Dancing in the Ruins

Life is getting stranger by the day. It's just difficult to keep up. No wonder so many people feel displaced, even the weather isn't doing what it's supposed to. Things seem to be changing, but in reality they aren't changing fast enough, or to what they ought to be. On Sunday another of the government's bald idiots (is there some pattern here? Baldness + Tory = stupid twat) decided to weigh in: William Hague's laughable comments in the Telegraph saying we (which is to say everyone else) aren't working hard enough. What does that even mean?

In the west we have a peculiarly self destructive attitude toward work and effort. We let it define our entire lives. We believe, unlike in the east, that when undertaking a task one should expend as much effort as possible. To do anything else is laziness. But the ancient Chinese always advocated expending enough energy to get the job done. Imagine advocating that over here, and the populist press, and of course the bald coots in charge, will dismiss you as lazy. It's a ridiculous idea: like driving at full speed to get to your destination, burning up way more fuel than you need. 

What does Hague want? People to press the keys on their office computer harder or faster? Does he want people to work longer hours? To package things on the production line with greater intensity? What does any of this mean? It's a stupid idea to compel people to burn themselves out quicker. Of course these Tory scumbags know this; it's just yet more divide and rule. Look at our competitors, they will say, they work harder, we have to compete with them! Look at China, with its lack of worker and human rights and its suicide nets to stop people topping themselves off because they are treated so badly. Is that what we want over here? It won't be the likes of Hague counting the cost; they will be sitting pretty in their grace and favour apartments living off their generous expenses accounts and salaries, obviously working hard themselves, though they aren't achieving much. Meanwhile they cut services, jobs and consequently opportunities to the bone. Even if you buy intop their deluded hype, it doesn't even make sense on a basic level.

At the same time everyone's favourite welfare dictator, our beloved fuhrer Ian Duncan Smith, strips Disability Living Allowance from, who else but the disabled - as if this will effortlessly lead to them finding work! It's the politics of the madhouse: or at least greedy corporate maniacs. Here's IDS in, where else, but the Telegraph:

Iain Duncan Smith says that the number of claimants has risen by 30 percent in recent years “rising well ahead of any other gauge you might make about illness, sickness, disability”. Losing a limb should not automatically entitle people to a pay-out, he suggests.

Er? Does this idiot think that losing a limb (such as might happen if you happen to be gullible enough to buy into the hype of 'serving queen and country' and get your arm blown off in a desert for the corporate benefit of the British arms industry) won't make life harder? Would he like to have his arm chopped off to find out for himself? The callousness of the attitude is extraordinary. He's assuming that people with disabilities don't automatically need help. That's a dangerous place to start from. I don't think it's patronising (which is what I'm sure he'd argue as these right wing fanatics are rampant in propagating the idea that welfare isn't helping people and they are acting out of kindness - tough love). People aren't compelled to apply for DLA so we assume those that do do so because they need it. Obviously the government assumes otherwise and thus these people are 'mistaken' (ie cheats), but where is the help going to come from to get people as independent as they can be as the government is cutting that as well, and independence is part of the reason for getting DLA.

“We are creating a new benefit, because the last benefit grew by something like 30 percent in the past few years,” he said. “It’s been rising well ahead of any other gauge you might make about illness, sickness, disability or for that matter, general trends in society.

Any other gauge? Except trained medical diagnosticians, independent of the state (ie, not ATOS!). Honestly, IDS like the rest of the right wing agenda, is operating on an assumption: x percentage of the working population can’t be disabled? That's unacceptable. But, again, it's what this means that's the problem: it's not translating into support to get people as independent as they can be, administered from a position of compassion and without judgement. Instead it's "you are a scrounger". 

Truly we are dancing in the ruins.