The Return of Everyday Crapitalism - Bus Fares vs reality

It is certainly truth that the poorer you are, in our supposedly technological society, the less flexible life becomes. While the rich spend relatively less in our economy. It is thus the poor that drive it, while receiving less support to be able to survive.

Case in point, and another example of what I amusingly call "everyday capitalism", our local bus service, within the region it operates, offers three tickets for day journeys within certain boundaries. I can go to X with ticket number 1, go to Y with ticket number 2, or I can go to both within the same day with ticket number 3. Each ticket is not so dissimilar that they are easy to tell apart and thus easy to avoid making the mistake I did today by purchasing number 1 and not number 3. As there is no way to rectify this error, for which I accept some responsibility (insert smileyface), I'm stuck.

It's not a big deal, as the journey I was to make later doesn't involve life or death, just the on opportunity I get in the week to socialise. Had this been a hospital appointment, or trip to pay the bills etc (and don't get me started on the increasingly inflexible attitude of banks - I said don't!), things might be very different. Basically if you're poor and you can't make up that shortfall you are fucked.

Is pointing all this out worthy of your time in the blogosphere? Actually I think so; I post this to show you just how difficult life can be in what is alleged, according to the ruling class, a shining example of modern industrial society. We are the 6th richest economy in the world yet we have public transport systems that, according to them, need arcane ticketing structures to turn a profit.

Not only that but have you noticed how tickets get more expensive with age? That is, kids and young adults pay less, adults (as with anything) pay more. We take that for granted; why? Essentially the message is: "you're 'old enough' now, so pay me more!". That is the logic of everyday capitalism.

As for the banks (I told you not to get me started!), I have to pay £6 to Barclays (or rather their collections department) to cover old loans. This pittance is of course a drop in the ocean compared to their daily turnover as a global capitalist financial munitions dealer (that's figurative, don't sue me - I need the £££ for the buses). But again the logic of capitalism takes over: "pay your debts". Another aphorism we take for granted and never question - even when it impoverishes communities and smashes societies. Debt is not a moral principle (the rich certainly aren't troubled by it), it's a weapon.

That said when I make my monthly pilgrimage to the local Barclays cutpurse I find that they make it increasingly difficult to pay this money. I could easily choose not to, but where would that get me. They'd be quicker to point out my indiscretion than to make it easy to pay. I can't use the post office because the PO can't take these kinds of payments, they no longer issue paying in books, I don't live near a branch (hence the PO option), they no longer have counter staff, the machine replacements don't accept these kinds of payments, they no longer have paying in envelopes to pay into those weird deposit boxes. So instead I have to queue up with the only counter staff available who's there to deal with business customers. They are ridiculous.

As is capitalism.

More of the Same Old Bullshit

The nonsense with the social enterprise continues. I don't know what the correct title for these sorts of agencies is if not social enterprise so that will have to do.

Honestly, it just wears me down. I went to a meeting held by another grassroots mental health group. They are called Clarity and while they seem very nice (if a little standoffish, but I guess we've all got problems to be dealing with :( ). Unfortunately they were less a support group and more a campaign group. What's unfortunate about that is that I need the former more right now. Campaigning is certainly important and what I heard from the representative of the, I suppose, 'social enterprise sector' present was rather depressing. In short, because this is a Tory area, there are massive cuts to services voted for en masse by the local, dominant, Tory rump who reuse to accept mental health is a problem here (and could the local mental health peeps kindly fuck off to Bristol).

For me, right now, I need to build a support network. I need places I can go, easily, with people that I can get on with; specifically people i share a worldview with. This might sound counter intuitive to many. They might, reasonably, conclude that the broader the range of experiences and views I expose myself to, the better. However, I am not convinced: I have a worldview and I believe it to be correct. In short I need the support of the kind of society I want to be in: a non judgemental compassionate society that is aware of the systems of oppression (specifically but not solely capitalism) we are exposed to. I subscribe to the model of mental health that, correctly, identifies a social component to ill health - particularly when it comes to conditions like depression and anxiety. These are not addressed by ignorant social enterprises, nor by associating with just anyone.

Campaigning is very important, though I'm not convinced that just campaigning will achieve much. Seven years of Tory led misery has shown this to be true; they will do what they want, using whatever means, when they want; damn public opinion. After all they couldn't get be less popular while voting to cut school meals for everyone - except those under the DUP (despicable). The problem is that I haven't the energy for it right now. The problem is, locally, I think it will take a hell of a lot to displace said Tory rump; it's ideological. This is a community of people that buys into Tory values. Changing that will be next to impossible. It will take something a lot more radical than appealing to people's democratic values - especially when those values put us in this mess to begin with. Never mind that mental health is still very much a taboo issue.

On a more prosaic and personal level, travelling to and attending this meeting was hard. The latter because, as a campaign discussion I wasn't expecting with people I didn't know, I didn't really have anything to say. I just sat there for an hour in silence. A bit melodramatic to say, but I'm just being honest. That said I will endeavour to attend more, it is once a month, and, while it's not quite what I need, it is interesting hearing about the state of things locally. Even if that state is pretty dire.

Travel on the other hand is becoming increasingly onerous. That might sound ridiculous for a half hour bus journey on a popular route, but the cost alone is too much. It has reached the point where I simply cannot travel often so I have to do more when I'm out. This means doing my shopping, so I come home exhausted from the trauma of dealing with Tesco and lugging heavy bags around. If this was local, I could just pop out without having to pay a small fortune and get there and back easily. It might not sound like a big deal, particularly if your mental health isn't an issue, but even small mundane things can be difficult. That's what it's like to have these kinds of issues.

Finally to report on my progress with the aforementioned social enterprise. Honestly, it's a joke. So I have a meeting booked for the first week of April. In that email I was informed of a "group offering creating writing opportunities". Crucially no details were provided, which infuriated me, especially given everything that's happened. It took me two emails back and forth to press them to actually tell me what it was, rather than wait for my appointment. They seemed to treat it like a kid desperate to know what his Christmas presents are ahead of the day. Why behave like this, it's utterly puerile. Turns out it's not really a creative writing opportunity. It's actually - apparently, because it's not even verified - a rumour that the local museum has a group that researches and writes up local history. So that's not what I'd consider creative writing; it's history. There's a difference as the writing part is ancillary and not the focus. I'm not terribly interested in doing historical research for this tedious little shire, quite honestly. However I did contact the museum who have yet to respond. Even so this is not what I feel I was led to believe; it's effectively a lie by omission. The problem here is that, when I explain all this and turn the opportunity down, I will be giving the social enterprise further ammunition to accuse me of not engaging. This sort of gaslighting shit is just what people have to deal with (I doubt I'm the only one).

It's too easy, when there's a dearth of opportunities, to use what few there are to demand more of the service user. If all you can offer is not what I'm interested in then surely the problem isn't with the service user, me, it's with the lack of opportunities for that which I am interested in. And it isn't as if I'm looking for crazy pie in the sky ideas either.

On it goes.

Staring into the Mirror

It is pretty clear that the recent horrific weather (the worst I've ever seen, take note climate change deniers) has put the appalling situation of homelessness to the fore. Unfortunately the deaths of rough sleepers has done little to melt the frozen bank accounts that pass for hearts in the Tory body politic.

In other words: they don't give a damn.

Let's just take a moment to think about what that means: citizens of this society are being allowed to freeze to death on the streets and nothing is done.

When the Russians allegedly (I don't want to be poisoned!) murder a spy on the streets of Britain, the Tories convene emergency meetings.

When people actually die, murdered by capitalism, on the streets of Britain, the Tories give themselves a pay rise.

And make no mistake this is a problem of capitalism. We have the facilities, the talent, and, in some cases, the desire, to end this. There are properties people can live in, but instead they are earmarked for the super rich and the property market. These are capitalist institutions; without the profit motive and the resultant class divide to oppress the poorest how can homelessness exist?

Thus it is my great pleasure, by which I mean nauseating revulsion, to present two case studies that show the problem is ideological. Even the Tories cannot deny the reality of rough sleeping. However instead of dealing with it, they seek to move people on, or, when they refuse paltry unsafe alternatives, are easily dismissed and subsequently criminalised. The crime that is sleeping on the streets of a modern city. Good grief, is this how far we've sunk?

They do this because it avoids having to stare into the mirror of said ideology. Doing so would reveal the truth of their horrendous politics. Thus it is preferable to demonise. They do this by creating a hierarchy that offers the less to the least among us, then, when that offering is refused it is relatively easy to criminalise these people for not taking up offers of help. But those 'offers' of help are less if the help comprises a space in a hostel that isn't suitable or safe - violence, substance abuse, theft for example. Is it reasonable to expect someone to accept that just because they are homeless and thus you see them as less of a person? That is the Tory mindset.

In Torbay a few weeks ago there arose a brave man called Ashley Sim. He courageously took it upon himself to photograph those members of the local homeless community he heroically believed were not 'genuine'. It always baffles me, the hypocrisy of the Tory position on liberty: they claim to oppose 'big brother' (remember all the hoo ha about ID cards during the last Labour government?), but are more than happy to appeal to a nanny state or a nanny state mentality when it suits them. What is this, if not that?

What is this if not the exertion of class power wielded as ideological force unto the weakest? It is the imposition of the division between 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, made all the worse by the obvious reality that those Mr Sim believes to be 'deserving' (a judgement made solely by himself with no expertise on the reality nor, it seems, the slightest understanding of power in society) won't get helped anyway. They can at least rest, by which I mean shiver on the pavement, safe in the knowledge that some arrogant prick from Toryshire isn't going to try and have them prosecuted for offending his sensibilities. An act that has potentially disastrous consequences, particularly for those wrongly targeted, for those this self proclaimed 'do gooder' (their language) decides to out.

Now, on my doorstep, in the otherwise quite progressive city of Bristol, we have another example. I've seen the city centre for myself, the Broadmead shopping quarter. I've seen how the closure of businesses - thanks to austerity - has blighted it. Up until recently there was a BHS, who, like Woolworths, were a high street staple. All that remains is an unsightly boarded up frontage - presumably to ensure that rough sleepers don't take advantage of the meagre shelter present. Unfortunately for that idea homelessness in the city has skyrocketed.

So now, a particular couple who are conspicuous within the centre of the district, are being picked on, and in the most egregious example of mirror dodging yet. It seems that, because they have an 'embarassment of riches, in the form of a huge pile of blankets (because people in Bristol are kind), they could be hiding 'the terrorisms' inside! Huddled beneath, it's possible, to the mind of business bigwig John Hirst (a copper bottomed cunt by all accounts), that the people could be planting explosives! Do you need me to explain how offensive and absurd that is?

But of course the Tory attitude, the corporate-o-capitalist attitude, must entertain this possibility, because to do otherwise is to stare right into that mirror.

And they know what they will see when they stare right back: decade up on decade of frozen humans, lives snuffed out in the cold ad the dark of a capitalist night. Caught in the amber of conscience for which said mirror is a metaphor. People that died for the want of what Pink Floyd coolly and correctly referred to as 'tea and a slice'. Us and them: us - we - have to start winning.