Why You Should Listen If You Want To Be Heard

On the differences and the surprising similarities between David Brent and Nietzsche.

A man, at the end of the day and perhaps – as he so plainly fears – at the end of his own day, is sprawled on his back across a hotel bed. This is not the relaxed recline of rest but the collapse of exhaustion. A half-empty tumbler of cheap whiskey threatens to tip from his lazy grasp. His eyes are half shut, which expresses the burden of unrest that weighs on his mind and his body. As he speaks to the camera – we see him through our television screens – the dead-serious subject and miserable tone of his lament are at odds with the ridiculousness of this man.

This is, after all, a person we have watched perpetuate stereotypes with the racism of the well-intentioned (he has described “mixed race” people as “his favourite kind”), attempt to inspire others with self-serving, ego-propping speeches about his own questionable skills, and accidentally give an employee a black eye while showing off with a football (“You headbutt a girl on telly,” he complains, “and you’re labelled a prat”). Th…