Respect my Authority!

by Chris Losh

Have you heard about that French game show, where members of the studio audience give electric shocks to fellow contestants? I’ve not seen it, but from what I gather, it’s a quiz programme, and whenever someone gets an answer wrong, they are asked to inflict a blast of ever-increasing voltage on a hapless patsy in the corner.

At least, that’s what they think they are doing.

The person receiving the shock is, in fact, an actor. The French might be happy to eat small birds whole, but frying a human being live on telly is too much even for them.

But the contestants don’t know that. As they turned the dials they watched his anguished squirming with ever increasing horror. But the interesting thing is that, whatever their own qualms about what they were doing, 80% of them carried on inflicting shocks on the ‘victim’ despite his pleas for mercy.

Why? Because the whole thing was part of an authoritative structure and therefore, in their minds, apparently safe, whatever the shrieks of the electrocutee might suggest. Significantly, because they were being told to do it, they also felt in some way absolved of the consequences of their actions. We’ve seen the same kind of thing from Cambodia to Treblinka to Mostar.

Now, what have such dark ruminations got to do with the lovely fluffy world of the on-trade, you might wonder? To be sure, Toto, we’re a long way from lobster velouté...

Well, only that it’s an observation on how much in awe most of ‘us’ (i.e. the public) are when it comes to authority (i.e. you – the sommeliers and bartenders). 

Respect, deference, even subservience are drilled into us from birth. It’s what stops us from pushing a policeman’s helmet off, parking in the middle of the street or cutting our neighbour’s tree down.

These, obviously, are good things (though I thought long and hard about the policeman’s helmet).

But there is a downside. When ordinary punters go into restaurants, or obviously ‘proper’ cocktail bars, they feel oppressed by the weight of knowledge coming at them in waves. And they default into surly schoolboy mode: either defensive, truculent, and aggressive, or cowed and pathetically eager to please.

I’m sure you all wonder why members of the public are so, frankly, weird to deal with. Well, that’s why.

2 comments

Mark D. 13-05-2010

I've never been compared to Pol Pot before. My despot of choice would be Idi Amin

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Robert G. 15-05-2010

I completely agree with both of you. Nice post Chris. I'm working on a ‘response’ with my own point of view and typical ‘sommelier rant’ style. Someone has to…

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