Janus: Roman God of transition and New Beginnings.
On the UK mainland, we’re trying to navigate our way through some difficult waters right now and I sense a great appetite for our politicians to be seen and heard to be doing and saying stuff. There’s a quality issue here and they need to think about what it is they are doing and saying before they say and do it. I’m not hopeful as already an increasingly positional interpretation of the causes of and cures for our current distress emerges. We need somehow to move away from telling people that they have no “moral compass” and do something about setting one.
A couple of posts ago I wrote about Roosevelt’s intention ,at the end of World War 2 to introduce a second Bill of Rights. He died before he had an opportunity to adequately develop his ideas. I’ve cut and pasted them below: the italicised comments are mine and in writing them, I wonder if there’s something here that needs to be referred to by our leaders, Political. religious, economic and community in order to establish where it is we should focus our energies.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
With which comes the responsibility to get yourself there, to learn the trade and engage with others, to develop and improve.
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The understanding of the toxic impact of easy credit and the worth of work as the major means to secure affordable advancement
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
Okay, I take the point about farmers, but there is something in the metaphor: no matter how much the farmer wants a day off, or a holiday; whether it’s a religious festival or a Bank Holiday, the cows still need milking.
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
Because if we don’t do this, we will continue to lose our industries, entrepreneurship and aspirations and reap the cost of helplessness
The right of every family to a decent home;
In an area Policed by consensus, clear standards of civic behaviour at an affordable price. A secure, warm and safe space to live, love and thrive
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
Being poor makes you ill and causes you to die early having experienced a reduced quality of life. The safety net of the NHS and preventative interventions has to at the very least, underpin the above.
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
We have to set out to make “life worth living” for all of our Citizens and to be brave in talking about the way we need to shape our futures
The right to a good education.
And the participation in the dividend of a good education, to enjoy the increased access to better options and life choices.
Some time ago, I used to work for an inspirational leader-Sir Tim Brighouse, at the time I knew him a “Tim”. He was Chief Education Officer in Birmingham-a huge workforce and, when back in 1999 my Dad died, I received a handwritten note from Tim: something of an indication of the qualities of a very busy man who never lost sight of the importance of people.
Tim once told me about a conversation between him and his opposite number in Chicago a conversation in which Tim discovered the following educational story, one with a powerful and easily understood image and particular value at present.
“Society”, it was stated was once held aloft on Four Pillars, they were; Work, Family, Religion and Education. The story goes that we have witnessed one assault after another on the first three. Work, as understood by previous generations has collapsed, taking with it the paternal employer, the power of apprenticeship as a learning tool and the powerful values of worth and association.
Family has re-defined itself, fractured, dispersed and sometimes just busy, the role of family and its capacity to support its members has come under the severest of pressure, leaving one of our greater resources struggling to adjust and adapt in an increasingly challenging world.
Attendance at formal worship has, for many “dropped off the radar” Religion, and the role of the Church beyond worship is seldom seen as a significant contributor to debate and discussion about how to improve. It is I suggest, seen by some as part of the problem rather than the solution. Yet in its absence, where do we locate our moral compass?
Three of the four pillars have been significantly undermined, the fourth one, Education is often expected to fill the gaps created by the other three and is vilified when it fails, is perceived to have done so or becomes a convenient scapegoat of those who lack the courage to reflect on their own behaviour, preferring to further assail the very process they have sought to undermine.
Big Society needs to be built on something of a little more substance that aspirational heat and noise. It is, I feel about examining our individual capacity and commitment to rethinking our own understandings, limitations and prejudices and committing ourselves to shifting our beliefs about the way things can be done without abandoning our commitment to improving the lot of the ill, lonely, poor and excluded. Small minds can not make big impacts, they do nonetheless have the seemingly limitless potential to stand in the way of those who are determined to drive through changes and improvements to the benefit of us all.
We all have choices, sometimes not just about what we do but about what we shouldn’t do and in doing so ask ourselves if the cost to our sometimes over-inflated ego is worth the benefit to those we purport to help.
