A Broken Society

We can make exceptions for the occasional neglected old person, we might even make excuses for the odd child that is battered or starved to death. For me the bottom line is reached when a disabled dependant child dies in the following two weeks for lack of want or care after the death of their elderly carer. Surely the one thing we can all agree on is that we are a caring society. As such we are all concerned for and want to look after those vulnerable people amongst us at jeopardy.

There is a burgeoning bureaucracy with many well paid managers defending their ever increasing budgets so their front staff are out there looking after and protecting the weak and vulnerable. There are a plethora of agencies all looking after various specialist sub-groups of people in need and their particular problems. We in turn all give up many civil rights and liberties to enable these other organisations to sweep up those at risk, make arrangements for their well-being or put them in a place of safety. So how come we are falling down at such a fundamental level?

Sure all manner of excuses can be paraded; irascible, uncooperative, fiercely independent, not on my watch list, another department's concern, refuses all offers of help. It really doesn't matter what excuses are being thrown up because that is not the point. The point is very simple. In a decent civilised society a disabled child is not left to die on their own for two weeks without help.

For me it yet a further nail in the coffin of centralised top down government. As you will have gathered from other posts at this site it is over time for us to redefine how our society operates. We need to reclaim back our society and put ours selves central in the arrangement and management of the functions we need to survive and, most importantly, take back responsibility for how others are affected by our actions. Human relationships are too complex and varied to be delegated, least of all to a bureaucracy which by definition has to be detached, objective and remote. We all have to interact directly in the process, as we from time to time, interface with events and then use our own skills to achieve consent and ensure what needs to be done is done. This would included knowing about, caring for and directly supporting as necessary at risk people within our community.

It is not idealistic, just a rebuttal of centralised top down control.