The moral nihilism of the Coalition
Reblogged from kittysjones:
Poster
and slogan from Terry Gilliam’s absurdo-dystopic film “Brazil”. David Cameron
evidently has a strong sense of taunting irony.
Narratives of “welfare dependency” have once again become much more common place and increasingly assertive under
the coalition Government – embedded in narratives driven by
the the so-called Skivers and Strivers dichotomy. Poverty, according to this
distinctly Tory perspective, is caused by a culture of deviance, idleness and
dependency. The poor are responsible for their poverty. They cannot be trusted
to be responsible, or make the right choices for themselves – or society more
generally – and so are in need of “paternalistic guidelines” and cognitive
behaviour therapy. Poverty is being “re-responsiblised.”
But the rich are not getting richer whilst the poor get poorer: the rich are
getting richer by the poor getting poorer. There’s a chasmic
conflict of interest between the rich persons’ selfish, individual goals and
collective societal values.
For the Tories, the competitive pursuit of economic gain is the only freedom
worth having. And only those that have gained substantially have freedoms worth
having. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that this social Darwinist approach to
socio-economics means unbridled private business, insidious systematic
indoctrination, gross exploitation of the masses and political extortion.
Public understanding is being purposefully distorted and the reality of
society’s organisation is concealed to serve the interests of an elite, through
a process of ideological hegemony – whereby existing political arrangements,
ways of thinking and social organisation are tacitly accepted as logical and
“common sense”. The media serve as ideological state apparatus that transmit
this “common sense”. The truth is that poor people are the victims of gross
inequality and crass exploitation. Our once progressive, civilised society is
being savagely dismantled, and the Tories are steadily and clumsily
re-assembling it using identikit Victoriana.
The truth is that David Cameron has deliberately and spitefully targeted the
poorest and most vulnerable to bear the brunt of the austerity cuts. When we
actually look at the relative targeting of the Tory-led cuts of different social
groups, then we see that:
-
People in poverty are targeted 5 times more than most
citizens
-
Disabled people are targeted 9 times more than most
citizens
-
People needing social care are targeted 19 times more than
most citizens.
This is a Government that deliberately creates insecurity and scarcity for
many: income, employment opportunities, affordable housing, education
opportunities, access to justice, health, energy, for example, whilst private
companies make lots of money from these deliberately engineered circumstances,
such as by using workfare to boost their profits from the use of free labour (at
the expense of the tax payer).
The Governments’ economic decisions, policies and driving, incoherent
ideology has created high unemployment, devalued the worth of labour, excluded
those who are vulnerable from the labour market by withdrawing support from
them, and then has the vindictive gall to savagely blame the victims of its own
crimes, for those crimes, conducting media character assassinations of the
weakest, demeaning people via the media, stripping them of their dignity and
LYING about them.
Our economy is being tailored by the Tories to serve 1% of the population
and this has a detrimental effect on everyone else. The Government has removed
support and services for the people who need them most, whilst insisting that
they must work. To regard the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society
as less valuable, and to constantly attack them via the media is quite frankly
disgusting conduct for a Government and those that support these despicable and
hideous political narratives and policy actions. Such narratives say everything
about the authors, and have nothing meaningful at all to say about those left in
the situations this Government have contributed to manufacturing: those
situations which none of them have ever had to experience or face
personally.
When they diminish others, they diminish us ALL.
No-one seems to have challenged the idea that working to make someone else
very wealthy is somehow virtuous, either. By implication, those that cannot work
are regarded as lesser citizens, and that has become tacitly accepted. We have,
once again, a Government that makes labouring compulsory, regardless of a
persons capability, yet the same Government has devalued labour in terms of
wages, rewards, and working conditions, whilst handing out huge amounts of our
money to those exploiting the poor unemployed, the sick and disabled. And Tories
are always about vicious and divisive rhetoric.
Most people who don’t work have no choice about it due to circumstances,
such as poor health, disability, caring responsibilities, parenting
responsibilities and a lack of reliable, affordable childcare, being frail and
elderly. These are reasons that are completely out of a persons control. People
forget that ill health doesn’t discriminate: it can happen to anyone. And so can
unemployment. No-one is invulnerable, except for the very wealthy: the ones that
won’t ever need any state support.
Let’s hear some mention of facts in the media, instead of
the usual Tory mouth pieces sanctimoniously preaching at people, “advising” how
to manage their loss of lifeline support better, whilst endorsing the sadism of
this Government. Let’s hear a loud and civilised call for the halt to the
current programme of cruel cuts, which are disproportionately targeted at those
with the very least, whilst this Government rewards those with the very most
with massive tax handouts. Let’s hear the demand for decency, and a new and fair
welfare system that is built on a fundamental recognition of the equal worth of
all human beings and the guarantee of human rights for all.
It’s time we stood up as a nation on our hind legs.
Thanks to Robert Livingstone for his brilliant art work.
