I do not understand
Jun. 17th, 2011 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerSomebody voted.
Somebody voted for a party which believes there should be no limit to how little an employer can pay its hirelings, especially if they are sick and have special needs; that people who are sick and have special needs should be left to fend for themselves with no benefits and on a wage on which, by definition, nobody can afford to live.
Somebody voted for a party which maintains simultaneously that a job is the only measure of human worth and that a job is a favour generously bestowed upon the lower orders by the upper classes, and which enforces those definitions on all of us and always has.
Somebody voted for a party whose members want to keep all the money and all the power in the hands of the top fraction of one per cent of the population, and do not give a damn what happens to the rest.
I do not understand how anyone can vote for such a party. I do not understand how there can be one ordinary person walking on this earth who would ever vote for such a party. Even when the only alternative is an alternative in name only, as now, to vote for that alternative should be a point of pride and honour for any person living who is not already part of the ruling élite.
There is no way that the true nature of this party can not be apparent to anyone who pays even the marginal degree of attention that I do to current affairs. There is no way that anyone can be unaware of that for which they have chosen to cast their vote.
I do not understand. I don't think I ever will.
It makes it very hard for me to feel human, sometimes. Because whatever kind of reasoning, whatever pattern of thought, allows people to choose to support such a party, I am not clever enough, not strong enough, to reach it.
Somebody voted for a party which believes there should be no limit to how little an employer can pay its hirelings, especially if they are sick and have special needs; that people who are sick and have special needs should be left to fend for themselves with no benefits and on a wage on which, by definition, nobody can afford to live.
Somebody voted for a party which maintains simultaneously that a job is the only measure of human worth and that a job is a favour generously bestowed upon the lower orders by the upper classes, and which enforces those definitions on all of us and always has.
Somebody voted for a party whose members want to keep all the money and all the power in the hands of the top fraction of one per cent of the population, and do not give a damn what happens to the rest.
I do not understand how anyone can vote for such a party. I do not understand how there can be one ordinary person walking on this earth who would ever vote for such a party. Even when the only alternative is an alternative in name only, as now, to vote for that alternative should be a point of pride and honour for any person living who is not already part of the ruling élite.
There is no way that the true nature of this party can not be apparent to anyone who pays even the marginal degree of attention that I do to current affairs. There is no way that anyone can be unaware of that for which they have chosen to cast their vote.
I do not understand. I don't think I ever will.
It makes it very hard for me to feel human, sometimes. Because whatever kind of reasoning, whatever pattern of thought, allows people to choose to support such a party, I am not clever enough, not strong enough, to reach it.
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no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 10:02 am (UTC)1 - Some people believe that that is they the deity - however they interpret that term - wants it to be. Which, judging from nature is true.
2 - Some people buy the crap about how they too can rise to the top - see all the rags-to-riches stories we are continually being fed by the papers and TV. I recall a teacher in a Primeval episode asking one (female) pupil "And what if you don't win Britain's Got Talent?" Fiction agreed, but there is a good reason why those you speak of also talk about freedom to achieve, even as they rig the education system to make it impossible.
3 - For some people, freedom to make one's own choices is genuinely frightening. How much that is a cultural thing, and how much a deeper problem, I cannot say. Certainly, human societies of all types have been prone to hierarchy. The groups you are moaning about also push order. It is worth noting that, historically speaking, rebellions are more likely against changes - even when they are clear improvements - to society than against existing poor conditions. Modern communications may mean that people are more aware of how their conditions compare with other people's, which is causing troubles for governments (see Arab Spring, the latest in a LONG line of such), but this is a very modern trend, and counter to previous tendencies.
Not everyone fits any of the above descriptions, you certainly don't, nor do I (I hope), nor, I suspect, do any of your other readers. But there are an awful lot of people who do fit one or another of the above descriptions.
Is the problem solvable? I sure hope so, and think it worth trying. But I am not certain.