LJ Idol 9 - Week 10 - “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting our time”
1.
Check your privilege.
Take a class of school kids and stand them on a line at the halfway point on the football field. Ask them questions about themselves.
Do your parents have university degrees?
Take a step forward.
Are there two adults in your home?
Take a step forward.
Have the adults in your home been unemployed in the last five years?
Take a step back.
Are they currently out of work?
Take two steps back.
Are you part of a minority/disabled/gay/female/live in a bad neighbourhood/a martian a... a... a... Adjust your positions accordingly.
Now race to the goal line.
Some of the kids, even though they have been set well back, may still reach the end point as front runners. Those set well forwards will not necessarily be among that number, but their chances have been vastly increased.
Ability and privilege are not mutually exclusive. Even those at the front still need to expend some effort to succeed, but those at the back...
This is privilege.
2.
There once was a Scotsman called Samuel Smiles who wrote a book called Self Help. In the 19th and into the 20th century, this was a very popular tome, most likely to be found in homes after the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress or at least in the manner of homes which had both the means and impulse to acquire improving literature. Such books may be consumed avidly or else displayed on the shelf with hopes that their finer qualities would radiate into the air and improve the inhabitants that way.
Self Help is simultaneously an excellent and an odious book. It is excellent in that it makes the suggestion that individuals can make a difference to their own lives and those of the people around them. There is a stress upon the value of education, of sobriety, of forward planning and of living within one's means. Good habits and an elevated outlook can go a long way.
It is odious in that it is exceptionally preachy and, worse, preaching to the smug choir. The homilies concerning self-reliance and self-improvement are addressed to those whose station is already somewhat elevated above the masses and who have the resources to keep on going. "You don't want to be like that mill worker over there, do you? Or that docker?" he sneers. "Look at them pleading poverty when with a bit of prudence they could just get on with it and stop annoying us decent sorts. Ha! Bet they drink it all away! What low people!"
Most poverty, he argued, came from poverty of spirit and, by extension, improvidence. No institution could help a man if he was not willing to help himself.
To an extent, this is arguably true. Materially, improvidence is a bugbear. In Round About A Pound A Week, a study conducted by the Fabian Society in 1913 of families with that wage, it was observed that commonly, on pay day, instead of heading into the markets with a scrupulously constructed and ascetic battle plan for the next week's menus, women would gallop down to the chip shop to get their families a treat after several days of bread and dripping. Relatively speaking, this was a waste of resources which would start the bare cupboard cycle again.
Fast forward to the modern day and it is still happening. Look at groceries, for example. We all know that it is better to load up on fruit and vegetables as opposed to empty carbs and trans fats, but in the short term it is both cheaper and easier to buy processed crap. In the long term not, of course. If you have the means and wherewithal to store, stockpile and cook healthier ingredients, then you will save your money and health. I myself went through a phase of poverty where every slice of bread needed to be accounted for and allocated. I knew that if I took advantage of e.g. this week's offer on tuna, next week's saving would be offset by the diminishment of this week's budget and I kind of had to eat now to be alive for next week and I could get six meals worth of yucky fake soup for the price of one can of tuna or a bag of lentils and no-one wanted to come near me after a week of lentils... And still I hit the pub and the chippy every payday, like an improvident fool/drunken sailor on shore leave.
Studies have shown that poverty can lead to bad choices aka 'improvidence'. Partially this comes down to the strain of having to be sensible for too long and then being presented with a chance to not be and snapping - in my aforementioned paradigm, this went lentils lentils lentils lentils CHIPS! PINTS! PAR-TAY! This could also cover people acquiring e.g. sofas or designer handbags at 90000% APR when the cupboard is bare because, dangit, sometimes you just want something nice. There is also what Terry Pratchett fans may recognise as the Sam Vimes Theory of Boots whereby people end up buying rubbishy boots or fake soup or jerry-rigged auto-repairs instead of the decent, long-lasting variety as they either do not have the wherewithal to buy better or can not get into the mindset to make the investment.
Tl;dr Samuel Smiles and co. neatly overlook issues regarding poverty which make it very difficult to not be improvident and to stay on the ascetic straight and narrow. Many of these stem from a fundamental lack of resources, the exhausting nature of planning and the horrible truth that to err financially without much of a safety net will bring on a terrible penalty.
Yet still Smiles and his ilk smugly conjure the spectre of the workman who will not help himself nor save when the going is good nor forbear from blowing his wages in the public house and so on and so forth while seemingly ignorant of their own privilege.
3.
I am privileged.
My grocery budget now permits both stockpiling and, indeed, vitamins. I can turn up the heat in my house on this cold, grey day without worrying too much about future privation. I was born into a time with excellent medical care and into a country where I can freely access it. Both of my parents have degrees and professions, although they were first in either of their families to do so. My own education was very important in my upbringing and there was never a question that I would not be able to take my opportunities as they arose, nay fell into my lap, or go after yet others more pro-actively. Life has never been perfect, some aspects of my life are downright lousy, but on balance, I'm doing all right. From a happy set of accidents, coincidences, choices of my forebears etc. I was set up that way.
Samuel Smiles would have loved my forebears dearly. Although they had little in the way of formal education, my maternal grandparents and great grandparents set great store by it and worked hard all of their lives to achieve what they could. They always paid their rent, kept their homes clean and in good repair, took care to never owe money nor yet to buy anything which they could not definitively afford. They almost never touched alcohol, partially due to a Protestant ethos of moderation tending toward abstinence, but also because they knew they could not afford it. There were indeed plenty of people around who overindulged and overspent but fortunately none of them. When my grandfather's father could not afford to keep him in school, he found himself a good apprenticeship and stuck with it and that enabled my Mum to go to high school and university which then enabled me to do so. And for each generation the aspirations increased.
My great grandparents wanted steady jobs, so they followed the coal fields and worked hard. My grandfather wanted more education, but took an apprenticeship leading to a better job. My mother forged on through to higher education and a profession. Me? I took it all for granted and glory in it.
I know that I am lucky. I want others to be able to see where their opportunities lie too, people who are not as privileged as I am but can be persuaded to help themselves. This needs understanding and no whiff of moral superiority. We should all be privileged and all need help to help ourselves.
Check your privilege.
Take a class of school kids and stand them on a line at the halfway point on the football field. Ask them questions about themselves.
Do your parents have university degrees?
Take a step forward.
Are there two adults in your home?
Take a step forward.
Have the adults in your home been unemployed in the last five years?
Take a step back.
Are they currently out of work?
Take two steps back.
Are you part of a minority/disabled/gay/female/live in a bad neighbourhood/a martian a... a... a... Adjust your positions accordingly.
Now race to the goal line.
Some of the kids, even though they have been set well back, may still reach the end point as front runners. Those set well forwards will not necessarily be among that number, but their chances have been vastly increased.
Ability and privilege are not mutually exclusive. Even those at the front still need to expend some effort to succeed, but those at the back...
This is privilege.
2.
There once was a Scotsman called Samuel Smiles who wrote a book called Self Help. In the 19th and into the 20th century, this was a very popular tome, most likely to be found in homes after the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress or at least in the manner of homes which had both the means and impulse to acquire improving literature. Such books may be consumed avidly or else displayed on the shelf with hopes that their finer qualities would radiate into the air and improve the inhabitants that way.
Self Help is simultaneously an excellent and an odious book. It is excellent in that it makes the suggestion that individuals can make a difference to their own lives and those of the people around them. There is a stress upon the value of education, of sobriety, of forward planning and of living within one's means. Good habits and an elevated outlook can go a long way.
It is odious in that it is exceptionally preachy and, worse, preaching to the smug choir. The homilies concerning self-reliance and self-improvement are addressed to those whose station is already somewhat elevated above the masses and who have the resources to keep on going. "You don't want to be like that mill worker over there, do you? Or that docker?" he sneers. "Look at them pleading poverty when with a bit of prudence they could just get on with it and stop annoying us decent sorts. Ha! Bet they drink it all away! What low people!"
Most poverty, he argued, came from poverty of spirit and, by extension, improvidence. No institution could help a man if he was not willing to help himself.
To an extent, this is arguably true. Materially, improvidence is a bugbear. In Round About A Pound A Week, a study conducted by the Fabian Society in 1913 of families with that wage, it was observed that commonly, on pay day, instead of heading into the markets with a scrupulously constructed and ascetic battle plan for the next week's menus, women would gallop down to the chip shop to get their families a treat after several days of bread and dripping. Relatively speaking, this was a waste of resources which would start the bare cupboard cycle again.
Fast forward to the modern day and it is still happening. Look at groceries, for example. We all know that it is better to load up on fruit and vegetables as opposed to empty carbs and trans fats, but in the short term it is both cheaper and easier to buy processed crap. In the long term not, of course. If you have the means and wherewithal to store, stockpile and cook healthier ingredients, then you will save your money and health. I myself went through a phase of poverty where every slice of bread needed to be accounted for and allocated. I knew that if I took advantage of e.g. this week's offer on tuna, next week's saving would be offset by the diminishment of this week's budget and I kind of had to eat now to be alive for next week and I could get six meals worth of yucky fake soup for the price of one can of tuna or a bag of lentils and no-one wanted to come near me after a week of lentils... And still I hit the pub and the chippy every payday, like an improvident fool/drunken sailor on shore leave.
Studies have shown that poverty can lead to bad choices aka 'improvidence'. Partially this comes down to the strain of having to be sensible for too long and then being presented with a chance to not be and snapping - in my aforementioned paradigm, this went lentils lentils lentils lentils CHIPS! PINTS! PAR-TAY! This could also cover people acquiring e.g. sofas or designer handbags at 90000% APR when the cupboard is bare because, dangit, sometimes you just want something nice. There is also what Terry Pratchett fans may recognise as the Sam Vimes Theory of Boots whereby people end up buying rubbishy boots or fake soup or jerry-rigged auto-repairs instead of the decent, long-lasting variety as they either do not have the wherewithal to buy better or can not get into the mindset to make the investment.
Tl;dr Samuel Smiles and co. neatly overlook issues regarding poverty which make it very difficult to not be improvident and to stay on the ascetic straight and narrow. Many of these stem from a fundamental lack of resources, the exhausting nature of planning and the horrible truth that to err financially without much of a safety net will bring on a terrible penalty.
Yet still Smiles and his ilk smugly conjure the spectre of the workman who will not help himself nor save when the going is good nor forbear from blowing his wages in the public house and so on and so forth while seemingly ignorant of their own privilege.
3.
I am privileged.
My grocery budget now permits both stockpiling and, indeed, vitamins. I can turn up the heat in my house on this cold, grey day without worrying too much about future privation. I was born into a time with excellent medical care and into a country where I can freely access it. Both of my parents have degrees and professions, although they were first in either of their families to do so. My own education was very important in my upbringing and there was never a question that I would not be able to take my opportunities as they arose, nay fell into my lap, or go after yet others more pro-actively. Life has never been perfect, some aspects of my life are downright lousy, but on balance, I'm doing all right. From a happy set of accidents, coincidences, choices of my forebears etc. I was set up that way.
Samuel Smiles would have loved my forebears dearly. Although they had little in the way of formal education, my maternal grandparents and great grandparents set great store by it and worked hard all of their lives to achieve what they could. They always paid their rent, kept their homes clean and in good repair, took care to never owe money nor yet to buy anything which they could not definitively afford. They almost never touched alcohol, partially due to a Protestant ethos of moderation tending toward abstinence, but also because they knew they could not afford it. There were indeed plenty of people around who overindulged and overspent but fortunately none of them. When my grandfather's father could not afford to keep him in school, he found himself a good apprenticeship and stuck with it and that enabled my Mum to go to high school and university which then enabled me to do so. And for each generation the aspirations increased.
My great grandparents wanted steady jobs, so they followed the coal fields and worked hard. My grandfather wanted more education, but took an apprenticeship leading to a better job. My mother forged on through to higher education and a profession. Me? I took it all for granted and glory in it.
I know that I am lucky. I want others to be able to see where their opportunities lie too, people who are not as privileged as I am but can be persuaded to help themselves. This needs understanding and no whiff of moral superiority. We should all be privileged and all need help to help ourselves.