As Britain
once again grinds to a halt in the face of the weather, it is time to reflect
that our problem is not, as many will say, that we can’t cope with a bit of
snow. It is something far more malign. The government must be rubbing its hands
in glee as the media will yet again act as willing accomplice in spreading and
reinforcing the insidious mindset that sets worker against shirker.
The words come out of the newscasters’ mouths at times like
these, advising safety, advising caution, repeating the warnings against
“non-essential journeys” (whatever the hell that never-explained term means).
Yet at the same time there will be stories of the plucky few, those who made it
to work against the odds, the plucky backbone that personifies the blitz
spirit. And in a completely befuddling illustration of false consciousness,
there will be utter incredulity at the mere suggestion that this is a double
standard.
This lionisation of the reckless, the thoughtless, and those
with their life’s priorities askew is a very British thing. This is a culture
where advertising regularly extols the virtue of products that don’t let
something so mild as the flu get in the way of the day job. Where those who
don’t want to inflict their norovirality on office mates are condemned as part
of over the top health and safety gone mad. We are a country where you will
regularly hear people talking about “human rights” as a negative.
And as those who for whatever reason live within walking
distance of work continue to scoff at those who don’t or can’t, we will see
stories of hardy nurses and doctors who braved the elements for the nation’s
good. And we will be praising their pluck where any sane society would be
seeing this as a starting point for demanding an end to second home ownership
and the creation of affordable housing near places of work for anyone who needs
it.
So before we come out with the usual platitudes, let’s take
some time out to think. Why are we so quick to praise those who put their
safety and the well-being of their families at risk? Why do we think it is fair
and good to punish those who decide that sense and health and being there to
care for those they love is a good life priority? Why is health and safety such
a bad thing? Why are human rights terrible? Why do we insist on praising
recklessness, on believing that work-life balance is only in place when the
former utterly subsumes the latter? As we enter a new year, let’s use this time
of weather-enforced reflection to put an end to a society who sees someone who works
100 hour weeks to build businesses as role models, let’s create a country where
words like entrepreneurialism, capitalism, career dedication and “pluck” are
seen as dirty signs of a society that has inverted the basic principles of
humanity, where our first concern is the safety and wellbeing of the
vulnerable, where we seek to build relationships not businesses, where those
public services so essential that they must run come hell and high water are
supported not by preying upon the consciences of individuals but by the
collective will to create a housing infrastructure to enable it. Let us start
the slow trudge out of a chill far more damaging than that brought by snow and
ice and build a society where the fulfilled lives of all, starting with the
most vulnerable and put-upon, is the priority that trumps all others.
