Thursday 4 August 2011

Self vs Society

Still waiting to see when I can get a diagnosis for Aspergers (or not, I can't be sure of course). I think it's important to note that I might not get found to have that condition, though if I don't I believe that I have something like it. What does that mean? I don't know. In the immortal words of that great philosopher, Popeye, I am what I am. Unfortunate society is what it is. for most people the two can coexist well enough. For those of us, and I don't believe I'm the only one, cursed with a certain outlook, a perception that just happens to see what's really going on perhaps, we find the two don't mix.
Unfortunately that just comes across as arrogant. It's not. It's a fact of life. When I search for jobs, as I do every morning on the hopelessly inept JC+ site, I find that looking at some of these vacancies (when I find one that is listed correctly, or that I've been able to google properly) is like staring into the sun. No matter what, I just cannot do that job. It would be the end of me. That isn't a childish retort, like a kid chucking his toys out the pram when faced with bathtime (we've all been there, kids) - I just cannot do that. It's like forcing a square peg into a round hole. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the system, all pegs and all holes are the same shape. Sadly that's not how life works. Maybe it would be easier if I was wired that way. I'm sure for such folk life is a lot easier and a lot happier. Anyway, that's just how it is.
Unfortunately, the DWP system just doesn't work with 'exceptions'. Everyone must conform to the 'norm' because if you can't (ie don't) you are quickly singled out. What makes you so special? What makes you so different? Out come the social bullying tactics: other people manage, why can't you? How dare you think differently? How dare you question the relevance of work in a godawful call centre (ugh), or wiping the toilets of bankers or whatever? Work is good and great whatever it is because work is not only good for us physically, it's spiritual!
I'm sorry, but until things change there are going to be a lot of people that don't fit in who will end up getting marginalised. These are the people the populist press want to call chavs, the people society wants to label as lazy sods that don't surface before midday and only for Jeremy Kyle.
What needs to happen is that the DWP need to accept people are different and stop compelling them to apply for jobs they just can't do. It's like forcing a lame horse to run in a race, and then blaming it for not winning. This silly 'winners and losers' duality that pervades society needs to go as well. In order for someone to win, there must be losers - that's the function they perform, so why be an arse about it? Life is life, there are no winners and losers and 'competitiveness' has been one of the most divisive and destructive forces in the world. People do the things they like well, because they like doing them. Winning doesn't come into it.
The Jobcentre needs to stop palming people off onto the ghastly private sector gravy train, which is quite frankly little more than a racket, and it needs to engage people properly. Why not just give the unemployed a free place on a university course or something similar (perhaps a proper vocational course, if they aren't academically inclined)? A proper degree with a proper opportunity. But since the ruling elite have kicked the ladder away that's not going to happen.

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