Pistis reclaims and wonders...: July 2022

Thursday 28 July 2022

Pistis reclaims pay and re-balanced sheets

‽istis reclaims pay and re-balanced sheets (weekending July 30^th 2022)

·        rail strikes continued[i]
·        the possibility of a general strike is mooted[ii]
·        the right to strike is debated[iii] whilst the Government seems to be considering further legislation to curb the possibility of industrial action
·        42% of people receiving Universal Credit were in employment[iv]
·        in May ‘annual pay growth stalled at 4%...' leaving most workers with a rise in earnings worth less than half the 9% increase in prices’[v]
·        ‘British Gas owner Centrica has seen its profits increase by five-fold… The company’s operating profits in the six months to the end of June came to £1.34billion amid a rampant rise in the cost of living.’ – and - ‘Meanwhile Shell has reported record profits of £9.4billion, having doubled them in a single year.’[vi]

So, with customary naïvety ‽istis wonders about the balance between the pay, remuneration, bonus and financial ‘packages’ of the owners of the means of production, the shareholders and senior staff at the top of the food chain (sorry, managerial hierarchy) - v – the wage packets of those who are the producers of goods and servicers of the means of production, who are the direct providers of services.

What if there were no need to balance or re-balance the books because pay scales and structures recognised the systemic co-dependence of all roles in an organisation from boardroom to factory floor, from CEO and CFO to catering staff, cleaners and security personnel, from those who make the goods and deliver the services to those who manage operations to those who manage strategy? If all are vital, then just how can vast pay differentials be justified?

‽istis wonders whether a little thought experiment might highlight an even more radical approach to thinking about value and who might be paid what in an organisation, and the relative grades and layers below:

Try asking: ‘if ‘x’ did not turn up today / if this role were not performed today or even right now – how quickly would the functioning, the very viability, the actual day-to-day business of a business or organisation, a school, a hospital, a police station, a shop, a factory, a fulfilment centre, the Houses of Parliament, be affected?

Imagine doors locked, filthy toilets, empty canteens and cafeterias; un-emptied bedpans and un-made beds in hospitals and residential homes, un-nursed patients, uncleaned wards and operating theatres; un-taught and supported children and young people; tech equipment failing, phones and emergency contact lines unanswered; letters and emails and contracts and orders untyped, unsent, unprocessed; deliveries not made; ambulances not driven, vehicles not maintained, trains not driven, rail lines not mended, baggage-unhandled, planes grounded; hotel laundry and pots and pans and cutlery unwashed; cones not put out on the nation’s roads, power and communication lines failing, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc…

And perhaps the wage-salary-pay-grade-and-other-benefits-and-total-emoluments tables might be turned‽ Possibly the last shall be first‽ Maybe the workers will be united…‽ And then, from the daydream, ‽istis (picking up from last week’s theme) woke up!

PS: thinking about practical strategies that could perhaps, possibly maybe 'level up' - especially for those who believe in 'low taxes, small state and personal responsibility' - how about no bonuses and no share dividend while any employee is also having to claim benefits‽

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...

[i] https://news.sky.com/story/rail-strikes-disruptions-for-travellers-with-only-one-in-five-trains-likely-to-run-12659779

[ii] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/27/train-drivers-vote-for-fresh-strikes-as-disruptions-hit-britains-rail-network

[iii] https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2022/07/when-we-have-no-choice-but-to-strike/

[iv][iv] The number of people on Universal Credit in employment has remained at around 2.3 million since 10 December 2020. The employment rate has increased for all people on Universal Credit to 42% on 9 December 2021 from 39% on 10 December 2020 as the total number of people on Universal Credit has decreased. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-statistics-29-april-2013-to-13-january-2022/universal-credit-statistics-29-april-2013-to-13-january-2022#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20people%20on%20Universal%20Credit%20in%20employment%20has,on%20Universal%20Credit%20has%20decreased.

[v] https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jun/21/average-uk-pay-rises-inflation-rate-living-costs

[vi] https://metro.co.uk/2022/07/28/british-gas-owners-profits-increase-five-fold-while-energy-bills-soar-17082094/

Friday 22 July 2022

Pistis ponders being awake (weekending July 23rd 2022)

‽istis ponders: being awake (weekending July 23^rd 2022)

In a week when one of the voted-out-aspiring-Tory-party-leaders seems to consider another still-in-aspiring-Tory-party-leader as ‘too woke’ to be Prime Minister [i] (though the actual response to what may be a leading question uses words perhaps chosen with double caution by a lawyer-politician) and lauds another still-in-aspiring-Tory-party-leader as someone who ‘knows what a woman is…er… I think, which is becoming worryingly rare these days in political debate…’

In a week when ‘Quidditch’ is re-defined as ‘Quadball’…[ii]

In a week when the Church of England/General Synod is described as: ‘a body where the rule of woke seems to be prevailing rather than the enduring Word of God.’…[iii]

…‽istis has pondered woke-ness, wokery, being ‘woke’ – whether self-defined or defined by others...

So, in no particular order (as streams of consciousness are perhaps prone sometimes to appear) this week’s pre-occupying ponderings and wonderings have included:

‽ being old enough to remember a hey-day of ‘political correctness’ and headlines concerning ‘men at work’ and man-hole covers[iv]; blackboards or chalkboards or greenboards or whiteboards; which nursery rhymes might be banned from the nation’s nurseries – all perhaps distracting through hyperbole, or possibly design, from debates about: exclusion; minoritizing; oppression; inequality; inequity; power and powerlessness; voice and representation; space, safety, vacuums and their filling; constructs (personal, cultural, social and political, ideological and probably others too) and their formation, maintenance and perpetuation - and what they may support or give foundation to…[v]

‽ being old enough to think that certain struggles were actually over - only to be disappointed, shocked and dismayed

‽ early ideas-forming reading: Marx, Engels, Booth, Freire, Gutiérrez, Orwell, Morrison, Greer, Said and others… and their critics…

‽ thinking about and reflecting on experiences and awareness relating to positionality, power or bias (conscious, sub-conscious, unconscious)

‽ attending ‘anti-racism training’, ‘racism awareness training’, ‘anti-oppressive practice training’ and other iterations since

‽ discussing the possible implications of oppressions being or not being in hierarchies

‽ considering the relative generation of heat – v - light and why there seems to be such apparent strongly-held views and beliefs, such entrenched positions, such fear and hatred

‽ rights, responsibilities, duties and powers – complementary, equal or competing

‽ the power of words, terms and different forms of definition[vi]: self, legal, commonly-held, ‘common-sense’, shared, contested, new, changing – and how any sort of consensus can possibly be built, forged or evolve

‽ the possible limitations of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions and of ‘soundbites’

‽ whether agreeing to disagree is a reasonable position

‽ when is challenge acceptable and when might tolerance be intolerable; what place compromise and at whose possible expense

‽ what might be the limits of, and to, free speech and a potential process of ‘cancelling’, approval, permission given or denied

‽ diversity and difference: a matter of fear and abuse - or celebration and pride, for whom and why

‽ the common ratio of ears to mouth, and the related balance between listening and speaking

‽ that very contrasting positions can be held with seeming equal sincerity, are heartfelt, may be rooted in deeply painful discriminatory experiences or joyous celebratory ones, may link to and resonate with the very existential core of who and what any ‘I’ is, or thinks or feels to ‘be’ and thus behave and live

‽ what would it take for there to be safety and safe spaces for everyone; what would it take for assault and rape and abuse, to whomsoever and by whomsoever, to be prosecuted successfully; what would it take for everyone to compete and for competition to be conducted (literally in some cases) on a level playing-field (if competition and losses and victories, maybe imposterous-both[vii], are what we really want to continue to participate in and watch, promote and fund)

‽ what place ‘objectivity’ or the place of research, evidence[viii] and expertise including expertise from experience

‽ what might be any potential dynamic and relationship between thoughts, feelings and actions[ix]

‽ what is ‘hate speech’, what is a hate crime

‽ whether prejudice plus power always means discrimination

‽ acknowledging fear and pain and trauma from whatever its source and for whoever experiences it, and that this might even provide a place of shared understanding and dialogue

‽ the place of, and for: respect, empathy, kindness, understanding and compassion

…and perhaps echoes of several themes to be found in many of ‽istis’ ponderings and wonderings resonate…

So, after all this wondering and pondering (seeking to somehow tread lightly across what for many can seem to be a current triggering minefield), an abiding hope remains: that surely we might imagine and find principles and processes whereby these seemingly so difficult, often divisive and very, very pain-full issues can be discussed, leading to:

· real world, ‘for now’, dynamic conclusions and agreements that could form the practical basis for current (but to-be-reviewed) policy, legislation and related structures and systemic, organisational and institutional arrangements;

· positive ways forward together for community, social and personal relations;

· intentions and actions that might have at their heart the wish to achieve the ‘most best’ (again, a recurring notion over recent weeks) for as many as possible

‽istis, however, continues to be convinced that for progress to be made and for ‘next steps’ to be successful, they may need to:

· acknowledge past injustices;

· be reparative and restorative;

· re-balance acquired/taken/given/held/exercised/imposed power;

· acknowledge again and again the strength of feeling and depth of pain caused to individuals, groups and communities and take their fears, hopes, 'problem'-analysis and proposed solutions seriously

· be set in a rights framework;

· embrace the most optimistic expression of the ‘golden rule’ (see previous blogs);

· be founded in kindness, compassion and an appreciation of the seemingly miraculous and fragile nature of our common being and co-existence, here, now and together…

And, if this has left you dozing; well, perhaps, possibly, maybe there might be enough time and energy to wonder what being awake might mean‽

[i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S7Wsdg__9I (respectively 7’47” and 3’24-30” into the interview on Times Radio 17.7.2022)

[ii] References include: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/20/us/quidditch-name-change-quadball-cec/index.html - though considerations of transgender rights and trademark ownership may conflate in complex ways here?

[iii] https://anglican.ink/2021/07/22/rule-of-woke-replaces-gods-word-as-churchs-authority/ and an article by the unequivocally-though-maybe-typo-named Julian Mann (comment made for gratuitous and perhaps dubious pun-based comedic purposes only; with apologies!)

[iv] …with euphemisms potentially abounding

[v] References include:

· https://reason.com/2021/12/13/the-second-great-age-of-political-correctness/

· https://lithub.com/generation-grievance-how-the-political-correctness-myth-was-born/

· Sally Kohn in The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-revealing-roots-of-political-correctness/415812/ which includes this statement: ‘Political correctness is a good thing—the idea that we should treat our fellow human beings with equal respect, despite their race or gender or sexual orientation, and the idea that we might all learn and get better at doing so because of feedback and changing norms.’

[vi] Including whether ‘political correctness’, being ‘woke’ and conscientization are the same, similar or different, or a bit of each…

[vii] Imposterous… is this a word and would Rudyard Kipling (see the poem ‘If’) approve of its use?

[viii] ..and this quotation attributed (though not apparently referenced) to Arthur Conan Doyle popped up o social media as I was typing: “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgement.”

[ix] A bit of a recurring theme across some of the blogs

Thursday 14 July 2022

Pistis ponders threes (weekending July 16th 2022)

‽istis ponders: threes (weekending July 16th 2022)

This week ‽istis has pondered: Just. Three. Things.

Firstly, words, memorable phrases, soundbites, advice, motivation, instructions, pledges, hopes, branding…

· Low tax. Small state. Personal responsibility (and an outside candidate articulates a political position and an old message[i], perhaps cutting a route to the heart of a party and a swathe through the early rounds of voting that may lead to no. 10 Downing Street?)

· Hands. Face. Space (and the spread of the virus is slowed?)

· Stay Alert. Control the Virus. Save Lives (and the virus is managed?)

· Catch it. Bin It. Kill It (and other germs lose their power?)

· See it. Say it. Sorted (and terrorist threats are neutralised?)

· Get Brexit Done (and a rosy future is assured?)

· Education, Education, Education (and a Prime Minister is remembered for positive things?)

· Count your blessings (and gratitude is dwelt on, oftentimes despite?)

· I’m loving it (and fast food sells faster?)

· Ban the Bomb (and a nation is safe?, well at least a festival is held?)

· Just Do It (and behavioural changes occur irrespective of feelings and thoughts?)

· Seize The Day (and the ordinary is extraordinaried and opportunities grasped?)

· You’ve Got This (and confidence is imbued?)

· Every Little Helps (and supermarket share is gained even as the cost of living and the symbolic ‘basket of goods’[ii] soars?)

· No Planet B (and an existential catastrophe is avoided?)

· Not in my name (and the rule of three is stretched a bit!)

And many more…[iii]

The ‘rule of three’ seems to be something of a phenomenon – it ‘suggests that when things come in threes, they are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. There is brevity and rhythm to three while also representing the beginning of a pattern.’[iv]

Three core concepts in early childhood development[v] seem to help us understand important ideas about those vital years; our vital years and their potential legacy:

· Experiences build brain architecture

· Serve and return interaction shapes brain circuitry

· Toxic stress derails healthy development

‘Three points’ seem to provide the template for many a talk or religious sermon[vi]: beginning, middle, end; ‘tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you’ve told them;’[vii] – and there’s a hope that what you’ve said can be remembered!

‘What Three Words’ seeks to pinpoint any 'where' across the globe precisely to within 3metres[viii] and amazingly, it seems to define and name everywhere in English (oh, how world-beating we must be, until the internet went down and the portal to our 3m x 3m atomised world is lost?!) e.g: ///shrugging.limbs.apprehend; ///sands.popping.interest; ///secretly.records.profiled; ///slurs.this.shark (nominative determinism, anyone)…

Then ‽istis wondered whether asking people to describe ‘things’ (people, places, situations, experiences, emotions, etc.) in three words or phrases might give some quick insight into their perception – not necessarily telling a full rich and layered picture – but providing a hint, perhaps.

Maybe try it (cautiously perhaps) with family and friends?

“If I were to ask you to try to sum up what you think about ‘X’ in three words or short phrases, what would you say?” where ‘X’ equals the following, or anything else that you might care to ponder…

· Boris Johnson…

· The conflict in Ukraine…

· The current weather…

· Your job…

· Our relationship (caution definitely advised as honesty may follow)…

· Your ambitions and hopes…

· What might constitute a well-spent life…

And finally ‽istis considers that a personal three-point motto or mission statement could perhaps help bring focus; might possibly help express thoughts, feelings and activity, fears, hopes, intentions and motivations.

Wondering what yours might be and after much reflection ‽istis comes up with:

‽ Wonder and ponder

‽ Imagine things better

‽ Live to prove

…definitely a work in progress‽

[i] https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/penny-mordaunt-critics-call-her-part-time-penny-but-is-the-members-choice-too-woke-to-be-tory-leader-1740483

[ii] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/ukconsumerpriceinflationbasketofgoodsandservices/2022

[iii] https://www.therandomvibez.com/best-three-word-quotes/

[iv] https://couragetobecurious.com/power-of-three/

[v] https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/three-core-concepts-in-early-development/

[vi] And templates are even available… https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=3+point+sermon+outlines+worksheet&id=BE3E412CD386EAA1CF10EA145030D2E09386E5BF&form=IQFRBA&first=1&disoverlay=1 And as for a three-point sermon on Trinity Sunday; perfection!

[vii] https://librotas.com/tell-them/ and a TEDx talk by Mark Moore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1jm-2WfTvk : Love Do Hope. Yes No Maybe, and other examples.

[viii] https://what3words.com/paid.blocks.thus

Thursday 7 July 2022

Pistis ponders sleepless nights (weekending July 9th 2022)

‽istis ponders sleepless nights (weekending July 9th 2022)

‽istis woke this morning (Thursday 7.7.2022) pondering sleepless nights and with snatches of two prayers from the Christian tradition swirling around:

Watch thou, dear Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and give thine angels charge over those who sleep. Tend thy sick ones, Lord Christ. Rest thy weary ones. Bless thy dying ones. Soothe thy suffering ones. Pity thine afflicted ones. Shield thy joyous ones. And all, for thy love's sake. Amen. [i]

- and -

LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. [ii]

…and, this time (for a change) not wondering so much about the existence of angels or God/gods of one or many faiths[iii], but wondering:

· whether the UK’s Prime Minister had any sleep last night

· whether the Ministers who had resigned were sleeping better than those who were still weighing up their next move

· how many civil and public servants stayed up all night, struggling to keep a seemingly rudderless ship of state from floundering as chaos appeared to engulf the bridge, threatening to flood the departments of government

· about those who have not slept because they watch and weep; because they are sick and weary; because they are suffering, afflicted or dying; because they fear the perils and dangers of this night and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…

o   in Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, and on and on in the out-of-the-headlines, hidden or apparently forgotten places of conflict
o   in homes with children and adults terrified because of domestic abuse or its threat - and in places of trauma because sexual assault seems to have been wafted away with a: ‘Some people simply can’t take their drink.’[iv]
o   in homes where parents wonder how they are going to pay the bills and provide meals – with c. 11.1m people (including 3.3m children) in the UK in a state of ‘absolute low income’ [v]
o   in hearts where grief is complicated by anger at loved ones lost without the chance to hug or hold a hand, while others were found to have partied…

So, perhaps for some there are more sleepless nights ahead in the current UK political crisis – not least for the broadcasters, commentators and media producers, etc…

Possibly there could be rest for the resigned (including maybe for one who aspired to be ‘king of the world’[vi] but has found to be so wanting within the boundaries of a relatively small, post-imperial, not-so-united island kingdom)…

And, maybe, just maybe, whether you pray or not, could we imagine and then strive a bit harder to bring into being a world where on earth (as it may or may not be in heaven) more are shielded and joyful‽

[i] https://www.worldprayers.org/archive/prayers/invocations/watch_thou_dear_lord_with.html Attributed to St Augustine. 4^th Century.

[ii] https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/order-evening-prayer The Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils. From ‘The Order for Evening Prayer Daily throughout the year’

[iii] Though some direct evidence of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omnipresent Deity would perhaps, possibly, maybe welcome now as is in so many times past‽

[iv] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-chris-pincher-allegations-alcohol-b2117301.html

[v] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn07096/

[vi] https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/clive-bull/boris-johnson-world-king-documentary-maker/

Pistis reclaims and wonders...