I've been having one of those self-flagellating mornings where I don't get on and do what I should be doing (studying for my exams), but rather immerse myself in the popular motifs of my society, the Zeitgeist, if you will, of the modern, western psyche.
It has not been an inspiring morning.
It all started with the interweb, as it usually does. More precisely, it started with two Yahoo articles. These articles, given their topics and their location on the web, provide me, I believe, with a fairly accurate sample of the average person in the UK today. Unfortunately, what this sample seems to suggest is that we are a bunch of ungrateful, thoroughly spoilt brats.
The first article I came across was a journo-tisement about RBS and NatWest. Today, they are unveiling a new piece of technology that allows people to use smart-phones to take out cash from ATMs. Not the most ground-breaking of news, but nothing that should inspire any great degree of malcontent either, right?
Well, wrong. As is their wont, along comes a rusty-hinge of moaners, with a plethora of complaints, ranging from how this will just be an other way for thieves to run off with our money, that this new technology won't catch on, that they should improve phone signals (which are terrible) first, that smart-phones are overpriced and pointless anyway, that phones should be for calls and texts only, that you'd need a forklift to take out your cash from an ATM these days...
The whinging went on and on and on.
Out of the first 18 comments, only one directly acknowledged that this technology might be a positive thing. The rest for the most part were critical and even paranoid. I moved on.
The second article asked: is it worth working? It compared the income of those on minimum wage with those on the median wage and went on to deduct the costs of working (including taxes, transport, and so on) from the gross median salary. This essentially reduces an hourly rate of £13.46 to £8.11, which is close to the hourly rate of minimum wage, which is £6.08. The suggestion was, why work if essentially your only getting £2.00 above minimum wage. Excuse me, sir, but is this the motif you were looking for?
Of course, there are massive holes in the article, such as factoring in that those on minimum wage also have travel expenses, and so on, so that their rate reduces too and the gap between minimum and median wage widens again. And then there's the idea that, if you don't have a job, you can expect that hourly rate (when you are on benefits) to be far, far lower. But, that is not our main concern here.
As with the first article, it was the comments that struck me the most, with outbursts such as:
"for sure it is not worthy going to work if you salary is close to minimum wage. MODERN DAY SLAVERY!!!!!- dont forget slavery has been on since the creation of societies."
And:- Fran, London
"Factor in the interest paid to the bankers on your mortgage etc and you soon come to the conclusion that you are, always have been and always will be a slave, nothing more nothing less. A slave. Now go back to sleep and dream of winning the lottery you pathetic bunch of losers."
- A Yahoo User, Huddersfield
And again:
"Slave labour is back and thriving"
The slavery theme came up repeatedly. I couldn't help replying:- Martin, London
To ya'll who are saying this is modern day slavery, have you lost your minds?
Because having a TV, microwave, laptop, hot water, drinking water, food around the corner, a home to live in, public transport, free healthcare, and so on is soooooo similar to being chained to a line of people with no house, no clothes, no freedom, no identity, no healthcare, or similar even to a person with no home, no food, no water, no healthcare, no future.
Yeah, because we are slaves of privilege, slaves of entitlement, slaves of ingratitude. We have no idea what we've got. We [are] all convinced [that] we are so deprived.
And that's it really, in a nutshell. At least, for me it is.- Me
As a society, we've been spoilt rotten. We've been given everything, which has somehow led to us feeling as if we've got nothing. I mean, for someone living in the UK, employed or not, they will in almost all cases, have a home, running water, hot water, electricity, food, warmth, shelter from the rain, easily accessible food stores, public transport, a free, easily accessible healthcare system, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, an environment relatively free from the ravages of war and/or civil unrest, racism or ethnic cleansing... the list goes on! And yet, we focus on what we feel we've been deprived of, on what more we want but don't yet have. A big part of the problem, then, is that our wanting is out of control.
This is all part of the sickness of society, part of what I talked about a few days back. This is the poisoned pond, a place in which we all live and become intoxicated. Part of the poisoning is losing the capacity for gratitude, for recognising what we've got. We become ungrateful and entitled, and in the process, lose our capacity to feel any kind of happiness or contentment. In this way the cycle continues, as we repeatedly convince ourselves that we are being deprived, that we are "slaves" somehow, when perhaps we are merely slaves to our own, out-of-control desires and our inability to feel satisfied.
Part of the process of healing then, is remembering what we do have, and in the process, acknowledging that actually, if we have electricity, a laptop, free healthcare and so on, then we've got a lot more than most. Keeping a gratitude journal, a place to write down what we are grateful for, is a helpful antidote to the poison in the pond. For example, let's not forget that if you receive the minimum wage in Britain, you are still in the top 7% in terms of global wealth, and that already factors in the cost of living. Indeed, part of the healing process is changing the story, from one of deprivation and entitlement, to one of gratitude and responsibility. In short, this is about no longer acting like a spoilt child. In short, this about growing up.
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