On April 10 I received a message from the local NHS surgery that I was expected to see my doctor on May 2; the e-mail did not say, what the consultation was to be about, and so I expected it to be a health check-up; during the covid pandemic doctors treated their patients only by phone, and so I hoped this was beginning to change.
When I came to the surgery, expecting to have my blood
pressure checked. I was about to take my shirt off, when the doctor said:
‘People are worried about your mental health, would you see a psychiatrist?’
I replied: ‘Doctor, it is not the first time that my
activities are to be dismissed with reference to a Psychiatrist. The same
happened more than 40 years ago, when I was at Oxford.’
The doctor did not want to hear anything about Oxford: ‘It
is all about your blocked toilet.’
The doctor apparently viewed ‘my blocked toilet’ as my sick
imagination. But what was sick indeed was the criminal blockage of my toilet in
response to my protests at Balliol with my LET US DISCUSS PLATO. How could the doctor possibly
begin to see that I might be right?
I had to try and explain to him the gist of my controversy
with Classicists and Classical Philosophers. ‘The main problem lies in our different
approach to Greek language. When I read Greek, I do not translate it into Czech
or English or German or Russian, I understand it in Greek, without translating
it. Classicists all around the world must translate Ancient Greek into English
or French or Russian, or whatever their native language may be. For quite a
time they believed that I am fibbing, that understanding Ancient Greek without
translation cannot be done.
Now, since translating Ancient Greek is a very laborious
process, present-day classicists don’t do it anymore. All important Ancient
Greek text have been translated not once, not twice, but several times by real
experts, in the days when boys and girls in their Public schools were devoted
to learning Ancient Greek from their tender age, and all through to their days in
Oxford and Cambridge universities.’
My doctor is an intelligent man; he got the importance of
the different approach to Ancient Greek between me and the academic classicists.
Still, at the end of my explanation he said: ‘Well, if you have any more
problems with the blockage of your toilet, just tell me.’ To this I replied: ‘I
can assure you that it will not happen ever again.’ ‘How can you be so sure?’
he asked.
And so I told him about my protests at Balliol College at
Oxford University with my LET US DISCUSS PLATO. Instead of trying to say, out of
memory, what I told the doctor, let me quote what I wrote on my blog under the
title ‘Punishment’:
“My protest at Balliol – LET US
DISCUSS PLATO – took place on March 21, as intended. First year students of
philosophy wanted to hear what I had to say on Plato. The students were
genuinely interested; I enjoyed every minute of our discussion. But then a lady
came – a Balliol teacher? – she came to tell us that a Balliol officer insists
that we must stop. I protested: ‘As you can see, I am protesting. Protest is
not supposed to be welcome by those, against whom the protest is directed.’ But
the lady insisted, we stopped.
Obviously, I had to be punished:
My toilet has been blocked.
Not for the first time. It
happened here times before, each time clearly connected to Balliol; a clear
warning: ‘Don’t you dare to go to Balliol with your LET US DISCUSS PLATO.’
When it happened the first time,
I reported the crime to the local police Headquarters. When I came home, the
toilet was unblocked. Of course I was left with cleaning the toilet, but I was
confident that it would not happen again. I was wrong.
Next, I informed the Oxford
classicists at the Department of Classics of my protest to come. I sent them the
information emails, went to the toilet; it was blocked again.
Next day I went to the Stroud
Police Headquarters. I reported the crime; when I came home, I found my toilet
unblocked.
Yesterday, i.e. a day after my
LET US DISCUSS PLATO protest, my toilet was blocked again. I phoned 101, the
Gloucestershire Constabulary. As far as I know, police work on Saturdays. It’s
Sunday March 24, 2024; my toilet remains blocked.’
This is the text as it stands in
my blog under the title ’Punishment’.”
Clearly, even the
Gloucestershire Constabulary was compelled to disregard my report of the crime.
I had to go to the very core of the problem. The manageress advertised a new
meeting concerning complaints. There were only three of us; apart from me and
the lady manager there was an old lady who just listened attentively to the
discussion.
I told the lady manager: ‘My
toilet has been criminally blocked. It could have been done only from a place
below my flat, and below my flat is only your office. If my toilet does not get
unblocked before Monday, I shall go to Oxford, and stay at the Backpackers until
my toilet gets unblocked.’
When I returned to my flat,
which is just one floor below the lounge in which the meeting took place, I went
to the bath. My toilet was unblocked, and I can assure you, it will not be blocked
ever again.’
Let me end with a reflection,
which, as far as I can remember, I did not tell the doctor.
Clearly, the lady manager was not the only person involved in the blockages of my toilet. She was still upstairs in the lounge when my toilet was being unblocked. It was blocked when I went to the meeting, I checked.
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