Friday 11 September 2015

Thoughts on Compassion and Politics


It struck me recently that when times get tough, people grow harder. Following the recession, the UK has shifted to the right and it's now considered OK to talk about foreigners as a swarm, whereas ten years ago this kind of talk would have sounded vaguely 'Third Reich.' It seems that it took the picture of a small child washed up on the beach to reawaken a bit of humanity in the world's fifth most prosperous nation. In the nineties politicians talked about 'education, education, education.' Now all we hear from them is 'immigration, immigration, immigration!'

When the proverbial brown stuff hit the fan, people were angry at bankers for being so reckless and greedy. They were also angry at politicians for wasting our public money on duck houses and moat-cleaning. In short, there was an opportunity for a return to the less selfish values of the fifties and sixties post-war dream. What happened instead was those at the top and their tabloid messengers found a handy scapegoat for all this public anger. Most were willing to have their ire channelled in the direction of, er, The Channel.

Firstly, let's face it, who sold the weapons to myriad dictators and volatile groups in the first place? Is it any surprise that when weapons are used for their intended purpose that people tend to flee to wherever they might think is safe? It's a testimony to this country that we are viewed as tolerant enough for people to want to come here.

Then there's the economic argument. People say we are bursting at the seams and that the country can't take any more. Then in the same breath we hear about a pensions crisis, where the baby boom generation are reaching old age with an insufficient workforce to support them in their time of dotage. Now what exactly is the truth?

It sometimes seems to me that the country goes in thirty year cycles. The nineties seemed like a rerun of the sixties with a more social ethos prevalent. UK workers were cushioned by a minimum wage for the first time for a start. However, wind on twenty years from the sixties and we get... the eighties – pure undiluted capitalism in all its pomp. In short, you are here.

This made me think about my place in the world. After all I was brought up with the values of the pre-eighties era, and this can make it pretty hard to succeed in the post-eighties era. Just how hard-nosed do you really have to be? It's often been said that psychopathic traits are more common in the boardroom than in an average cross-section of the population. Thus, it will be much easier for somebody who's been brought up with the notion that 'there is nothing wrong in taking somebody else's slice of the pie if they are weaker' to adapt to life in the modern world.

But politicians can't all be corrupt, self serving individuals, can they?

I would say 'no,' but I think what happens is a scaled up version of what I have observed locally for many years.

A number of villagers disgruntled by the decisions being made by their 'representatives,' decided to join 'the board' as I shall call it. I heard phrases like, “I'm a little bit stronger than you and will stand up to them without being forced off.” It appeared to me that these no doubt well-meaning folk eventually became part of the establishment, defending the kind of decisions that they had once despised when standing at the bar of the local pub.

It would seem that every organisation has an unwritten code concerning how one is supposed to act. Locally I observed that quaintness and protecting people's property prices seemed to trump providing employment and retaining public services virtually every time. I wondered if those who had joined the board at the time felt that this was expected of them and that it was simply part of what they were there to do.

The status quo at Westminster seems to be to keep the elite happy and the public content with as little as possible. This way the rich don't have to start paying taxes or anything depressing like that. There clearly won't be any scaling back of all that arms distribution any time soon either. Consequently, we will continue to see desperate people heading our way and plenty of traditional Daily Mail and Sun headlines for years to come.