Armstrong]

"well-wishers"

[french frank]

Social engineering

Which is everything, surely?

So why's it only ever applied to co-operation?

Does it depend on motivation (intended outcome), rather than simple effect?

[Serial_Apologist]

Does it depend on motivation (intended outcome), rather than simple effect?

Social engineering, you mean?

[ahinton]

'disaffected youth' ... 'successful single mum' ... 'feckless fathers' ... 'unreconstructed males' ... 'grumpy old men' ... 'marvellous old lady' ... 'gender balance' ...

Out of interest, if all of these actually set your teeth on edge, pray tell us with what you would substitute each of them to convey the same meaning; just curious!

[french frank]

Social engineering, you mean?

I think definitions are needed in order to include all the categories that you listed in #1636.

[P. G. Tipps]

Social engineering

So why's it only ever applied to co-operation?

It's not.

It only applies to those who attempt to force others to think and speak like they do which is the exact opposite of 'co-operation'!

[jean]

I think definitions are needed in order to include all the categories that you listed in #1636.

None of them made sense in the context of any definition of Social engineering that I know!

I understand Mr Tipps though, but I would put it rather differently.

[Serial_Apologist]

None of them made sense in the context of any definition of [I]Social engineering/I] that I know!

I understand Mr Tipps though, but I would put it rather differently.

The way I understand the usual definition of "social engineering" is that it is anything which interferes with the operation of the free market. My categories implied, not without a touch of irony, a broader definition of social engineering I thought was needed.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Have we had "hard-working people"?

[Serial_Apologist]

Have we had "hard-working people"?

Yep. Well, hard-working families.

[ahinton]

Have we had "hard-working people"?

Yes, several times, I think - in Cameronspeak, it's usually "hard-working families", with its bizarre implication that babies and older children are all as hard at work at something or other as are their adult members.

That said, one thing that this thread has so far demonstrated (to me at least) is that the teeth of some people are far more easily set on edge than are those of others; now whether or not that has anything to do with private dentistry I really cannot say...

[jean]

To me, it means that the State (or any organisation with the power to influence these things) tries to influence the workings of society, usually for the benefit of those who've traditionally been left behind. (If it's a question of helping the rich to get richer, it's not social engineering - it's the natural order of things.)

K. R. POPPER Open Society, Notes 318, The name ‘interventionism’ could indeed cover the three main types of social engineering in our time: the collectivist interventionism of Russia; the democratic interventionism of Sweden and the ‘Smaller Democracies’ and the New Deal in America.

[Serial_Apologist]

To me, it means that the State (or any organisation with the power to influence these things) tries to influence the workings of society, usually for the benefit of those who've traditionally been left behind. (If it's a question of helping the rich to get richer, it's not social engineering - it's the natural order of things.)

K. R. POPPER Open Society, Notes 318, The name ‘interventionism’ could indeed cover the three main types of social engineering in our time: the collectivist interventionism of Russia; the democratic interventionism of Sweden and the ‘Smaller Democracies’ and the New Deal in America.

Thanks jean. I agree with all of that.

[Ferretfancy]

(Loudly) "I'm on the train."

Also on the train " You're not still on the loo!