The greener grass

Looking over the fence at the grass in the next field, it always has looked much more attractive and tastier than the grass in your own field. It was ever thus. A slight tinge of envy, even jealously, is an acceptable norm for how much better, enjoyable, less pressured, easier, more rewarding or more appreciated that boss, partner, home, housework, neighbour, colleagues life style is, compared to the drudgery, repetitiveness, pressured, under paid and definitely under appreciated of your own unique contributions. Until of course you cross the fence line only to discover that that other grass has it own special blend of demands, expectations, obligatory deadline that make your own patch, on reflection, so much more sweeter. Until we can parallel exist in multiple roles, all at the one and same time, we will never ever be in a position to fully appreciate the contra-demands and burdens of those seemingly so simple alternative roles.

So tolerance, understanding and a tight rein on the envy and jealousy are the order of the day. When it all flares up, then calm talking will sort it out, or, as a last resort, you make the determined effort to cross in to the next field. You have choices, sort out disagreements or refuse to accept and put in the extra effort to take on the coveted position for yourself. So long as the disparities are not too extreme and there is some chance, no matter how remote, that you or your child's child could cross the divide. When that becomes vanishing thin to totally improbable, then the bile of resentment diffuses. At the point when comparisons between your lot and the others lot become so extreme that manifestly, they, the other, is getting totally disproportionate return for clearly very dissimilar demands; when words can no longer bridge the gap between discrepancies and the obstacles to move across become insurmountable, then resentment is the order of the day, with dire consequences for us all.

For the last two decades the gap between the haves and the have-nots have become polarised to an extreme degree and worse still, the fence has become hugely un-scalable. Resentment abounds. In a manifestly unjust world there are no longer restraints. There is nothing to lose, so take what you want, when and how. Any consequence cannot not be worse than your face pushed up against blatant unjust inequality. Who can hold on to dreams when the odds are so stacked against you?

Those licking from the cream self-justify whichever way they choose as to why they should be special, why they should stand apart from those masses. There are no arguments which can overcome the divisive society that results from their self-centred greed and interest. If only you could bring up the drawbridge, create a ring fenced communities with only nice successfully people, like you, keeping all the unpleasant masses with their smelly poverty and problems out, there, at arm stretched length.

Society is not like, them that do the work and us that lap the cream. You need, we all need, each other. Need to coexist together, interdependent. It just cannot work when the divide becomes so extreme. How can anyone rationalise why this persons gets the cream and sets their children into the cream pot to start off their own lives but all those other persons gets all the pain, the grief, the unrelenting toil and the hopeless inability to escape the escalating debts with children doomed to follow and never lift a hope. Everyone needs luck, rightly so, our children should be in a position to benefit from the luck we have exploited. It just degrees. Playing from a clean deck. Not two disparate packs, one for the losers with no get out of jail cards and the other stacked with only court cards, chances and opportunities.

We are on a self-destruct path. The ever widening gap is immoral, beyond justification. Yet the keys to all our futures are only in the hands of these few enjoying the benefits. These same who show no desire to have any conscious let alone give up on their good life. Resentment boils. We have to get back to looking across to grass fields with a surmountable fence.