By that bloke in the pub.
A big rant. All the rants in one rant.
Getting it off the chest and out of the system.

You have been warned...

This country has an identity crisis and lacks confidence and direction.
We have a established a system that is becoming a victim of its own success and turning now on itself in a downward spiral of self-deprecation, biting the very hand that fed its early years.
There was a need to establish benefits and welfare in order to provide those people that couldn't find work with a means to an income, sufficient to meet basic needs and keep them out of poverty. Over the course of time, this system has evolved and responded to its social, political and economic environment to a point where the benefit structure is now a choice for some and increasingly more, providing better levels of income than low-paid employment, better access to services and a gateway to a generally higher standard of living than was ever thought possible fifty years ago. In many cases people choose to live on benefit because they can survive comfortably enough, and that position in turn gives them other advantages that are often harder for those in work to reach. It has become an attractive option.
People will read this and go "Hey! I don't WANT to be on Income Support (or whatever). I want to work, but there's no jobs. It's not a choice!" And there will be those with disabilities that find this argument unacceptable too. I hear you, but please read what I actually said.
Where I think this becomes an issue is because some of the problems associated with unemployment (in the 50s in particular) were a decline in self-esteem and a lack of purpose leading to depression, violence, and alcoholism, not just poverty and hunger etc. Its these latter issues that benefits (and credit facilities) address very effectively, raising standards higher than ever before. What is not being addressed are those other factors associated with work, eg - self-esteem, self-respect, a sense of belonging to a bigger system, social interaction, discipline, responsibility.
It is these qualities that I think are have been eroded over the past couple of generations and their absence, or at least decline, is a major cause of some of the unrest and often unbelievable human behaviour we read about in the papers these days. Kids stabbing each other at school, road and trolley rage, violence against women and children, paedophilia, divorce etc etc…
I recognise that this erosion is slow and almost imperceptible, and that many changes and shifts in society and political decisions, technological 'advances' etc have their part to play. But I haven't got on to that.
I think what I'm really looking at and genuinely feel is one of the major 'problems' we face today is a general lack of respect for, and knowledge of, ourselves as individuals. This subsequently manifests itself in a lack of respect for others.
In part, by not going 'out to work' in the traditional sense, people don't have rules to abide by (time keeping, deadlines, quality control, codes of behaviour etc) and they have fewer objectives and inspirations. They also have less to actually occupy themselves, and so seek to do this in other ways. Shopping, spending surplus income, gaming, owning stuff for example.
I have been trying to work out how a lot of the people I know and see around who live in rented 'social' housing on relatively uninspiring estates with poor roads and no services (like the areas I saw in East London recently, for instance) seem to have a lot more disposable income than I do and more than many of my circle of friends. These are the people who can't afford, for example, school uniform or school trips and meals, or to go out to zoos, attractions etc, but who can afford three Station Wagons, expensive trainers or Playstations for their children and 48" plasma flat screen televisions. It seems unbalanced to me, because these are not the 'poor' families that lived 'on the dole', and yet there is not a working adult in the family.
Without the moral code of, to use my example, the workplace, I think, people don't generally get experience in how to behave. They get little satisfaction from their lives in a deep sense because they are missing the opportunity to be a part something and take satisfaction from that, which in its turn induces apathy and boredom. Yet the need is still there that has ever been present.
A man working and in a better paid job than his neighbour will delight in buying a bigger car to park in the drive, or bring home a bigger Christmas tree. I think, sadly, that this is quite fundamental. To meet this need now, cars and material 'things' previously associated with wealth and a large income are cheaper than ever, affordable to many more people. And if we cannot still for whatever reason afford the real things, it has become acceptable, and even now fashionable to have cheaper replicas. Fakes. I feel that although Fake is new the new Real, it still shows a fundamental need in us to have 'nice' things. But we demand them cheaper and cheaper so that we can have more and more of them with the money and credit we have available. And someone, somewhere is paying for it.
But it seems that as long as we are not paying for it, its not a problem.
The world Out There scares people because they don't feel part of it. So they drive everywhere in airconditioned cars with blacked out windows. Put a DVD in the seat, and that's the safety thing complete. No need to look out of the scary window now.
So we don't breathe real air, or feel the rain. Its no surprise that environmental awareness is declining. People are not even part of their social environment any more, let alone the natural one.

Oh, I'm massively into recycling. We recycle everything at home.
Great stuff, but why are you throwing that drinks carton away.
Huh?
Well you know I recycle them, that’s what that pile is in the kitchen.
You do that - wash and flatten them all?
Sure.
And then what?
They get posted up to a pulping mill in Scotland.
Who pays for the postage?
I do of course, how else does it get there?
Bugger that. Can't be bothered with all that cleaning and shit. They smell. And forget costing money to post them off. That's mad!
Its called recycling. You are massively into it at home.

Effort brings its own reward. Work at it. Give it time. Watch it flower.
If its worth having, its worth the effort to get it.
It used to be the case that credit cards (like shiny new cars) were the property of the more affluent classes, whose income was judged sufficient by the financial institutions to justify a monthly advance on salary. But that has at some grey, indeterminate point been declared 'unfair' and so these terms and opportunities are being offered to those who were not previously considered. All this does is feed the desire to possess more stuff, which I believe hides a fundamental dissatisfaction with life and underlying unhappiness.
Putting it another way, it has become a way of hiding the self and choosing not to see the reality. Why? Why are we so afraid to be who we are? What is lacking and what are we so frightened or ashamed of? Why is it so hard to accept that others are more worthy of some things than ourselves; some cleverer, or faster, richer or poorer. Let us embrace the difference between each of us and aspire instead to meet our own standards and accept our individual limitations.
It seems with more and more things in the shops and goods being produced at ever cheaper prices and faster than ever, that we have more choice than ever before. But I don't think a lot of people actually want choice,. They can't cope with it, and it confuses them. They are in fact not able to exercise free choice because they no longer know what they want.
They want what they see around them, in the enclosed world they inhabit that cuts them off not only from the Big Wide World, but also from the areas they live in and even the people who live around them. Neighbours no longer speak to each other anymore, and young people find it easier and more comfortable to send text messages or emails than engage in a conversation. The result, they lose the ability to engage in a conversation. They don't go to shops because that involves social interaction, meeting people in the street, passing the time of day with those around us. And because they can't be bothered. And back we come again to the core of my argument. Motivation. People have no motivation, no desire, and perhaps even no need to achieve things, or to 'better' themselves. To do this would mean breaking out of the comfort zone, and people are afraid to do that. They have no self confidence, and no belief in themselves. In part, because they are not in work.
But I was talking about choice. I really don't think people even have enough confidence to choose for themselves any more. They don't know what they want, so they find it easier to be told, and in so doing associate themselves with a peer group. Its that fear of individuality again. Why so scared to be different?
We are told what to wear, where to live, what to eat, what toys we should be buying, what car to drive and where to drive it. What holidays to take, what music to listen to, how we should bring up our children. Its difficult to go out there and choose things for yourself. Why, for instance, can I never find any clothes I like in the shops and have to rummage online for hours to find the music I want to buy? Am I hard to please? No, I don't think so. Its because I live my life outside the mainstream. A bit. Its an uncomfortable, challenging and scary place. And consumerism doesn't welcome me. My values and sense of identity make me isolated and seen as an outsider in the playground.
People resent it in some way, and make us feel awkward because we don't 'belong' to them.
I have been self employed now for the past thirteen years, and director of my own company since 2002. It has been a long, arduous road, that is only very recently looking a little easier and worthwhile. Things that are worth having are worth working hard for.
Things that we can so easily nowadays just get have no value, that's why we always want more.
You want that big, flashy new car for £100 a month?
Here, its yours.
But how much is it?
The car - £100 a month.
But how much is it really, how much does it actually cost?
Do you want the car or not?

But that doesn't satisfy a need, it just creates an opportunity to get something else. The inner hole is still there. I explain occasionally my job to people, and my position, and they are a little surprised. There's a misconception that, as a company director, I should have all these wonderful Things. Putting aside for a minute the fact that I don't want them anyway, I couldn't begin to afford it. My take home salary this year will be just about up to £12,000 by Christmas.
I can't get credit cards because I have missed payments and am considered a bad risk.
I can't remortgage my house for another two years because we fell behind with payments for six months.
So is there an argument that I know I can't get 'stuff' because of this, so therefore I convince myself I don't want it? Perhaps there is. I'd like to here it - would make for a good debate over a few beers.
But I think the difference is that I have a sense of self worth and respect for what I believe in. I think 'Rights' are in the ascendancy now, at the expense of 'Responsibility'. People are reluctant to take responsibility for their own actions upon themselves because they lack a fundamental belief in themselves and their own abilities.

So perhaps I think I know what at least part of 'the problem' is.
But this doesn't give me any answers.
Its just the way things are.

Discuss…