Sunday, 7 May 2023

Pistis ponders: 'mind the gap' (weekending May 6th 2023)

 

‽istis ponders: ‘mind the gap’ (weekending May 6th 2023)

This weekending, as a King is crowned and many are celebrating, queuing, alienated, straining to see, feasting, getting on with life as usual, making quiche, boo-ing, partying, indifferent, wearing red and white and blue, looking on in awe or bemusement or wonder or disgust, making banners, making placards, getting by, hostile, putting up bunting, baking, protesting, working overtime, having family round, putting up umbrellas, arrested, singing, getting drunk, cheering, playing or listening to music, meeting with friends, doing almost anything else, doing nothing else… and as ‘history’[i] is apparently being witnessed/made, etc. etc…

‽ Princess Anne suggests (in a ‘no-nonsense interview’[ii] with the sister who has the trusted role of Charles' Gold-Stick-in-Waiting at the coronation, I’m saying nothing….) that the Royal Family brings ‘long-term stability’, ‘continuity’ and ‘goodness to the UK and Commonwealth.’ Apparently laughing off the notion of a ‘slimmed-down operation’ the princess declared: “It doesn’t sound like a good idea from where I’m standing, I have to say. I’m not quite sure what else, you know, we can do.”  “The monarchy provides a degree of long-term stability that is actually quite hard to come by in any other way.”

And ‽istis thinks that some may ponder the nature, quality and quantity of the state of ‘long-term stability’ that we may have apparently achieved and maintained; stable for whom, stable where – nationally, globally, long-term ago and now?

‽ We are also exhorted (especially if we are travelling on the London underground system) by the King himself to ‘mind the gap’.[iii]  

‽istis wonders whether ‘mind the gap’ perhaps, possibly may be a perfect phrase for this Coronation day: ‘mind’ as in tend/care about, care for and seek to maintain the gap that is perhaps so obviously and symbolically on display today: between those enjoying a monopoly of power and resources, elitism, entitlement, exceptionalism, the hubris of some, the benefits of rank and hierarchies - stamped with some sort of claimed divinely ordained and anointed approval - and all that this has perhaps led to, past and present… and the rest, the others, the majority (though many may be minoritised)…

...and...

‘mind’ as in worry about and are troubled by and seek to reduce the gap that is perhaps so obviously and symbolically on display today: between those enjoying a monopoly of power and resources, elitism, entitlement, exceptionalism, the hubris of some, the benefits of rank and hierarchies - stamped with some sort of claimed divinely ordained and anointed approval - and all that this has perhaps led to, past and present... and the rest, the others, the majority (though many may be minoritised)…

‽ We are also invited (‘All who so desire, in the Abbey, and elsewhere’) to ‘make homage’ at the Coronation by participating in a ‘chorus of millions of voices’[iv] saying: “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God."

And ‽istis wonders: if homage is not paid or allegiance sworn to this or any Majesty (his/her/their heirs and successors), then to whom or to what might people pay homage or swear allegiance, if anything?

So, this weekending’s ponderings and wonderings have focussed on things to do with long-term stability[v], the gap, homage and allegiance…  and, most importantly perhaps, but if not all this…

·        Nearer home (UK)

o   The wealthiest 100 people in the UK have as much money as the poorest 18 million people, according to the Equality Trust.[vi]

o   Almost 1 in 5 people of pension age, are now living in poverty.[vii]

o   Close to 3 million emergency food parcels were distributed by food banks in the Trussell Trust network in the past 12 months — the most parcels ever distributed by the network in a year.[viii]

o   In England and Wales, more than 99% of rapes reported to police do not end in a conviction. At present, charge rates for rape vary wildly between regions, from 1.3% in Surrey to 8.2% in Durham. Cases take, on average, 817 days to reach court.[ix]

o   More than a third of people from ethnic and religious minority groups in Britain have experienced some form of racist assault.[x]

o   16.4% of adults in England, or 7.1 million people, can be described as having 'very poor literacy skills.'[xi]

o   Half a million children a year suffer abuse in the UK. In 2021/22 the NSPCC’s Helpline contacted agencies about 22,505 children to investigate concerns about abuse and neglect.  Out of the 12 million children living in England, just under 400,000 (3%) are known to the social care system at any one time. Just over 80,000 of these children are children in care.[xii]

o   3,069 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2022; 74% increase since 2010.[xiii]

o   The healthy life expectancy gap between the most and least deprived parts of the UK is 19 years. The index of multiple deprivation includes other determinants of health such as housing, employment, and education. People living in the most deprived areas of England experience a worse quality of NHS care and poorer health outcomes than people living in the least deprived areas.[xiv]

o   Public trust in politicians falls by nine percentage points in 18 months. Two-thirds of the public say politicians are “merely out for themselves”. Just 4 per cent of British people believe parliamentarians are “doing their best for the country”[xv]

 

·        Further away:

o   The poorest in the world are often undernourished, without access to basic services such as electricity and safe drinking water; they have less access to education and suffer from much poorer health.[xvi]

o   In 2020, 74 per cent of the global population had access to safely managed drinking water services, up from 70 per cent in 2015. Still, two billion people live without safely managed drinking water services, including 1.2 billion people lacking even a basic level of service, in 2020.[xvii]

o   103million forcibly displaced people estimated worldwide; 36.5 million are children; 1.5million children born as refugees.

o   March 2022: one-quarter of humanity -- 2 billion people -- are living in conflict areas today and the world is facing the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945, when World War II ended.[xviii]

o   In the most comprehensive index to date, tracking the health of nature over 50 years, WWF and the ZSL (Zoological Society of London) Institute of Zoology, find an average 69% decline in wildlife populations around the world between 1970 and 2018.[xix]

o   Rising temperatures are fueling environmental degradation, natural disasters, weather extremes, food and water insecurity, economic disruption, conflict, and terrorism. Sea levels are rising, the Arctic is melting, coral reefs are dying, oceans are acidifying, and forests are burning.[xx]

 

·        NB: just a few points for example… and no doubt you could add your own and probably select ones that paint a rosier picture…

…then what‽

How might we better organise and conduct ourselves and manage the way we live together as part of this extraordinary ordinary place (to link to last week’s blog), this ‘blue dot’ (after Carl Sagan), this interdependent, complex environment and system of life of which we are a part for more or lesser number of years? What legacy do we wish for our heirs and successors?

So perhaps let us least recognise that possibly what we have, all this, is constructed and created, is artificial – intelligent or otherwise - just as the events and content of the coronation service and pageant might be seen as having been constructed, created, made up, an artifice. Let us also perhaps consider that what we have, all this, could be re-created and re-constructed, maybe‽

And whilst we may not wish this was our starting point (if we are going somewhere else, we certainly might not choose to start from here), let us not be deflated in to a resigned and impotent ‘it is what it is-ism'. Let us perhaps consider that the circumstances that have produced what we have - all this - has probably evolved over a long time, but could evolve further, maybe‽

‽istis has some ideas, as many various previous blogs suggest[xxi].

But for just one person (or even one person primarily with others who are alike) - with a given level of privilege and power from birth, social class, educational opportunities, race, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, age, experience - to believe that they have the answers may just perpetuate the problems and continue the dynamics of all this.

To impose an alternative would probably require the sort of authoritarianism, power, dominance, subjugation and control that is perhaps a contributory cause of current concern, that has maybe got us to all this. Time for a new process perhaps, possibly, maybe…

Perhaps the first step is to consider that all this, and the long-term stability that has brought it about and maintains it (and the gaps between us that we variously mind) is just not good enough for enough people, places, and all that has life and breath with whom we share this planet, and all with which we are inextricably linked.

Secondly, can we imagine that things could be different?

And after that we might:

·        Listen to each other, especially those whose voices have been silenced

·        Seek the most embracive common denominator of wishes and hopes and underpinning values and principles that can infuse both the process and the outcome

·        Sketch out a vision of a preferred future (perhaps within a Rawlsian ‘veil of ignorance’, which paradoxically may be an expression of great wisdom!)

·        Recognise that restorative, redistributive, reparative activity and properly levelled fields (upon which all may play, work and rest, survive and thrive) are quite likely needed. This could be very painful for some (the winners-at-others’-loss, the gainers-at-others’-expense, the over-developed-because-others’-have-been-underdeveloped, the individual-family-class-social-status-political-education-resource-capitalised-whilst-others’-have-been-asset-stripped-or-denied, etc.) but utterly liberating and life-giving for others

·        Consider, practically how we might get there, together (starting realistically from ‘here’) - proposing and developing fresh ways and means, arrangements and institutions (including social, educational, financial/economic, political, etc.) to do the necessary, to achieve the desirable, to deploy the practicable in the interests of the possible and of us all…

…for ‽istis continues to believe that better and even the ‘most best’ could be created and constructed for so many more of us - and why stop there…

©‽istis                                                                                                                    

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...  


[ii] Daily Telegraph 3.5.2023

[v] Perhaps recalling other blogs including: State of nations or nations in a state? https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2020/01/pistis-reclaims-state-of-nations-or.html; and reflections on imperial units https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2022/06/pistis-reclaims-imperial-units.html


at

‽istis ponders a pause (weekending July 27th 2024)

  ‽istis ponders a pause (weekending July 27 th 2024) This weekending ‽istis is pondering a pause, after 5 years of weekly posts (aside f...