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Question...
Nov. 4th, 2007 09:52 pmWhat am I doing? What are you doing?
Do you ever get the feeling that you have something to say and no one to say it to..?
I have spent the last few hours feeling frustrated, lost and dis-satisfied, and it's not the first time. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but does anyone else feel like the world is getting closer and closer to a tipping point that it needs to find and yet it's moving too slowly for any of "us" to feel comfortable? Why is it that we still live in a world with unequal pay for the same work across the gender divide? Why is it that we still live in a world where a young woman can be beaten to death for being a Goth1? Why is it that we live in a world where a politician can almost always only admit that they are gay __after__ they get elected - I mean I know that that one is getting better, but let's be honest not all that much better? Why do we still live in a world where any single man who is playing with a child is a paedophile rather than just a nice person, playing with his friends' child?
Isn't it time that there was a voice for those of us that feel that this world could be so much better if we could all get on board with the idea that basically we all bleed red and that the world is big enough for Muslim and Christian and Jew and Bhuddist and Aetheist and Pagan2 alike? Big enough for White and Black and Asian and every other race? Big enough for Straight and Gay? Big enough for every kind of person that you can imagine, whether majority or minority? Am I sounding like enough of a bleeding heart yet? Could I be more of a Pinky LIberal? Well you know I am trying to work out when Liberal became a bad thing, and more importantly I am trying to work out when Liberal began to mean only the sentiment I outline above. I am finally coming to the conclusion that Liberal, Conservative, Socialist do not really have a bearing on the above sentiment, or that they should not anyway. Politics __is__ social, by its very nature and I'm not naive enough to think that Social Politics can be extricated from Politics at large, or from the iron grasp of many diverse groups who seem bent on using it to shore-up their various power-bases of "followers", but... Look what I'm saying is that I think that there is a large, mostly silent demographic in this country (and frankly in other countries as well), that has a Liberal outlook with regard to Social Issues (I mean that they want to live and let live and don't understand why we can't as a race), and they wouldn't find it hard to reach common ground on Economic Policies, but they don't speak because they feel disenfranchised by a political landscape that seems to be populated by Parties that have almost all of the same poilicies and nothing to say about the solution to wider social issues that need radical solutions rather than more pointless but "easy-sell", band-aid solutions, so beloved of our status-quo comfortable, short-termist politicians.
Come on, we can all deal with the maths - fixing poverty, healthcare, education, transportation needs three things; higher taxes for the people who earn the most, free __and__ fair international trade, and most importantly a simple conceit; making the world a better place for everyone through a mixture of free markets and state-sponsored social justice makes a better world for everyone, rather than what we laughingly refer to as our better world that is actually making less than 1/100th of one percent of the world's population richer and more powerful. How do we do that? We put forward a radical political agenda for real and universal education. I don't just mean raising international rates of numeracy and literacy, I mean start here at home and spiral outward across the world with a message of education being about more than test-scores and exam results; make education the expression of the true meaning of the word. Let us make education about opening the minds of young people, let's get them the opportunity to see beyond the prejudices of their families and neighbourhoods - and yes I am referring to entrenched, white, upper-middle class neighbourhoods and families as much as poor, lower-class neighbourhoods and families. I can't put it better that Aaron Sorkin, as much as I wish that I could:
"Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet."3
I do not mean to be simplistic, but look around you; education has brought you to an understanding that acceptance, tolerance and respect for others is not only better for humanity, but provides the potential for an environment in which we can all get a fair slice of the pie. Sure market economies will mean that some will still get a larger slice, but the gap between have and have-not, while remaining potentially as large, can begin to be narrowed and we can give the space back to the people at the bottom of the pile so that they can afford to feed their kids properly, properly enjoy their leisure time and plan for their futures, and not by handing out endless financial aid, but by giving everyone the opportunity to realise that there may be more for them to win than the dead-end that they may see before them today.
I have no idea how to begin. You are (yeah, you guys, my friends) the brightest people that I know. Is there any way that we can stop being commentators long enough to actually __do__ something? I know that some of you are active within existing Political Parties, I wish that I could be, but I am not represented by any of them that I know of, and more and more I am unwilling to accept any of them as nearly good enough, or the lesser of several disappointments. I respect anyone who is working within the existing framework out of genuine conviction, but if it's just because you're accepting a close fit, don't you have a duty to look for alternatives - don't we all?
I don't think that a single blog post (or in fact two as I will be putting this on my other blog) can change a thing - there are jouranlists struggling to find larger more pliable audiences for similar sentiments and gaining no traction, so showing my colours to 100+ people who one might consider to be "the choir" is not a meaningful first step - the truth is that I do not know how take that first step.
I'm asking for your thoughts, for your help, for just the glimmer from some of you that you might believe I'm serious. I'm certain that I need to be doing something about all of this, even if achieving escape velocity from the gravity well of political torpor in the UK is all I ever achieve, let alone live to see real change. This country needs a real political debate, not a political jousting match over who has the best idea for taxation, who will protect "Family Values" and all that meaningless trivia. Forget the country, this world needs it and someone has to light a fire somewhere. Never before in human history have so many voices had the tools to make themselves heard and yet remain silent in the hearing of their peers, let alone their fellow citizens. Let us all speak. Let us all debate and formulate and think and then tell others. There is so much that I have not covered, about Climate Change, War, Human Traffic, Religious Extremism, Terrorism, Hate Crime, Corporate Indifference to anything but the bottom line instead of understanding that social responsibility preserves the bottom line for all time instead of just the next financial quarter. I had to start somewhere, and this is (I hope) a start, not a voice in the darkness.
Come on LJ - let's talk.
1. Sophie Lancaster
2. I know it's an in-exact term, I don't like it either, but language lives and most people will understand what I mean, so there it is...
3. The West Wing - Series 1, Episode 18 - "Six Meetings Before Lunch"
Do you ever get the feeling that you have something to say and no one to say it to..?
I have spent the last few hours feeling frustrated, lost and dis-satisfied, and it's not the first time. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but does anyone else feel like the world is getting closer and closer to a tipping point that it needs to find and yet it's moving too slowly for any of "us" to feel comfortable? Why is it that we still live in a world with unequal pay for the same work across the gender divide? Why is it that we still live in a world where a young woman can be beaten to death for being a Goth1? Why is it that we live in a world where a politician can almost always only admit that they are gay __after__ they get elected - I mean I know that that one is getting better, but let's be honest not all that much better? Why do we still live in a world where any single man who is playing with a child is a paedophile rather than just a nice person, playing with his friends' child?
Isn't it time that there was a voice for those of us that feel that this world could be so much better if we could all get on board with the idea that basically we all bleed red and that the world is big enough for Muslim and Christian and Jew and Bhuddist and Aetheist and Pagan2 alike? Big enough for White and Black and Asian and every other race? Big enough for Straight and Gay? Big enough for every kind of person that you can imagine, whether majority or minority? Am I sounding like enough of a bleeding heart yet? Could I be more of a Pinky LIberal? Well you know I am trying to work out when Liberal became a bad thing, and more importantly I am trying to work out when Liberal began to mean only the sentiment I outline above. I am finally coming to the conclusion that Liberal, Conservative, Socialist do not really have a bearing on the above sentiment, or that they should not anyway. Politics __is__ social, by its very nature and I'm not naive enough to think that Social Politics can be extricated from Politics at large, or from the iron grasp of many diverse groups who seem bent on using it to shore-up their various power-bases of "followers", but... Look what I'm saying is that I think that there is a large, mostly silent demographic in this country (and frankly in other countries as well), that has a Liberal outlook with regard to Social Issues (I mean that they want to live and let live and don't understand why we can't as a race), and they wouldn't find it hard to reach common ground on Economic Policies, but they don't speak because they feel disenfranchised by a political landscape that seems to be populated by Parties that have almost all of the same poilicies and nothing to say about the solution to wider social issues that need radical solutions rather than more pointless but "easy-sell", band-aid solutions, so beloved of our status-quo comfortable, short-termist politicians.
Come on, we can all deal with the maths - fixing poverty, healthcare, education, transportation needs three things; higher taxes for the people who earn the most, free __and__ fair international trade, and most importantly a simple conceit; making the world a better place for everyone through a mixture of free markets and state-sponsored social justice makes a better world for everyone, rather than what we laughingly refer to as our better world that is actually making less than 1/100th of one percent of the world's population richer and more powerful. How do we do that? We put forward a radical political agenda for real and universal education. I don't just mean raising international rates of numeracy and literacy, I mean start here at home and spiral outward across the world with a message of education being about more than test-scores and exam results; make education the expression of the true meaning of the word. Let us make education about opening the minds of young people, let's get them the opportunity to see beyond the prejudices of their families and neighbourhoods - and yes I am referring to entrenched, white, upper-middle class neighbourhoods and families as much as poor, lower-class neighbourhoods and families. I can't put it better that Aaron Sorkin, as much as I wish that I could:
"Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet."3
I do not mean to be simplistic, but look around you; education has brought you to an understanding that acceptance, tolerance and respect for others is not only better for humanity, but provides the potential for an environment in which we can all get a fair slice of the pie. Sure market economies will mean that some will still get a larger slice, but the gap between have and have-not, while remaining potentially as large, can begin to be narrowed and we can give the space back to the people at the bottom of the pile so that they can afford to feed their kids properly, properly enjoy their leisure time and plan for their futures, and not by handing out endless financial aid, but by giving everyone the opportunity to realise that there may be more for them to win than the dead-end that they may see before them today.
I have no idea how to begin. You are (yeah, you guys, my friends) the brightest people that I know. Is there any way that we can stop being commentators long enough to actually __do__ something? I know that some of you are active within existing Political Parties, I wish that I could be, but I am not represented by any of them that I know of, and more and more I am unwilling to accept any of them as nearly good enough, or the lesser of several disappointments. I respect anyone who is working within the existing framework out of genuine conviction, but if it's just because you're accepting a close fit, don't you have a duty to look for alternatives - don't we all?
I don't think that a single blog post (or in fact two as I will be putting this on my other blog) can change a thing - there are jouranlists struggling to find larger more pliable audiences for similar sentiments and gaining no traction, so showing my colours to 100+ people who one might consider to be "the choir" is not a meaningful first step - the truth is that I do not know how take that first step.
I'm asking for your thoughts, for your help, for just the glimmer from some of you that you might believe I'm serious. I'm certain that I need to be doing something about all of this, even if achieving escape velocity from the gravity well of political torpor in the UK is all I ever achieve, let alone live to see real change. This country needs a real political debate, not a political jousting match over who has the best idea for taxation, who will protect "Family Values" and all that meaningless trivia. Forget the country, this world needs it and someone has to light a fire somewhere. Never before in human history have so many voices had the tools to make themselves heard and yet remain silent in the hearing of their peers, let alone their fellow citizens. Let us all speak. Let us all debate and formulate and think and then tell others. There is so much that I have not covered, about Climate Change, War, Human Traffic, Religious Extremism, Terrorism, Hate Crime, Corporate Indifference to anything but the bottom line instead of understanding that social responsibility preserves the bottom line for all time instead of just the next financial quarter. I had to start somewhere, and this is (I hope) a start, not a voice in the darkness.
Come on LJ - let's talk.
1. Sophie Lancaster
2. I know it's an in-exact term, I don't like it either, but language lives and most people will understand what I mean, so there it is...
3. The West Wing - Series 1, Episode 18 - "Six Meetings Before Lunch"
