Focus On The Good

I believe I recall my friend Mark Moore’s hopes, by way of his enjoyment of my recent PC build blog, that I might continue to doodle my thoughts.. so here goes.

As part of the continuing effort to maintain the world base in favour of rich minorities, the latest argument being presented in the popular UK press this morning was one of several online pieces questioning why the NHS is so great anyway, and how throwing money at it can’t ultimately work. Here's one of them:

Our State Care System MAKES Winter Crises

To my mind this is at best voicing something we all might entertain by way of reasoning, whilst almost entirely missing both point and solution. The biggest question for the NHS isn’t to do with matters of how much money to throw at it, although the architects of its struggles know all too well how they’re inflicting their bias by starving it of the necessary funding – the old underfund, seed discontent and then privatise is a tired operating cliché best left behind to the remit of historians and the last century. Rather the issues broadly align with many aspects of life including the current underlying problems in America relating to the repealing of net neutrality, and similar notions being argued by Ajit Pai, who I would consider to be as innocent and unbiased in his professional matters as Jeremy Hunt is in his. One now hears people arguing the case for privatisation, citing “opportunity”, as the chosen byword to justify the actions taken. "Why shouldn’t those who can afford it have the chance to get something better, and why shouldn't our systems be based on this premise?" appears to be the MO. This is probably the most critical flaw of focus, and the argument which I think truly defines the difference between the “have’s” and “have not’s”. Someone else whose name I don’t think I ever knew If I’m honest, gave an interesting shout on social media the other day saying that people who were poor were merely envious of the rich - again similarly flawed, but helpfully insightful. In reality the arguments and solutions for net neutrality, the NHS and a whole host of other aspects in society really boil down to having relatively little to do with actual wealth itself (other than its distribution bias) but more about how people are encouraged to think and feel about one another when measured against relative “success”, and how easily the grip on community is lost when you build upon a world which already thrives on and encourages conflict and competition to inspire and drive change, rather than taking a more benign and thoughtful line of cooperation and community. As with so many things in life it’s as much about how you do it, as it is about what you achieve. 

Writer Michael Straczynski came up with a perfectly simple metaphor when he created the core conflict which raged through the better part of his sci-fi series Babylon 5. In it (SPOILER ALERT!) he pitched the greatest threat to the younger races by taking the two oldest, most prominent and powerful caretaker races in the locality and pitched them at loggerheads with one another over their duty of care. Until it all collapsed into egotistical chaos the Vorlons (who were ostensibly the good guys) were seen as the guardians bringing races together to work at their issues, sharing in one another’s achievements and folly for the betterment of the whole; The Shadows believed that you could only build the best by fostering conflict and warfare, the victors destroying the unworthy to rise from the ashes stronger than they were.. all on wash, rinse, repeat. The nature of reality allows for both scenarios to show a “measure” of success, but if you pause long enough to think about it the nature of humanity only really allows for one to be called the right way, and here is your nub. I don’t care if it sounds cloying or “hippy”ish (as though that’s a bad thing) - there really is no getting around it. Back to our own reality and the real solutions do not, and cannot be allowed to lie in fostering conflict and floating ideals of progress on the foundation of perceived envy and wealth. Anyone can have a personal or social impact with enough (or more) money within a system which is built around that, but in spite of that subscription I also happen to believe that the best way to judge the success of any such system is by how it treats it’s least wealthy. Answer that one properly and you realise that the trick to resolving our problems means first to accept that conflict is not acceptable when we’re all in the same boat, and competition (where it's not first and foremost for fun) is not a good catalyst for progress. Embracing the compassion which arises from knowing that no one gets out alive informs why it’s better to take the Vorlon line, and spend our time up to our necks in community and cooperation rather than in blood. To borrow from another person’s words, again person(s) unknown but definitely Aboriginal, restrain your ruthless warrior leaders.

If there is anything I would wish for you as the reader to take away from this it’s the following - I can think of nothing more demeaning and insulting to life itself than to be perpetually fighting between one another, over both bulk and scraps. By all means keep an eye on the big picture and share in ideas and possibilities – that’s where the sense of general direction comes from, but also realise your small part in the whole and the value of self-improvement. Not for the benefit of facile tangents such as the appearance of inner and outer self, your CV or prospects, but for your self-respect, and feeling of worth as a human being. Focus on building a good inner world of the self and all that extraneous mediocre crap which we keep being told is so important melts away, and at worst simply looks after itself anyway. That’s where the notion "the best way to help yourself is to help others" really comes from. That help doesn’t have to be literal, although it’s likely most welcome. Simply making yourself into the better person you can be will have a knock on effect of helping others. If you have no other point of reference, and are looking for a worthy battle, I can assure you it will be a good place to start. Trust me when I say even knowing all this I still find it difficult myself, but that's no reason not to begin.