Category Archives: Psychology

Escape Goat

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Loved today’s urban word of the day ‘Escape goat’ as it may go some way to explain why people flirt etc (beyond the fact that they’re ‘bored’):

“Someone flirted with, obsessed over and generally courted by a person in a relationship they want to get out of in the hope that it will give them the courage and will to leave. Jennifer was John’s escape goat when he couldn’t bring himself to leave Caroline.”

Yep, come to think of that I recall being on the receiving end of that from a pretty lady when working for the Ministry of Agriculture in Cambridge as an assistant scientific officer (counting aphids in fields of crops, yeah). She got friendly with me, and came round for dinner, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door – her boyfriend had come to pick her up. So maybe there I was more like a ‘sacrificial lamb’. Shame as I liked what she said about how Poland was a really spiritual place when she was there in 1988 or something.

Boy Soldiers

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Saw the Daily Show interview with the guy who wrote his experience as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone last night. Very interesting how he said the toughest part was not becomign a boy soldier in a chaotic environment as that offered order, but learning how to become human again after the war. Reminded me of the tough problems of gang culture with the shootings in south London. Don’t imagine many authority figures are going to be thinkign along those lines though as central to the strategy to defeat gung crime, ey?