Pulling Together

When a concern hits the Nation I have been surprised how, from across a very wide spectrum, all the people you talk to, from the extremes to rock solid traditionalist, there is a centralised opinion which conforms on the right response. Very pragmatic, largely conservative with a knuckle down and deal with it approach. Across the Nation we are more united in our responses to affairs that trouble us than you would think from the presentations showing our divided Nation. Within that broad spectrum of agreement on the direction needed as a response there are of course huge and passionate differences on how that response might be best implemented. That is were our diversity shows itself but that then is a healthy arena for debate, compromise and reaching consensus.

So long as there is a pause button. In highly charged situations say where a girl has been assaulted we do need a check to the Nations emotive response of tying the culprit to the whipping post. We need time for passions to cool and logic, reason and doubt to surface. Just maybe the culprit was a boy of same age and they had just finished playing a computer game, or the girl was a self harmer and it brought her pleasure, or a parent slapped her shin once for excessive outburst and the girl was given to drama, or a schizophrenic patient missed medication and found themselves in a wrong place and time or just that act of a middle aged immigrant known sexual repeat offender. We need time to pause and review before jumping in with solutions, no matter how overwhelmingly right they seem at the time in the heat of the moment.

So not a fast-response Nation, slow but not therefore ponderous, more measured. Neither uniform across our lands. Let us not reach a one size fits all solution but rather rejoice in all our regional differences, those nuances that lie between city, town and rural communities. Far better for a wide range of permutations on a theme than one lumbering insensitive road-roller of a solution. Variety brings the opportunity for novelty, freshness that new take that might just provide the right approach. Of course it also brings mistakes, erroneous conclusions, inept or inapt, which is where we need to talk. Tell each other what we are doing, compare and contrast with others, learn which ways work best, where and how. Together we can work towards ideal solutions for all of us, modified and adjusted to suit our local needs and limitations. We can work together, not under the weight of top heavy centralised bureau's of control and regulation, but collaboratively and confidently finding our own solutions whilst listening and learning from others in similar circumstance. Now that is what I call Politics.

Not Alone

Just one of those chance things in life, came across The Spirit Level and it has revealed an insight into society that I have been struggling with over all these posts.It has introduced a clarity of view as to where the problems lie. Not for me to paraphrase a carefully constructed argument, see for yourselves, but clearly the message it sets out is that the underlying root of all those problem we sense, fume against, feel impotent to do anything about, is, social inequality.

A couple of key thoughts perhaps to get you thinking along the right lines. We have long ago passed the point where any increase in wealth (you decide how you want to determine it) equates to a commensurate increase in security and health. Think, by way of comparison, of a third world person where a tin of clean water or a bowl of rice has immediate and large impact on their state of well-being. Next, our own personal insecurities are directly related to where we feel we are within the social order. Top dog struts proudly, whipping boy nervously peeks here there to see where the next put down is coming from. This social insecurity has been heightened by the breakdown in communities and knowing where and who you belong to. Then, the wider the gap between the haves and the havenots the more extreme are the symptoms that manifest themselves. It is almost counter intuitive, but low self-esteem, as a result of being low down in the pecking order, directly impacts on your personal well-being, likelihood to abuse, commit crime, the list goes on. Not the sole cause, not the only reason, but social deprivation, real or imagined, is a major driver.

At this point, poised to shout eureka, there are other minds out there all looking in roughly the same direction, I get a reality check. On past performance it takes fifty years from the first wave of enthusiasm for a new political understanding to work through up the layers of conservative rebuttal until it becomes the accepted norm when finally it can enter into the mainstream to become universally accepted and adopted. Fifty years!

What we all have to do is to use our own mastery of this new interconnected world to get the word out there. Spread as widely as possible. Take what you see and like and promulgate, contruct your own vision or borrow another's, it matters not. Just spread the word that we, us as a society, want a better place, a more equal place, a place where we are treated with the same respect we wish to give to others. It is just possible, together, we can foreshorten the fifty wait before something happens.

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.

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.

What it is worth

We should be daily on guard against our instinctive presumption that what we asked to pay for something equates in anyway to what it is worth. By the time the seller has added on his profit, made allowance for stocking space and expected rate of turnover, the distributor has taken off his slice for double handling, storage waiting for and then transporting, and, assuming there are no middlemen taking a slice before handing on, the prime producer has to cover the advertising, product packaging, verification of standards met, recoup his product design, plant rightoff and premises, insurance against adverse events, stocking levels only then do we get to the nitty gritty, the payroll to produce and the purchase and stocking of the raw materials;finally we get close to the 'value' of the product.

We expect an intimate relationship between what we pay for something and it what it costs in terms of labour and raw materials, yet what is costs actually is ethereal. A figure derived from gut or more probably prior experience of what degree of ancillary costs can be born by the expected market, and still sell and still make a profit. It has a lot closer relationship to the vagaries of house selling, what does the market bear or expect for this size house in this location. Pricing is not hard wired to actual costs but is pitched at market expectations and precedences. 

This divorce from the actual cost of things is not just about the products we buy, but as I have explored previously in Government Savings, it is also true of the cost of how we choose to manage and administer ourselves. The 'cost' of government is not a balance sheet figure derived from what it takes to run or administer a set of procedures but reflects a historic norm. This is what has been relied on in the past to produce this end result and that with these adjustments this what it costs us now.

We got here for a sliding progression of perfectly reasonable and at the time right and fully justifiable choices. Right here and now being required to pay what others expect is their due and entitlement just does not seem right. Clearly we cannot go back to barter. Can you imagine the furore at the Supermarket as we all came in with our trade goods to exchange for our weekly shop. Equally we just cannot make and keep contact with the worldwide spread of sources and suppliers to individually barter an exchange for all those everyday items we now so desperately depend. Yet we have to get back to making some connection to what it actually costs, for something, as against what the marketplace thiks it can get away with.

I take heart from EBay. There is a model here, the dutch auction, products are offered at an optimum price then, depending on stock levels, degrees of demand and closeness to spoiling date, the price decreases until the consumers decides that it is worth it. Services might operate in an inverse way, with the rate for the service increasing until some provider snaps it up. Quality is the bug bear, we know only too well how the supermarkets dumb down the specification until it is a pale shadow of its former, introductory, self. With the growth of consumer feedback and instant consumer vitriol when things are wrong, maybe there is is this growing tool that will keep suppliers and providers sharp on their toes. Maybe, just maybe they can claim back from the domineering supermarkets, accountability for the what they provide. That would be the dawn of a new age.

Man the Stockade

Walking down the High Street that person talking loudly for all to hear into their mobile is speaking eastern european. The people standing in the middle of the pavement deep in some detailed account, oblivious to the inconvenience they cause to all passer bys, are talking in eastern european. The accents of all those people you encounter in public places, behind tills, behind bars, serving food or drinks or cleaning rooms, are all heavy european accents struggling for a minimal command of our language. It might be the 'Ford Factor', buy one and then every other car you see is also a Ford. Or just maybe we are drowning in a flood of immigrants. Alarmed? Resentful? Far from it, it is just yet another invasion of economic or political refugees coming here in the hope of a life and bettering themselves. A long trail going back into the mists of distant times, Turkish, West Indian, Ugandan, Chinese, Pakistani, Jewish, German /Swiss, Huguenots and so on.

We need these workers willing to fill all those lowly menial jobs which are beneath our contempt or so badly paid as to jeopardise the state handouts. We need them to do those jobs, and to do them better, as we will not deign to stoop to undertake them. Giving them a chance to make a new start give us in return those creature comforts we cherish. Their ardour to overcome whatever circumstances forced them to leave the comfort of home, the familiar, friends and family places brings them to us. Where once here they can maximise those opportunities we can offer but are ourselves blasé and blind to. We need them just as much as they need us.

If we choose not to welcome them into our open arms and go out of our way to help them to see and understand this strange new society they have landed in, who can we blame if they congregate for comfort and mutual support? To seek comfort, support and security amongst those that are familiar with your native tongue and background is natural. By congregating in enclaves they become prime targets for cultural resentment at best or abuse at worse. On a level playing-field the following now British born generation would assimilate into their born-in culture, and, driven on by their parents struggles, will seize vigorously the opportunities our society offers to make entrepreneurial leaps. We win win. New blood, stronger gene lines and the excitement of new ideas or slants on old ideas.

We have to rediscover tolerance and keeping our eye on the long game. No matter how irritating their flouting of our traditional reserve and public good manners we must realise they are strangers to our ways and need time to learn. To keep the playing-field level we must push back against over zealous PC correctness that wants to ensure an ethnic and cultural past for children born in this our country. Also resist vehemently all attempts at racial discrimination, stereotyping and racial intolerance. The key word is assimilation.The sooner they meld into our culture, adopt our ways and begin to vehemently defend our corner the stronger and more resilient we are as a nation and the closer we can grow as communities. Absorb not reject.

Freedom of the Press

It is so childish when the rich and the famous complain about the intrusion of the press and the need to restrain their freedom to poke and delve. On the one hand these self same people are more than happy to expose their private life to the glare of publicity and the wider public attention when they have a product they choose to flaunt. Then, having incited the general public's appetite in their doings, cry foul when the public with their whipped up interest, want even more gossip about their private doings, when they have decided they no longer want to be a public and now choose to live off camera.

There is one fundamental truth behind all this, a plain, dull, uneventful life does not generate any news worthy of any interest. Only those who claim privilege, advantage and special treatment find themselves compromised by their inflated sense of importance. As such prime candidates for debunking and taking down a notch. The last thing we need is a shackled press with restrictions on when, where and how they can seek out the truth. The famous and rich are powerful with access to to all manner of means to bar, ban or conceal uncomfortable truths. It would also be exceedingly convenient for the government if they too could call on the same restrictions to prevent the airing of news that might be embarassing to them. A free press is our only hope of lifting that armoured curtain and exposing the flagrant abusers. So an absolute no to legal statutes which restrict the press and favour concealment by the rich and famous.

Which is not to endorse an unrestained press free to rampage over all sensitivities, able to traumatise at will people  already going through tragic circumstances. There can be no justification in the hounding survivors of some dreadful tragedy, just to get a column inch of newspaper or a photo opportunity. What it comes down to is, if you find the means of getting a 'story' distasteful, lacks respect and consideration for people who rightly deserve our heart felt smypathy, then cancel your subscription, standing order or diret debit and refuse to buy copy from those who show a consistent disgrade for decent standards. We get the press we deserve and that we support by continuing to buy their shameful exploitations. 

As a last resort of course the rich and the famous can take the press to court if they publish false information or invade their privacy. Then twelve respectable men, or their surrogates, will decide on the merits of the case and hopefully award punitive damages if found to be true. This is the best route to curb press excesses. Granted not a route for the common person but where the rich can take the strain the rest can follow.


Except of course it is not a level playingfield as it has been heavily scewed by the press Barons. The papers are now run by amoral proprietors, formerly Maxwell and now Murdock, where circulation, at any price, is the mantra. Circulation equates to increased share standing. The Papers are now just a route to ever greater gilt edge status leading to ever more powerful and gargantuan media conglomerates. What price truth, compassion, integrity or even principles when the proprietor insists on circulation at any price? Which underling is able to stand ground and gainsay? See also Living the Make Believe for getting people back incharge of running companies and restoring proper social values. Without this, the usual corporate greed of profit first results in a disregard for the normal human decencies being the norm and being ingrained in the corporate psyche. Just remember that if you do not like that which is being done with your complicit approval then say so loud and clear. Refute your association with it and tell the world.