It illustrates the failure of the concept that financial success is the most import thing in life. It seems the average Greek doesn't believe this.
Fairness and self worth comes far higher up the scale of what is important to them.
Here we are similarly fed the line that our standard of living is the most important thing in our lives and that we must weather the financial crisis - for whose benefit ?
The EU is made of of countries with very different sets of values. I'm sure the average Spaniard , Irish or Greek has no wish to emulate the Germans. The EU has been brought together to strengthen the finances of its countries - enabling better trade and stability.
What if the people of some counties don't value these attributes but instead value hard physical work, enjoying what is free: the countryside, human company in groups - making music, dancing and even a bit of open carousing.
What if we in this country are made up of different social groups with different values. How are we meant to accommodate each other? One section of Bristol doesn't think so.
Maybe we are not.
The bankers and the financially driven may go one way, the socially and "quality of life" guys the other, the 'who cares a fuck' another.
I suspect we too in this country are heading for a bust up. We seem to have lost faith in the kind of democracy that we are part of. A democracy that can be seen to favour the 'have's.
Cameron's single minded approach may lead to unavoidable conflict.
How strong is the glue that sticks divided Britain together?
Maybe some would prefer to live in a third world country, minimise world trade, value physical toil, become more self sufficient - live for each other?
4 comments:
You're a big fan of the LibDems so why are you griping about the pain they and the Tories are enjoying iknflicting on so many people? Isn't this what you wanted? These cuts are ideologically driven into a public who the media have sold the lie that the Country's finances are in a worse shape than they are.
Personally, I see no glory in living in a country where there is little or no clean water, housing is poor, children work at an early age, medical help limited or non-existent, education opportunities poor. The country may well have a rich and poor structure where upward mobility depends on which party you support. Violence might also be a way of life. I am aware that many people do live simple lives and find happiness. Children that have very little can be happier than those with expectations. However, I rather think that, in today's world, it is only the countries that have no rich natural resources that are left alone for each man to sit under his fig tree and contemplate the pleasures of simplicity — that is those who are not heavily burdened in ways not common to us.. Money is merely a means of bargaining one thing for another. Wealth can be measured in many ways — joy and happiness are not dependent on gold bars under the bed. Maybe Greece would do well to leave the common market, perhaps should not have joined in the first place? But having tasted the benefits I guess the reckoning has to come.
Anyone in this country is free to do his 'own thing.' No one forces people to make money his aim in life. Money is NOT my aim in life and never has been. Why assume it is for most people? The country has a deficit and it has to be dealt with. As long as every proposal is fought against with no real suggestion of alternatives, the deficit will grow. Even if some people decided to live on free fresh air, enjoying the views, singing and dancing, gathering blackberries and fungi, I rather think before long there would be demands for medical help, heating and everything we take for granted. And why should 'hard physical work' be glorified? Fine for those who enjoy it, but other jobs are as valuable to society.
I doubt those in the Third World who have to carry heavy sacks on their backs (including young children and women) from dawn to dusk rejoice in its pleasures!
It would be a mistake if you think I am a big fan of any party.
I am however a big fan of certain individuals and they can come from any party.
Here's a few: Shirley Williams, Tim Farron, - Lib Dem. :Clare Short Labour: Tom Harvey (Grange) , (Difficult to find others the ones I respect have distanced themselves fro Cameron) Enoch Powell springs to mind from the past - conservative.
Through my life I have always voted for the person and not the party and ask myself are they people of integrity?
Enoch Powell has been much maligned but if you read his Rivers of Blood speech there is a lot of wisdom there and he had the courage to say it - and the cowardly party at the time immediately distance themselves from his views - as most politicians who have little integrity in my view, do.
...the cowardly party at the time immediately distance themselves from his views...
Here lies the problem. Stand firm and agree, thus keeping integrity but losing support. Or distance oneself and try to keep people listening. Sometimes a more subtle approach can get across a vital message. Enoch Powell may have had the best of intentions but his vivid language meant headlines leading to a possible self-fulfilling prophesy.
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