So, a job seeker has revealed a tip that finally landed a role after hundreds of applications. The media calls it a story of British resilience being rewarded. I call it a symptom of our intellectual decadence.
We live in an era where we celebrate the exception as if it were the rule, where we turn a single anecdote into a parable for the masses. The Victorian era understood that perseverance was a virtue, but it also understood that the system was rigged in favour of those who knew the right handshakes. Today, we have replaced handshakes with algorithms and wonder why the 'secret tip' is just another form of insider knowledge.
The true story here is not the tip itself but the fact that hundreds of applications were necessary. That is not resilience, that is a labour market in decay. We are celebrating the survivor of a shipwreck while ignoring the wreckage.
The tip will be forgotten in a week, but the structural rot remains. And we call that British resilience. How very Roman of us.
