Is it me, or is business becoming a teeny-weeny bit Stalinist? Common features include 1) Paranoia about political ideology; 2) Snitching; 3) Fatuous targets and metrics; 4) Unquestioning faith in technology; 5) Huge, economically unproductive bureaucracies; 6) Overinvestment in education; 7) Preference for theory over experience; 8) An obsession with rockets.
An acquaintance in the US has been denounced for racial insensitivity for asking whether a colleague was Jewish. (Funnily enough, I was asked this all the time when I visited New York in the 1990s. I had to explain that my curly hair originates in a country that’s the same size as Israel, and with slightly annoying neighbours, but it’s called Wales.)
Before you think ‘it is odd asking whether someone is Jewish’, let me provide the conversational context.
First party: ‘Can I leave a little early today, because it’s Passover?’
My acquaintance (who is Jewish herself): ‘Oh, are you Jewish?’
To anyone with the slightest grasp of idiom, this second question, except in a purely grammatical sense, isn’t a question at all.
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