When each day drearily unfolds exactly as the last day, unremittingly, never changing, the same lack of options, the self same lack of certainty of food, lack of warmth, lack of change of clothes, life is miserable. When you cannot afford to be with friends, or worse old friends shun you, because you are not able to keep up with their exploits, then life is deeply despondent. When you mooch around waiting for those endless minutes to pass, you see and watch from outside all those other people, people just like you but better off, able to have nice things to use, able to mix and buy stuff with or for each other, able to have friends and make plans together. Without it life is worthless, there is nothing to live for. For why? You never had their chances, maybe a stable home, progress to higher education, opportunity to prove you can do better the next person, someone to confirm that you are doing okay or any combination of some or all of the above if nothing more extreme.
The one missing ingredient above all else is, hope. With hope that makes tomorrow a possibility. Without hope life is not worth living. If life is not worth living any other options becomes attractive even addictive. To shoplift, steal, joyride or just wreck whatever. Gain some local pride or notoriety and join a gang to graffiti your presence in the world and intimidate those not of your group. Or surrender to terrorism, get swept up in a cult where you at last have recognition and cadre amongst your own kind. A chance to gain hope even though in a hopeless endgame!
Hope requires so little yet can surmount so much. A helping hand, even that is more than needed, just a chance to change some small aspect of tomorrow is a starting point. A point from when hope can at last flicker back into being and with care can be fanned into a strong desire. Yet we, all of us, that have, have to give so there can be hope. A sustainable hope that is not extinguished by the very next stumble. With hope we can save all those around us, living amongst, that have lost the will to live. We just need to get back to a fair and equitable life style where everyone of us can hope to succeed. Where success does not depend on your pocket, or your families wealth or connections but simply on your ability and willingness to try. Now that gives me hope
Showing posts with label caring society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label caring society. Show all posts
Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Monday, 6 April 2015
Being Accountable
Let me clarify. I do not believe in free enterprise. Our human desires and the consequences of achieving those desires requires to be tempered, we each have to exercise restraint. Or have restraint imposed on us. Neither do I believe in some centralised state control, equality for all. We are all too varied in our needs, access to resources and aspirations. No, what I been flogging over many of these blogs is the need to get back to belonging to a community. A caring community that is accountable and responsible to those that relate to it. A community that is meaningful and able to better the quality of life for each of us that belong to it. In this globalised world we exist within, this matrix society, we may belong to a duplicity of communities with varying degrees of weak to very strong bonds. Our membership maybe often be transitory but in key communities membership is non-cancellable, it is lifelong. Our life has to governed by the communities we bond with, with the obligations, responsibilities and expectations that their membership entails. You cannot be honourable and a freebooter. Holding your head up amongst your peers seems to be a core value requisite in each of us as members of a civilised society. Whichever way you frame it, membership has its price but also returns in kind.
Tythings I knew of as a word. I have just finished a book where, for the first time, I encountered an explanation where the full significance dawned. A tything was a medieval unit of ten households where the heads of house looked out for each other head of house and was held to account for any misdoings by anyone within that tything. Not just his own household but anyone properly tied to the group. A collective reprimand for any one individuals failings but also a caring supportive framework for each group member. An automatic support response, regardless of status, wealth or worthiness, just dependant on degree of need.
In arriving at a new definition of community, relevant to our century, we too could do with a tything concept. A core group we are responsible and accountable too. A group of peers bound by familiar circumstances and backgrounds. Able to relate, respond and reprimand as the occasion demands without judgement or censure. Membership where the group can achieve far beyond that of any one individual and can reach out and be significant in a much wider network of like minded groups. That is beginning to sound like a community structure where we can have a voice, a voice that counts, a voice that is tempered by consensus, a voice able to give as well as receive, a voice that can rebuked if too extreme. No room here for smug pleasure seeking self-satisfaction and gratification. Time to stand up and be counted.
Tythings I knew of as a word. I have just finished a book where, for the first time, I encountered an explanation where the full significance dawned. A tything was a medieval unit of ten households where the heads of house looked out for each other head of house and was held to account for any misdoings by anyone within that tything. Not just his own household but anyone properly tied to the group. A collective reprimand for any one individuals failings but also a caring supportive framework for each group member. An automatic support response, regardless of status, wealth or worthiness, just dependant on degree of need.
In arriving at a new definition of community, relevant to our century, we too could do with a tything concept. A core group we are responsible and accountable too. A group of peers bound by familiar circumstances and backgrounds. Able to relate, respond and reprimand as the occasion demands without judgement or censure. Membership where the group can achieve far beyond that of any one individual and can reach out and be significant in a much wider network of like minded groups. That is beginning to sound like a community structure where we can have a voice, a voice that counts, a voice that is tempered by consensus, a voice able to give as well as receive, a voice that can rebuked if too extreme. No room here for smug pleasure seeking self-satisfaction and gratification. Time to stand up and be counted.
Wednesday, 14 May 2014
When bullying is OK
We all agree it is clear cut, if you are told do what I say, do it now or else. If that else is a clear an unambiguous something far worse that is going make you endure emotional stress and or financial hard ship, you have unequivocally been subjected to bullying. Right? Wrong, not if it is carried out by the State. Now the State has to pursue ten of thousands of miscreants who are trying to evade the law of the land. It is only right and proper that they can stop these miscreant in their unlawful tracks swiftly and efficiently. We don't want to be wasting our time and resources on these repeat offenders. Swift efficient restitution and compliance with the law of the land is what we all want. Particularly if those miscreants are the unemployed. It has entered into our unquestioning social psyche, as our political leaders have told us often enough, all unemployed are shirkers, time waster only in it for easy money living off the State. It is therefore entirely reasonable that they should be subjected to coercion, real and implied threats and official harassment. Got to make them work irrespective. Entirely reasonable that they should be made to forego searching for a real job and be made, under duress, to commit to a job that offers nothing other than promises. Harassment from over-stretched officials, who have heard it all before so many, many times and in anycase have their own performance targets to meet else they too might receive an unfavourable report. Apply the department instructions to the letter, no deviation, no pause for thought, no scope for discretion, just the tick box, onto the next. Yours is not to reason why or to feel any compassion.
Not just the unemployed, naturally, anyone who has the misfortune to depend on the State can be a prime target for State bullying. These are the unwashed masses beneath contempt so it is perfectly alright. Brought up a family now living in a home too big for you, out on the streets or pay a rent increase way beyond your already stretched finances. Do not bleed broken here to us, the smug comfortable, about lack of alternate choice, having to move away from a work/family support network to a distant strange town or your pathetic special caring needs. Get over it. Greater needs must. The greater need is that untouchable Ministry, the Treasury, beyond any reason or argument. When they say 20% budget reduction. Jump to it, comply. When they say reduce welfare costs, cut, slash, importune what the hell it is only the unwashed masses that no one cares a fig about. When they say increase income, turf out lifelong sitting tenants so the now vacant property can be sold at a premium prices to ex-yuppies. Never mind that these same properties were bequeathed to the Nation for the Nation's custodianship of its cultural heritage. Nope, Treasury says raise money, compliance is the only acceptable response.
Just keep in mind that the Government's tactic for the past decade or more is it to defuse blame to some lower level quango's, pseudo government offices or other administrative functions whilst retaining the moral high ground of making decision for the good of the people. Look at us see what we have decided, then failing to make money available to properly implement that decision. Then they can look down at those diffused lower administrations, tut, and say what failure, how under resourced, making such bad judgements calls, a disgrace. It is called a Government WinWin. What ever results comes out of their short sighted policies, they are Teflon coated, nothing sticks on them!
Of course if manner by the Government conducts its affairs is right and proper for them, so it is also for those large conglomerates set up to provide us with essential services. They too have huge numbers of users all out to defraud them, they too need to use fast effective methods to maintain their income stream, irrespective of consequence. Good enough for the Government, good enough for them to. No doubt you will have received those peremptory notices warning you have breached some terms of supply, that requires immediate compliance within some short timescale else some variant threat of bailiffs to seize goods, your life essentials, or of a court appearance where there will be a fine added to any amount owing together with their court costs estimated at some ridiculous eye watering number. It is just state endorsed bullying, no matter what way you look at it. The usual expectations of fairness and justice are unilaterally set aside by a superior organisation who consider that they are above such niceties. The simple niceties such as no prior presumption of guilt, of a right to offer a defence against an alleged offence and an impartial body, representing those twelve decent men on Clapham Bus, to adjudicate an outcome when disputed and on the appropriate retribution, cash or kind. That is our birth right.
Next time a political leader stands before you pontificating on the horrors of child bullying demand they ensure that all legislation they endorse enshrines the principle of fairness to all with no bullying no matter what age, creed, race or social status.
Not just the unemployed, naturally, anyone who has the misfortune to depend on the State can be a prime target for State bullying. These are the unwashed masses beneath contempt so it is perfectly alright. Brought up a family now living in a home too big for you, out on the streets or pay a rent increase way beyond your already stretched finances. Do not bleed broken here to us, the smug comfortable, about lack of alternate choice, having to move away from a work/family support network to a distant strange town or your pathetic special caring needs. Get over it. Greater needs must. The greater need is that untouchable Ministry, the Treasury, beyond any reason or argument. When they say 20% budget reduction. Jump to it, comply. When they say reduce welfare costs, cut, slash, importune what the hell it is only the unwashed masses that no one cares a fig about. When they say increase income, turf out lifelong sitting tenants so the now vacant property can be sold at a premium prices to ex-yuppies. Never mind that these same properties were bequeathed to the Nation for the Nation's custodianship of its cultural heritage. Nope, Treasury says raise money, compliance is the only acceptable response.
Just keep in mind that the Government's tactic for the past decade or more is it to defuse blame to some lower level quango's, pseudo government offices or other administrative functions whilst retaining the moral high ground of making decision for the good of the people. Look at us see what we have decided, then failing to make money available to properly implement that decision. Then they can look down at those diffused lower administrations, tut, and say what failure, how under resourced, making such bad judgements calls, a disgrace. It is called a Government WinWin. What ever results comes out of their short sighted policies, they are Teflon coated, nothing sticks on them!
Of course if manner by the Government conducts its affairs is right and proper for them, so it is also for those large conglomerates set up to provide us with essential services. They too have huge numbers of users all out to defraud them, they too need to use fast effective methods to maintain their income stream, irrespective of consequence. Good enough for the Government, good enough for them to. No doubt you will have received those peremptory notices warning you have breached some terms of supply, that requires immediate compliance within some short timescale else some variant threat of bailiffs to seize goods, your life essentials, or of a court appearance where there will be a fine added to any amount owing together with their court costs estimated at some ridiculous eye watering number. It is just state endorsed bullying, no matter what way you look at it. The usual expectations of fairness and justice are unilaterally set aside by a superior organisation who consider that they are above such niceties. The simple niceties such as no prior presumption of guilt, of a right to offer a defence against an alleged offence and an impartial body, representing those twelve decent men on Clapham Bus, to adjudicate an outcome when disputed and on the appropriate retribution, cash or kind. That is our birth right.
Next time a political leader stands before you pontificating on the horrors of child bullying demand they ensure that all legislation they endorse enshrines the principle of fairness to all with no bullying no matter what age, creed, race or social status.
Thursday, 1 May 2014
All the World is a lie
Should I be the cause of a car accident I am required to lie and not admit to being the cause of the accident otherwise my car insurance will be repudiated. I know I caused the accident but cannot say so. The injured party/ies may protest and may clearly elucidate the sequence of events but I am not allowed to agree with them. Obviously I understand that in all the pent up emotions at that moment of an accident my perspective on the events may be distorted. Clearly unscrupulous 'victims' may seek to take advantage of that vulnerability and push events to demonstrate their 'innocence' to their insurance companies advantage. So yes there are grey areas and we need to be on guard against free admissions where there might be elements of doubt. But not to the point of requiring me to institutionally lie against the plain evidence. When the sequence of events, the facts of the case, are clear to all and witnesses, when does a no comment become a lie. It is a lie if you know the true cause but choose, or are required, not to admit it.
We see time after time, exemplary investigations into corporate failings of one ilk or another, be it meat not as described, irresponsible lending to clearly insolvent clients, to plain manufacturing defects or flawed materials or staff failing to provide the level of care required, and the institution at the centre, twist and turns, shifts focus, counter claims against another party, anything other than admit they failed to act in a timely fashion. In this litigious world we now live in any slight admission will be the staring pistol for a host of damage claims, real, exaggerated to the pure fanciful. All of which would have to be defended at considerable cost even should not guilty as charged be the final outcome. Any admission, no matter how slight, inflames the counter case, hinders the assembly of a not guilty argument. No wonder companies are loath to admit. The end result, the victims, those who suffered as a consequence of bad decision made by others, are left without restitution, with the stigma of blame left in their laps, unable to overcome the mountainous costs of initiating actions against well-heeled corporates. Corporates who can afford to weather the storm of claims, knowing few can succeed against them and that time with eventually erase any suspicion's, so long as they do not concede to any failings. Despite all the clear unambiguous contrary evidence. Dissemble, misdirect, be economical with the truth, even bare faced lie rather than agree to the truth. Company policy.
Our elected representatives, appointed to promote our well-being are now schooled in the craft of avoiding answering direct questions. Anything that might give rise to concerns, or might put in doubt past decisions, that may give an opponent a free scoring point, might upset an important voting or funding cadre, anything that does not have a positive upbeat outturn is to be side-stepped. Far better to answer your own question you are comfortable in answering than answer the actual question posed that might lead you into troubled waters. Of course the baying pack of hyena media is there snapping at your heels just waiting for that gaff. Any gaff, ill at ease posture or unfortunate turn of phrase, waiting to maximise and ridicule to their waiting audience. Never admit to any mistake, no matter how small as it will be turned into defacto incompetence of government, leadership, policy flaw, loss of voter confidence, anything that may help mud stick. When you speak as an MP the credulity of your party is on the line, so keep to safe issues which will have a favourable reception. Never mind what you actually think, did or did not do. Keeping voters loyal is far more important than esoteric concerns such as honesty or truth.
Our past choices make the Society we now live in. Nothing is immutable, we can change what we have chosen, we can choose to go in different directions from now on. Language is so clear, yet so fickle. The words I speak, or write, will resonate differently to each one of you. You will each form your own unique interpretation of my words. The words are the same, but being unique individuals with our past we bring our own different levels in meaning, experience and judgements to the self same words. What each of us does have to do is seek to choose those words which are as close to the truth, the essence, of what you want to say as you can. The more serious the subject area the more rigorous we have to be. We cannot afford the dashed off but instantly regretted Text or EMail. The recipients reaction to a careless choice of phrase cannot be brushed aside with an oophs, the damage can be lasting, tainting the relationship well into the future. We owe it to each other to be as truthful as we possibly can with each other. I don't buy the white lie, (see also my It is not important) the truth will out, eventually, meanwhile you live in a sham, concealing, obscuring your true thoughts, (see also News Propaganda). No one will ever know? Do you believe that you too are so inept at reading people that you could be fooled?
We live in a matrix society, having to deal with a wide range of peoples from all sort of alien, to us, backgrounds. If you can no longer trust anyone to speak the truth, to be honest, just how are you going to negotiate your way in this Society? Truth is the core trust that binds our Society together. Trust in the truth is what empowers us to make contracts with all those strangers we daily encounter. The next time you witness a Politician, a Company Executive evading giving a direct answer or you are required to agree to lie, pause and ask yourself, "Is this the Society I want to live in?"
Answer truthfully.
We see time after time, exemplary investigations into corporate failings of one ilk or another, be it meat not as described, irresponsible lending to clearly insolvent clients, to plain manufacturing defects or flawed materials or staff failing to provide the level of care required, and the institution at the centre, twist and turns, shifts focus, counter claims against another party, anything other than admit they failed to act in a timely fashion. In this litigious world we now live in any slight admission will be the staring pistol for a host of damage claims, real, exaggerated to the pure fanciful. All of which would have to be defended at considerable cost even should not guilty as charged be the final outcome. Any admission, no matter how slight, inflames the counter case, hinders the assembly of a not guilty argument. No wonder companies are loath to admit. The end result, the victims, those who suffered as a consequence of bad decision made by others, are left without restitution, with the stigma of blame left in their laps, unable to overcome the mountainous costs of initiating actions against well-heeled corporates. Corporates who can afford to weather the storm of claims, knowing few can succeed against them and that time with eventually erase any suspicion's, so long as they do not concede to any failings. Despite all the clear unambiguous contrary evidence. Dissemble, misdirect, be economical with the truth, even bare faced lie rather than agree to the truth. Company policy.
Our elected representatives, appointed to promote our well-being are now schooled in the craft of avoiding answering direct questions. Anything that might give rise to concerns, or might put in doubt past decisions, that may give an opponent a free scoring point, might upset an important voting or funding cadre, anything that does not have a positive upbeat outturn is to be side-stepped. Far better to answer your own question you are comfortable in answering than answer the actual question posed that might lead you into troubled waters. Of course the baying pack of hyena media is there snapping at your heels just waiting for that gaff. Any gaff, ill at ease posture or unfortunate turn of phrase, waiting to maximise and ridicule to their waiting audience. Never admit to any mistake, no matter how small as it will be turned into defacto incompetence of government, leadership, policy flaw, loss of voter confidence, anything that may help mud stick. When you speak as an MP the credulity of your party is on the line, so keep to safe issues which will have a favourable reception. Never mind what you actually think, did or did not do. Keeping voters loyal is far more important than esoteric concerns such as honesty or truth.
Our past choices make the Society we now live in. Nothing is immutable, we can change what we have chosen, we can choose to go in different directions from now on. Language is so clear, yet so fickle. The words I speak, or write, will resonate differently to each one of you. You will each form your own unique interpretation of my words. The words are the same, but being unique individuals with our past we bring our own different levels in meaning, experience and judgements to the self same words. What each of us does have to do is seek to choose those words which are as close to the truth, the essence, of what you want to say as you can. The more serious the subject area the more rigorous we have to be. We cannot afford the dashed off but instantly regretted Text or EMail. The recipients reaction to a careless choice of phrase cannot be brushed aside with an oophs, the damage can be lasting, tainting the relationship well into the future. We owe it to each other to be as truthful as we possibly can with each other. I don't buy the white lie, (see also my It is not important) the truth will out, eventually, meanwhile you live in a sham, concealing, obscuring your true thoughts, (see also News Propaganda). No one will ever know? Do you believe that you too are so inept at reading people that you could be fooled?
We live in a matrix society, having to deal with a wide range of peoples from all sort of alien, to us, backgrounds. If you can no longer trust anyone to speak the truth, to be honest, just how are you going to negotiate your way in this Society? Truth is the core trust that binds our Society together. Trust in the truth is what empowers us to make contracts with all those strangers we daily encounter. The next time you witness a Politician, a Company Executive evading giving a direct answer or you are required to agree to lie, pause and ask yourself, "Is this the Society I want to live in?"
Answer truthfully.
Monday, 12 August 2013
Drawing a line
Eddie Shah's plea of foul sounds hollow, just because he was caught doing what a lot of others were doing at the time does not absolve him for being responsible for his own action. He is right of course there is a distinction to be made between the actual act of violating another person against their wishes and a technical definition of a act against a minor.
An adult of course has an overiding duty and a responsibility to protect the innocence of youth, to understand their immaturity, their gush of unchannelled surging hormone and rising desires with their lack of perception of the realities against the fantasises in their so vivid minds. That is why we have the technical definition of rape with a minor, consummated or not, to protect our not yet adult and mature young. Fine.
If an innocent and naive pubescent youth decides to strip off their clothes and gyrate infront of a adult male to draw their attention to them and that that adult male decides to consumate their sexual arousal, it is not an unexpected consequence. Maybe the youth had no comprehension of what consequences might follow but they had put themselves in a very vulnerable and highly sexually charged position, not the best spot for cool dispassionate reflection. Still not right. The adult being the adult should control their desires even when provoked by a 'willing' minor clearly lacking in modesty or inhibition. Not right , not defensible but understandable perhaps in the circumstances.
What we, our society, has to ask are the harder questions. Why is a minor so free of all restaint or guardianship as to be alone with a unknown adult, so free as to be able to shed their clothes? How come our minors consumption of sexually provocative images and behaviours are so common place that they think it right or natural for them too to act that way? Why do our youth reject the counsel of older and closer family members and instead become fixated with illusions of celebrity razzmatazz. Why are our teens so resentful of authority and so willing to flout any self-control, getting so blinded out of their minds as to be incapable of making any judgement of their exposure to risk. We have a youth mentoring problem. This cult of the youth, this rapacious selling to the youth market, this capitulation to a youth driven agenda has supplanted the norms of restraint and caution.
So clearly Eddie Shah was wrong to take advantage of a minor, offering what a minor should never ever have been in a position to offer, but we too are to blame for allowing our minor's to get so beyond our reach that they feel no constraints on their actions. Our duty is to protect them in a safe enough environment until they have matured enough to make their own mistakes when they have some skills in realising the consequences. We, not just Eddie Shah, have failed them all.
An adult of course has an overiding duty and a responsibility to protect the innocence of youth, to understand their immaturity, their gush of unchannelled surging hormone and rising desires with their lack of perception of the realities against the fantasises in their so vivid minds. That is why we have the technical definition of rape with a minor, consummated or not, to protect our not yet adult and mature young. Fine.
If an innocent and naive pubescent youth decides to strip off their clothes and gyrate infront of a adult male to draw their attention to them and that that adult male decides to consumate their sexual arousal, it is not an unexpected consequence. Maybe the youth had no comprehension of what consequences might follow but they had put themselves in a very vulnerable and highly sexually charged position, not the best spot for cool dispassionate reflection. Still not right. The adult being the adult should control their desires even when provoked by a 'willing' minor clearly lacking in modesty or inhibition. Not right , not defensible but understandable perhaps in the circumstances.
What we, our society, has to ask are the harder questions. Why is a minor so free of all restaint or guardianship as to be alone with a unknown adult, so free as to be able to shed their clothes? How come our minors consumption of sexually provocative images and behaviours are so common place that they think it right or natural for them too to act that way? Why do our youth reject the counsel of older and closer family members and instead become fixated with illusions of celebrity razzmatazz. Why are our teens so resentful of authority and so willing to flout any self-control, getting so blinded out of their minds as to be incapable of making any judgement of their exposure to risk. We have a youth mentoring problem. This cult of the youth, this rapacious selling to the youth market, this capitulation to a youth driven agenda has supplanted the norms of restraint and caution.
So clearly Eddie Shah was wrong to take advantage of a minor, offering what a minor should never ever have been in a position to offer, but we too are to blame for allowing our minor's to get so beyond our reach that they feel no constraints on their actions. Our duty is to protect them in a safe enough environment until they have matured enough to make their own mistakes when they have some skills in realising the consequences. We, not just Eddie Shah, have failed them all.
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Entitlement
We all live with the presumption we are entitled to certain basics in life, be it shelter, food, education, employment, care, security, privacy or dignity. Should you live in a deprived part of our globe none of these can be taken for granted. That you are alive at this moment and might reasonably assume you will be alive for the next hour or perhaps the rest of the day is as far as you can presume anything. We however take our entitlements to the life we have for granted and are so casual to the point of indifference in seeking out and protecting what we have. After all it is our birthright.
We are entitled to nothing. Everything we do get comes only from the goodwill of society and that it is prepared to fund. It may well be in societies long term best interests to arrange everyone to have dry warm shelter, to have access to good nutritious food, to ensure children are educated. Without these basic steps the scale of consequential problems soar and scupper any societies attempts to hold the line. Does not turn it into a right, just a self-interest to do what is seen to be possible.
What is possible is all in the eye of the beholder, not the supplicants, not the egalitarian evangelist, not the pressure groups, just the one beholder who has the gift of deciding for that moment. Okay not entirely free choice as they too have to bow to media reactions, funding limitations, public opinion, world expectations and their own sense of destiny. How our basic needs are catered for come down to whim and fancy. A far cry from any right and not even an entitlement.
Of course our one core entitlement is our privacy, that is sacrosanct. To have your privacy invaded is equal to being raped. Yet the State takes on itself to enter you anally, take you without notice and lock you up without any contact with the outside world, read all electronic communications, now and in the past, irrespective of subject or address, store your gene record to be read for whatever purpose its see fit and all in the name of some ill-defined Security of the State. Not just the State of course but any number of other bodies, even private commercial firms, are too granted the right to enter your property, with or without your consent, to take information or property it deems necessary. Your right to privacy is pretty shallow based. Just dont show your head above the parapet! Remember these things do happen to just ordinary people, just like you and me, not those evil twisted people, just ordinary guys caught up in some maelstrom they little know about or understand.
Never mind an englishmans home is his castle, so pull up the drawbridge. Not quite. For example, the software you buy does not give you ownership, in many cases it just a licence to use with even restrictions on how you sell it on. Of course your music, video, DVD have restrictions on where or how you use it or make copies of it. Without touching on leases and ground rent, your house, the house that you own, may well have a charge on it. That charge might permit some other body to seize it and evict you from your own home. Extreme maybe but do not blithely assume just because you have bought something it is yours for ever and a day. It all depends on the sinuous threads of attachment other bodies have wrapped around your purchases.
We have no rights, we have no entitlements just many expectations, reasonable and wide spread expectations. The fundamental expectation that the you will be treated fairly and not significantly disadvantageously from any other person in your social milieu. Time for you to look around. In this rapidly increasing unequal society where those with take even more whilst those without, the least able to give anything, have to give up so they can have their more. Fairness and equity have gone out of the window. Your protectors of your rights, the MP's, have abandoned principle and sold out to personal betterment, financial clout or the mindless middle ground of dont rock the boat as we too might still climb aboard. Greed and self-interest abound. You are a drift at the mercy of whim and fancy without an entitlement to your name. Be afraid, be very afraid.
We are entitled to nothing. Everything we do get comes only from the goodwill of society and that it is prepared to fund. It may well be in societies long term best interests to arrange everyone to have dry warm shelter, to have access to good nutritious food, to ensure children are educated. Without these basic steps the scale of consequential problems soar and scupper any societies attempts to hold the line. Does not turn it into a right, just a self-interest to do what is seen to be possible.
What is possible is all in the eye of the beholder, not the supplicants, not the egalitarian evangelist, not the pressure groups, just the one beholder who has the gift of deciding for that moment. Okay not entirely free choice as they too have to bow to media reactions, funding limitations, public opinion, world expectations and their own sense of destiny. How our basic needs are catered for come down to whim and fancy. A far cry from any right and not even an entitlement.
Of course our one core entitlement is our privacy, that is sacrosanct. To have your privacy invaded is equal to being raped. Yet the State takes on itself to enter you anally, take you without notice and lock you up without any contact with the outside world, read all electronic communications, now and in the past, irrespective of subject or address, store your gene record to be read for whatever purpose its see fit and all in the name of some ill-defined Security of the State. Not just the State of course but any number of other bodies, even private commercial firms, are too granted the right to enter your property, with or without your consent, to take information or property it deems necessary. Your right to privacy is pretty shallow based. Just dont show your head above the parapet! Remember these things do happen to just ordinary people, just like you and me, not those evil twisted people, just ordinary guys caught up in some maelstrom they little know about or understand.
Never mind an englishmans home is his castle, so pull up the drawbridge. Not quite. For example, the software you buy does not give you ownership, in many cases it just a licence to use with even restrictions on how you sell it on. Of course your music, video, DVD have restrictions on where or how you use it or make copies of it. Without touching on leases and ground rent, your house, the house that you own, may well have a charge on it. That charge might permit some other body to seize it and evict you from your own home. Extreme maybe but do not blithely assume just because you have bought something it is yours for ever and a day. It all depends on the sinuous threads of attachment other bodies have wrapped around your purchases.
We have no rights, we have no entitlements just many expectations, reasonable and wide spread expectations. The fundamental expectation that the you will be treated fairly and not significantly disadvantageously from any other person in your social milieu. Time for you to look around. In this rapidly increasing unequal society where those with take even more whilst those without, the least able to give anything, have to give up so they can have their more. Fairness and equity have gone out of the window. Your protectors of your rights, the MP's, have abandoned principle and sold out to personal betterment, financial clout or the mindless middle ground of dont rock the boat as we too might still climb aboard. Greed and self-interest abound. You are a drift at the mercy of whim and fancy without an entitlement to your name. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
The other way
Standby for the long haul. For time to time I have lost heart. Those with power and or privilege have such a firm grasp on the Establishment as to rebuff all pressure to change. People power as evidenced by 38Degrees or Tweets that go viral have shone a light. Not by plaintive 38Degree appeals to the better nature to those in power, who have shown by their sanctimonious platitudes, to lack compassion. To be devoid of all empathy. No people power as demonstrated by the overwhelming strength in numbers.
When all the Establishment has left is the preservation of the status quo, the power redistribution is over, job done. If the masses and just as important, the income generated by those masses refuse to accede to demands of those who have subsumed power to themselves, finally power reverts to where it always has been, with the will of all the people. Not just a select, self-protecting clique minority but all of the people. Clearly the Establishment is going to fight, fight dirty and there will be causalities along the way. The Establishment will use wontedly against it own citizens every vestige of power it has accreted over the years, indefinite detention without charge, body orifice search, seizure of assets, denial of service, search and exploitation of a digital material, injunctions, you name it and they have given themselves the uncontested power to do as they choose to any person that courts their displeasure. All in the name of the security of our State, the State that belongs to us, not 'them' that have arranged amongst their cohorts to be in charge.
Logistically if enough people come to together and agree on a course of action there is nothing that can be done to stop them. The mass will always win out against the minority no matter what weapons the minority choose to fight with. In the end, sheer overpowering numbers, overpower. There is no other outcome. Until now mobilising sufficient mass to overcome the forces set against them has been the restraint, (think the miners strike). Now we can have instant mass action or reaction, dynamically fluid, ever moving orchestrated by mass appeal, not along designated channels. IT savvy, entrepenual and able to respond in kind to Establishment attempts to throttle the communication pipes.
Not banner waving protests either that accede and are subservient to the powers assumed. No, but by mass refusals to comply, refusals to accede to domination. Emphatic rebuttal of this or that directive issued by those seeking to exert power and control. Masses that refused to be demonised as fraudster, cheats or liars and stand their ground and claim recognition for what they are, loyal, hardworking, honourable and worthy citizens. The will of these people do not consent to what you have granted to yourself. Not just a negative reaction either but a rejection along with an alternate action that the people will support and put their will behind.
My hope is that the people will choose to move towards an egalitarian society. Where each looks out for the other and helps them to realise their potential for the great good of all. Where no one is left distressed or disadvantaged, each one helps the other. No elites, no protected tiers of ring fenced wealth, power and influence to buffer against the just claims of all those majorities without. My belief is in the common person. They would not tread down those below them just to get on the next ladder up. In the end, the people, just the people will decide. Now that really would be a welcome breath of fresh air.
When all the Establishment has left is the preservation of the status quo, the power redistribution is over, job done. If the masses and just as important, the income generated by those masses refuse to accede to demands of those who have subsumed power to themselves, finally power reverts to where it always has been, with the will of all the people. Not just a select, self-protecting clique minority but all of the people. Clearly the Establishment is going to fight, fight dirty and there will be causalities along the way. The Establishment will use wontedly against it own citizens every vestige of power it has accreted over the years, indefinite detention without charge, body orifice search, seizure of assets, denial of service, search and exploitation of a digital material, injunctions, you name it and they have given themselves the uncontested power to do as they choose to any person that courts their displeasure. All in the name of the security of our State, the State that belongs to us, not 'them' that have arranged amongst their cohorts to be in charge.
Logistically if enough people come to together and agree on a course of action there is nothing that can be done to stop them. The mass will always win out against the minority no matter what weapons the minority choose to fight with. In the end, sheer overpowering numbers, overpower. There is no other outcome. Until now mobilising sufficient mass to overcome the forces set against them has been the restraint, (think the miners strike). Now we can have instant mass action or reaction, dynamically fluid, ever moving orchestrated by mass appeal, not along designated channels. IT savvy, entrepenual and able to respond in kind to Establishment attempts to throttle the communication pipes.
Not banner waving protests either that accede and are subservient to the powers assumed. No, but by mass refusals to comply, refusals to accede to domination. Emphatic rebuttal of this or that directive issued by those seeking to exert power and control. Masses that refused to be demonised as fraudster, cheats or liars and stand their ground and claim recognition for what they are, loyal, hardworking, honourable and worthy citizens. The will of these people do not consent to what you have granted to yourself. Not just a negative reaction either but a rejection along with an alternate action that the people will support and put their will behind.
My hope is that the people will choose to move towards an egalitarian society. Where each looks out for the other and helps them to realise their potential for the great good of all. Where no one is left distressed or disadvantaged, each one helps the other. No elites, no protected tiers of ring fenced wealth, power and influence to buffer against the just claims of all those majorities without. My belief is in the common person. They would not tread down those below them just to get on the next ladder up. In the end, the people, just the people will decide. Now that really would be a welcome breath of fresh air.
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
There is more to life.
More than just a bit taken back to hear the President of USofA, Obama declare one of his three objectives for his new term, as the pursuit of happiness. How incredibly shallow, vapid, doomed to disillusionment and dissatisfaction. The ultimate chase for the end of the rainbow that can never be caught and is such a huge let down even if you were ever to get near to it. Despite contrary claims I am all for happiness, take grreat pleasure in it when it comes my way and would grant everyone, if it was in my power, a sprinkle here and there. But not outright hedonism as a way of life, the prime target to see you through life.
It may be my puritanical up bringing or just a reflection of my being so out of kilter with today's thinking but happiness was that incidental that came as the unexpected reward for so more worthy effort. Targeted happiness seldom delivers. You cannot make, organise, precondition that people will respond to any situation and experience happiness. How many miserable, or flat evenings have you endured after going out on the town with all the mates intent on a good time? No amount of booze, food, cheap thrills or provocation can elicit that happy high so sought after. Happiness is a state of mind that arises out of the feel good factor of those around you. That cannot be manufactured or scheduled to order.
The surest way to feel happy is to go beyond the normal routine and push and extend yourself for something worthwhile. From the simplest most mundane, just setting the parameters so your kid can feel safe, secure and enveloped in trust and affection. All the way to loftier ideals. Such as doing some little thing to alleviate the dejection and outright misery of so many peoples lives, to do your bit to maximise the benefits from our amazing technologies, to setting back a fraction this planets plunge into chaos, to striving to attain new heights of imagination or intuition or to offer a small insight into better tolerance or understanding. Whatever from the gamut of possibilities, as long as your aim and objective is to help others, not just to promote your own well-being. Happiness is one of the arisings out of trying to selflessly help others. Their enjoyment on what small relief you have brought engenders your happiness.
Turn your back on hedonism and make it your life mission to help out all those others less fortunate than you are. That is the only sure way to happiness.
It may be my puritanical up bringing or just a reflection of my being so out of kilter with today's thinking but happiness was that incidental that came as the unexpected reward for so more worthy effort. Targeted happiness seldom delivers. You cannot make, organise, precondition that people will respond to any situation and experience happiness. How many miserable, or flat evenings have you endured after going out on the town with all the mates intent on a good time? No amount of booze, food, cheap thrills or provocation can elicit that happy high so sought after. Happiness is a state of mind that arises out of the feel good factor of those around you. That cannot be manufactured or scheduled to order.
The surest way to feel happy is to go beyond the normal routine and push and extend yourself for something worthwhile. From the simplest most mundane, just setting the parameters so your kid can feel safe, secure and enveloped in trust and affection. All the way to loftier ideals. Such as doing some little thing to alleviate the dejection and outright misery of so many peoples lives, to do your bit to maximise the benefits from our amazing technologies, to setting back a fraction this planets plunge into chaos, to striving to attain new heights of imagination or intuition or to offer a small insight into better tolerance or understanding. Whatever from the gamut of possibilities, as long as your aim and objective is to help others, not just to promote your own well-being. Happiness is one of the arisings out of trying to selflessly help others. Their enjoyment on what small relief you have brought engenders your happiness.
Turn your back on hedonism and make it your life mission to help out all those others less fortunate than you are. That is the only sure way to happiness.
Friday, 8 June 2012
Know Yourself
My experience has been that employment agencies look only to find the best fit box to stuff you in that they can then promote to likely employers. Despite all the profiling and other gimmicky that they might surround themselves with, their primary objective is to find that best fit box with the highest turnover and the best commission and then move on as fast as possible. They are certainly not in the business of looking at you as a blank piece of paper to assess the skills and experience you have to offer. All too complicated and time consuming. The best fit box is a fast but dirty way of summing you up into readily recognisable sectors, be it sales, education, health or whatever.
Likewise with your employer, their primary goal is to get you productive and income generating as fast and cleanly as possible. They too are looking for nice neat boxes to put you in, best fitting your past with their operational needs. No niceties, a people person, a problem solver, a task finisher, find and stuff you into the best fit box and get you working fast. Fair enough they need to profit out of your labour. The box you are put into of course only reflects the opportunities and experience's you have been allowed in the past. They are in no way reflective of your actual skill or mind set or where your aptitude really lies, if only you were given the chance. No one has the time or even perhaps the judgement set to gauge how good you might be, but only what you have previously demonstrated. Those boxes you find yourself in you get to carry forward throughout your working life. The chance to breakfree and start with a clean slate, or that white piece of paper, just never comes. You carry your past baggage forward with you, not your choice, not your wish, not your aspiration, it just accumulates and becomes the measure yardstick for all your futures.
You of course know yourself extremely well. Right? Wrong! Imagine yourself in a totally white room, floor, walls, ceiling, no windows no doors, just white sound, white scent and white surrounds. Now who are you? Not your name, not your history, not your description. But who are you, that inner person? What we are, this inner person, is in response. In response to your surroundings, to the people you last had contact with, with the after tremors of the last physical experience. Your sub-concious and concious responses to these other stimuli are what drives your awareness of who you are. But it is more than this because we too bring baggage. We are not white pieces of paper with each fresh encounter. We bring the past along with us which shapes our reactions this time and moulds the future possibles. Worse still prior experiences limit our range of possible responses and the people we meet recognise and or have preconceptions of your reactions which limit the range of what you can or cannot do in response. We are limited by our past. Not immutable, subtly shifting and adapting, we evolve but within the constraints of what we were and did last time. Not fixed, you could wake up and start out with a clean white piece of paper, inventing a new personality for yourself. Except your physical baggage and all those people you associate with drag you back to what you were. Not you, the who you would like to be, within the constraints of your innate personality. The me that I can be and am, are but reflections of my past and peoples expectations of me.
It is a leap, a small leap, more of just a progression really. How the government views or has expectations of its citizens, directly influences how the citizen sees themselves, how they respond and react. Treated with disdain, suspicion, regarded as flawed, with limit capacity to think rationally or behave with a modicum of decency, they get citizens just like that but pushed to extremes. Regard your citizens with respect, expect the highest standards and they will rise to that confidence in them and often exceed expectations. The we, whether employer, individual or citizen just want recognition and encouragement to do better. Not much to ask is it.
Likewise with your employer, their primary goal is to get you productive and income generating as fast and cleanly as possible. They too are looking for nice neat boxes to put you in, best fitting your past with their operational needs. No niceties, a people person, a problem solver, a task finisher, find and stuff you into the best fit box and get you working fast. Fair enough they need to profit out of your labour. The box you are put into of course only reflects the opportunities and experience's you have been allowed in the past. They are in no way reflective of your actual skill or mind set or where your aptitude really lies, if only you were given the chance. No one has the time or even perhaps the judgement set to gauge how good you might be, but only what you have previously demonstrated. Those boxes you find yourself in you get to carry forward throughout your working life. The chance to breakfree and start with a clean slate, or that white piece of paper, just never comes. You carry your past baggage forward with you, not your choice, not your wish, not your aspiration, it just accumulates and becomes the measure yardstick for all your futures.
You of course know yourself extremely well. Right? Wrong! Imagine yourself in a totally white room, floor, walls, ceiling, no windows no doors, just white sound, white scent and white surrounds. Now who are you? Not your name, not your history, not your description. But who are you, that inner person? What we are, this inner person, is in response. In response to your surroundings, to the people you last had contact with, with the after tremors of the last physical experience. Your sub-concious and concious responses to these other stimuli are what drives your awareness of who you are. But it is more than this because we too bring baggage. We are not white pieces of paper with each fresh encounter. We bring the past along with us which shapes our reactions this time and moulds the future possibles. Worse still prior experiences limit our range of possible responses and the people we meet recognise and or have preconceptions of your reactions which limit the range of what you can or cannot do in response. We are limited by our past. Not immutable, subtly shifting and adapting, we evolve but within the constraints of what we were and did last time. Not fixed, you could wake up and start out with a clean white piece of paper, inventing a new personality for yourself. Except your physical baggage and all those people you associate with drag you back to what you were. Not you, the who you would like to be, within the constraints of your innate personality. The me that I can be and am, are but reflections of my past and peoples expectations of me.
It is a leap, a small leap, more of just a progression really. How the government views or has expectations of its citizens, directly influences how the citizen sees themselves, how they respond and react. Treated with disdain, suspicion, regarded as flawed, with limit capacity to think rationally or behave with a modicum of decency, they get citizens just like that but pushed to extremes. Regard your citizens with respect, expect the highest standards and they will rise to that confidence in them and often exceed expectations. The we, whether employer, individual or citizen just want recognition and encouragement to do better. Not much to ask is it.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Body for Sale
Jamie Oliver writing about his new series the Dream School and the pupils he wants to create opportunities for, referred to a willingness to graft. We all have to sell what we have. Some are lucky, born rich and all they have to do is sell their connection to a past wealth. Some are born intellectually endowed and they have a fertile mind to sell. Their challenge being to settle on which academic field best utilises their particular brain capabilities, juggling mathematical formula, dissecting or crafting tight sentences or creatively investigating and deducing from scant evidence. Others are just born with a well endowed body and have no qualms in selling that for as long as it lasts. We are all out to offer a unique selling point that makes our offer stand out from the crowd, to be irresistible to the employing, hiring, income generating select few.
Some have the gift of creativity to offer but the mass of us are short on such gifts. Perhaps we have a nurturing caring nature and can find a niche there. What Jamie said made sense. The most of us have no particular skill or gift but what we do have and can offer is the willingness to graft. To put in the hours of effort and determination, to learn from the tasks presented and thus makes ourselves indispensable and desirable to be employed. It takes all sorts to make this world go round, we cannot not all be at the top. The grinding mass of everyday work is just as, or as equally important, to keeping the wheels turning as some flash of inspiration.
We all need each other and are dependant on each other, so we all can succeed.
Some have the gift of creativity to offer but the mass of us are short on such gifts. Perhaps we have a nurturing caring nature and can find a niche there. What Jamie said made sense. The most of us have no particular skill or gift but what we do have and can offer is the willingness to graft. To put in the hours of effort and determination, to learn from the tasks presented and thus makes ourselves indispensable and desirable to be employed. It takes all sorts to make this world go round, we cannot not all be at the top. The grinding mass of everyday work is just as, or as equally important, to keeping the wheels turning as some flash of inspiration.
We all need each other and are dependant on each other, so we all can succeed.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Disposable crutches
In a caring society we help and look after those amongst us that get into difficulties and we support the weak that are unable to look after themselves. That's the minimum. Of course what we do not want to do is for these self same people to become dependant on us for ever more, and there is the rub. It is a fact of life that when offered a crutch we quickly adapt to it and become dependant on it and fearful if there is any suggestion they are going to be taken away. As a Nation we just cannot afford to provide comfortable reassuring crutches to who so ever needs them. But we do want to be caring.
There are no simple answers and several aspects to this particular conundrum. First we all have to accept that a utopia where everyone can have their expected three bedroom detached house in the countryside, yet close to family and friends, and free of pollution just is not attainable. As a bottom live we have to come to terms that as a constrained Nation, as we are, without a vibrant growing commerce or industry, we just cannot afford anything like that utopia as a minimum standard for all our citizens. A more realistic scenario has to prevail, shelter from the weather extremes, basic sanitation perhaps short of a personal bath or shower, basic cooking facilities perhaps no more than a microwave and a sink, a room where families can keep together again short of separate bedrooms and maybe having to share in communal living spaces. Grim compared to the vision of what we expect as our birth right but sufficient to keep us together, warm safe and hygienic.
The difficulty is in giving generous support for sufficient time to let a person or family in crisis recoup and recover yet not undermine the need for them to take stock of their new circumstance and find a path out of their difficulties for themselves. No reliance on those crutches so easily given. First off the support has to be immediate and untainted with labels of scroungers, cheats or fraudsters, so loved of government departments. Given but implicit of payback of any assistance given in cash or kind. We help you so you can help others is the deal. Given but with the support, encouragement and finally judge and jury of a mentor, to coax, advise, offer special training or group sessions, whatever to assist during that recovery period. A period that does have a finite future end date, but constantly adjusted and redefined according to the mentors assessment of the efforts being made.
Yes our citizens must stand on their own two feet, be confident and independent and not constantly nagged, bullied and harassed into submission by government policy. However that is true for those successfully finding their own way, when you have to ask for help, help is ring fenced and bring some loss of personal freedom and other compliance with others jurisdictions. So the mentor is an individual volunteer not some anonymous official concerned with throughput, formal procedural documentation and statistical targets. As individuals there will be great variety in the way mentors see their role and the support their people need. So mentors must be subject to monitoring and receive day to day updates in best practises and comparators from their local patch. I have greater faith in any citizen to see through a bleeding heart pitch than some official having the sense to understand the blatantly obvious. That is the safety net for me. On a one to one mentor to person in need basis, better targeted necessary help and an living overview of all the ups and downs progress made. Mentors making life or death judgements to scale down the help if recovery falters or is not happening, extend it if the prospects are bright or there is a temproary setback to be overcome and a slowing taper off after when recovery is in place to let the person/family recover before the claw back begins.
Not perfect, open to abuse, yes, but that person on top of the clapham common bus has a lot more nounce about try-ons, tales of woe and unfairness than all the official organisations put together.The stumbling block for all persons in crisis comes down to employment. If only they could get an appropriate job, there would be income to buy answers and their self-esteem would shoot up. Employers have a right to expect self-discipline and performance. Employees have aspirations to sustain a life-style, follow a particular skill or interest and to hang on until that cushy job everyone else has turns up for them. The employment market is rife with mismatched expectations. A mentor is better placed than any other organisation to best see and understand the opportunities and needs for those they are directly involved with. If there is no employment to be had, full stop, there are no options left. Then the bottom line is, if they do not, cannot help themselves out of the crisis then bit by bit their claims on 'normal' living standards are whittled away until they are left with just the bottom line. We as a society still need to care for them and we still need to help them as best as can with the utmost skill we can bring to bear. No person is beyond hope but it may be a long and costly road to retrain a broken life lived over many many years back into a useful citizen. That is our ultimate challenge as a society. To care enough to make it happen.
If there is no employment then this Nation is broken and there is no help available to anyone no matter how needy. I doubt this is or ever will be the case. More usually it is a matter of coming to terms with the adjustments necessary before that only job that is on offer is acceptable and is better than other options. But any job without hidden claw-back penalties where it is better to take state aid than to work, we have to move well away from that. Employers also have to face up to their social responsibilities too. Paying the minimum wage or less may get them cheap labour but that is only short term gain. They need to invest into people, not just as grunts to perform on command but really motivated to help the industry they are working in to grow and prosper, as a partnership, not some archaic lord and servant relationship. Ah well Nirvana come tomorrow.
There are no simple answers and several aspects to this particular conundrum. First we all have to accept that a utopia where everyone can have their expected three bedroom detached house in the countryside, yet close to family and friends, and free of pollution just is not attainable. As a bottom live we have to come to terms that as a constrained Nation, as we are, without a vibrant growing commerce or industry, we just cannot afford anything like that utopia as a minimum standard for all our citizens. A more realistic scenario has to prevail, shelter from the weather extremes, basic sanitation perhaps short of a personal bath or shower, basic cooking facilities perhaps no more than a microwave and a sink, a room where families can keep together again short of separate bedrooms and maybe having to share in communal living spaces. Grim compared to the vision of what we expect as our birth right but sufficient to keep us together, warm safe and hygienic.
The difficulty is in giving generous support for sufficient time to let a person or family in crisis recoup and recover yet not undermine the need for them to take stock of their new circumstance and find a path out of their difficulties for themselves. No reliance on those crutches so easily given. First off the support has to be immediate and untainted with labels of scroungers, cheats or fraudsters, so loved of government departments. Given but implicit of payback of any assistance given in cash or kind. We help you so you can help others is the deal. Given but with the support, encouragement and finally judge and jury of a mentor, to coax, advise, offer special training or group sessions, whatever to assist during that recovery period. A period that does have a finite future end date, but constantly adjusted and redefined according to the mentors assessment of the efforts being made.
Yes our citizens must stand on their own two feet, be confident and independent and not constantly nagged, bullied and harassed into submission by government policy. However that is true for those successfully finding their own way, when you have to ask for help, help is ring fenced and bring some loss of personal freedom and other compliance with others jurisdictions. So the mentor is an individual volunteer not some anonymous official concerned with throughput, formal procedural documentation and statistical targets. As individuals there will be great variety in the way mentors see their role and the support their people need. So mentors must be subject to monitoring and receive day to day updates in best practises and comparators from their local patch. I have greater faith in any citizen to see through a bleeding heart pitch than some official having the sense to understand the blatantly obvious. That is the safety net for me. On a one to one mentor to person in need basis, better targeted necessary help and an living overview of all the ups and downs progress made. Mentors making life or death judgements to scale down the help if recovery falters or is not happening, extend it if the prospects are bright or there is a temproary setback to be overcome and a slowing taper off after when recovery is in place to let the person/family recover before the claw back begins.
Not perfect, open to abuse, yes, but that person on top of the clapham common bus has a lot more nounce about try-ons, tales of woe and unfairness than all the official organisations put together.The stumbling block for all persons in crisis comes down to employment. If only they could get an appropriate job, there would be income to buy answers and their self-esteem would shoot up. Employers have a right to expect self-discipline and performance. Employees have aspirations to sustain a life-style, follow a particular skill or interest and to hang on until that cushy job everyone else has turns up for them. The employment market is rife with mismatched expectations. A mentor is better placed than any other organisation to best see and understand the opportunities and needs for those they are directly involved with. If there is no employment to be had, full stop, there are no options left. Then the bottom line is, if they do not, cannot help themselves out of the crisis then bit by bit their claims on 'normal' living standards are whittled away until they are left with just the bottom line. We as a society still need to care for them and we still need to help them as best as can with the utmost skill we can bring to bear. No person is beyond hope but it may be a long and costly road to retrain a broken life lived over many many years back into a useful citizen. That is our ultimate challenge as a society. To care enough to make it happen.
If there is no employment then this Nation is broken and there is no help available to anyone no matter how needy. I doubt this is or ever will be the case. More usually it is a matter of coming to terms with the adjustments necessary before that only job that is on offer is acceptable and is better than other options. But any job without hidden claw-back penalties where it is better to take state aid than to work, we have to move well away from that. Employers also have to face up to their social responsibilities too. Paying the minimum wage or less may get them cheap labour but that is only short term gain. They need to invest into people, not just as grunts to perform on command but really motivated to help the industry they are working in to grow and prosper, as a partnership, not some archaic lord and servant relationship. Ah well Nirvana come tomorrow.
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
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.
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.
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