I'VE BEEN THINKING...
I HAVE HAD TO RECOGNISE SOMETHING OF LATE...
I am a white middle-class male in a position of power (very minor). I recognise, therefore, that I am potentially the very epitome of the problems of our modern times.
I recognise that I will have lived a life (with its own financial and emotional struggles) that has been free from discrimination, either overt or covert. This, I recognise, is a huge luxury that more than half of the British population simply has not experienced. This actually is not a sudden awakening for me; through my wife of 30 years and five children (I have three brutally honest daughters, two thoughtful reflective sons, and a daughter-in-law who is an extremely educated activist), there has been no shortage of correction to my thoughts and personal traits! Combined with my own theoretical journey I find myself at a point of total acceptance: I see it, I applaud and seek to uplift the minority voices as they speak out, and, I felt it was time for a white middle-class male in a position of power, to do the right thing. To be quiet.
... But I also recognise, that that actually is not what is being asked of me. Instead, it is to, now, use what I have (even if some of my ‘advantage’ is imperceptibly ill-gotten), to use it to actively seek to work to redress the imbalance in our society.
The question for me to consider is The How.
Yes, in my work as a deputy headteacher in a secondary school, I can work even harder to build a curriculum and a system of education (and teacher employment) which seeks to actively address these issues. And I will, (with a very like-minded headteacher and team), in our beautiful school of pupils from 42 different nations, with 47 different first languages, in our little corner of Wales, seek to create an island of ‘enhanced equality’ in this world.
But that is the problem, it so easily could just be an island of ‘enhanced equality’ in a world rife with unfairness and injustice. And I know other schools and a thousand other organisations will also try, and I know that in time these islands will join (if the water level drops!!) and combine to form one solid land mass, one cultural continent of true equality. And I really hope it does.
But the cultural ‘water level’ is NOT dropping. These islands will remain islands until the toxicity in our world is drained.
We have amplified the individual Voice to an astonishing level. This was so important. So many could not find their Voice, had no way to get their Voice heard, had no avenue to vent their anger at injustice, to tell their story, to demand to be Heard.
The advent of social media and its myriad of platforms has, at last, in almost every corner of this world, made it possible to ‘publish’ and be Heard.
But so too have the Poisonous Voices. Whereas going back 50 years, extremist views would have to be spread by word of mouth within very localised communities, whilst powerful in itself, now, at a click of a button they can find each other, all over the world. These poisonous voices couldn’t enter the mainstream until recent times, but now every Troll has been able to come out from under their bridge. They have formed their websites, even own their own TV channels, made money and gained political power.
More and more Voices, ever more polarised. Ever more Righteous in their indignation. Every LESS listening to each other.
Those in democratic political Power, or seeking democratic political Power, deliberately (or having to anyway) aligning to ever more entrenched camps in order to access Power. Those in autocratic Power, more able than ever to use technology to spread Fear of the Other, and hunt down the dissenting Voices.
And so the toxicity level rises and those on the islands of Tolerance and Equality, look out gloomily at a World whose future looks bleak. And our young people fill with exasperation and are forced to anger, anxiety and despair.
And I must mention religion there, since 86% of the world declares itself religious. Religion, too, is in crisis, no different, Voices of extremism, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and other, raging against a world, insecure in their battle against the rise of secularism, retreating ever more into entrenched ‘thou shall not pass’ positions. Labelling the world full of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’.
And the secular world too, saying “we are not the problem, it's not Us, its Them with all those old beliefs and backward ways.”
Is there NOTHING we can agree on that can alter this future radically?
All of us?
Really? Nothing we can fight for (for we all love fighting), fight for TOGETHER?
Well, I believe there is.
We truly CAN come together and find a better way.
And if you have the time, I would welcome you to journey with me to explore it...
