Sick Society

Approximately 9.1 million people of working age (16-64) are not working in the UK. That is the unemployed and the economically inactive. The majority, (9.11 million) are economically inactive, meaning they are not actively looking for or available to work. That includes students, those who are retired, stay-at-home parents, or people unable to work due to long-term sickness or disability. This represents a total non-working rate of around 25% of the working-age population.

Previously the highest rate of unemployment in the UK was 11.9% in 1984, peaking during the economic recession of the early 1980s. Another major peak was in 1993, at 10.7%, during the recession in the early 1990s.  

At the risk of being politically incorrect I just don't understand this. We are not currently in a recession. Long-term sickness is the reason for 28% of all economically inactive people. More than 1.35 million people who are inactive due to long-term sickness report depression, bad nerves, or anxiety as their primary condition. So I have to ask are we a sick society & if we are why?

I remember working when I was quite ill with bronchitis & even pleurisy. I certainly remember working when I was overwhelmed & depressed. I'm not saying that is a good thing, it isn't. Not least because you will undoubtedly infect other people with contageous diseases & you can't function well if you are depressed. But teaching & being a headteacher means that you are in a caring profession & you tend to put the job first, even if that is misguided & supply teachers were difficult to get.

Having had a lifetime of co morbid chronic conditions I am a believer in distraction technique & the benefit of socialising. I can be in pain or feel significantly under the weather, but if I can take my mind off how I feel I do feel better. For me swimming or meeting friends & family is the best cure. If you are diagnosed with something there is evidence that the expansion of disease definitions and advanced technology contribute to overdiagnosis. I'm not saying that it is good to ignore symptoms, it definitely isn't, but mental health diagnoses have grown exponentially. The rate of common mental health conditions in 16- to 64-year-olds went from 15.5% in 1993 to 22.6% in 2023/24. The elephant in the room is Covid of course.

However I do think that my generation & previous generations were more resilient. They coped with massive problems & the NHS only came into existance in 1948. If we over medicalise we are almost conditioning, especially the young & impressionable, to not be able to cope. 

 

We must not become a sick society. We are better than that. We all need to live full lives & meet the challenges. 

Extinction

Extinction is the complete disappearance of a species, either naturally or due to human activity. Given the announcement this week that Russia has developed a nuclear powered missile that NATO calls Skyfall, which flew at Mach 10 for 8,700 miles & can pierce any defence shield, it seems that we are in another dangerous cold war, with unstable, undemocratic, leaders in charge of several well armed & powerful countries. This obviously threatens mass extinction.

Human-caused extinction rates are currently thousands of times higher than natural rates, driven primarily by habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, and over exploitation. Darwin showed that variations in a species may make some individuals better suited to their environment, while less-adapted individuals may fail to reproduce - survival of the fittest. So extinction is, to an extent, normal. 99% of all species that have ever lived are now extinct. Challenges like habitat fragmentation, climate change, natural disasters, disease, or competition for resources may outpace ability to adapt. But you can't adapt to nuclear weapons.

The geological record shows five major mass extinction events in Earth's history. The first was 443 million years ago. The fifth was 55 million years ago. Many scientists believe the planet is currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction event, driven largely by human activity. This extinction rate is estimated to be 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates.  

A 2019 report by the IPBES found that 1 million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction. There is a knock on effect of an extinction. The loss of a species, particularly a keystone species, can unbalance an ecosystem and trigger a cascade of further extinctions, that could take millions of years to recover. 

We humans are literally fighting a battle on two fronts to stop extinction. We need to stop unstainable exploitation of the earth & seas. We also need to learn how to co-exist with other nations & not use devastatingly destructive wars to settle disagreements over territory & culture.

 

Unfortunately I can't see much evidence of that happening. Essentially we humans are selfish rather than altruistic. Historically there are 10 civilisations that have gone extinct due to environmental changes, internal strife, warfare, or a combination of factors. This time we are talking about a world mass extinction. 

We don't seem capable of learning the lessons of history. We are in serious danger of being the agents of our own destruction. 
  

 

Reasons to be Cheerful

One of the pieces of music I have on my funeral playlist is "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". I'm nothing if not eclectic, I also have the "Dies Irae" chorus from Verdi's Requiem mass, which is the choral depiction of the day of judgement. If I'm ever at the pearly gates I'm really not sure how the scales of justice will fall. But then I think heaven & hell is within each of us, not an ultimate destination.

At the moment I am finding it quite difficult to focus on the many & varied reasons I have to be cheerful. There are so many things happening in my small world, but mainly in the world generally, that do not generate cheer. I don't think I need to enumerate them.

But in order not to sink into gloom I think that we all need to try to focus on the positive. 

Yesterday I wrote the draft of this listening to a playlist of the most beautiful piano solos. I was sitting in my study, in my home, looking out onto a street bathed in sunlight shining from a clear blue sky. Two of my neighbours boys popped over to give me a huge box of apples because they are all going on holiday. That means I will bake an apple cake & pass most on to my daughter who is a better cook than me. We went to a ceramic fair in Oxford in the morning which showcased the most inspiring collection of human creativity in clay. That was just one day in the life of.....

 

My point is that hopefully most of us can find reasons to be cheerful because if we are really honest there are always people who are much worse off than we are. If I feel in the least sorry for myself when I am in pain or very fatigued, I can think of people who have far worse medical conditions than I do. If something goes wrong in my life, generally it isn't drastic or life threatening. I dread house maintenance issues, it's never easy to sort them out, but I have a comfortable house that I own. 

I've had 80 years of a really interesting & productive life. Happiness is a gift to be appreciated & acknowledged. I'm not given to joy, but I do appreciate contentment. Each new day is a bonus & a blessing now. 

That's a reason to be very cheerful. 

 

Opinion

You may well think that I am very opinionated. You would be right, I am. Over the 14 years I have been posting Blogs, "Senile Sealion" has become a commentary on the world today as I see it. Since I am not yet at the stage of senility when I talk to myself, this is my outlet. In the absence of a husband to bore with my opinions, I put them into print & publish them. Over the years my audience has grown from a handful of noble friends to a high of approx 6,500 in a week. So someone somewhere is interested.

But what is an opinion? Its a belief, perspective, judgement, sentiment, thought, attitude, feeling, conviction....  We are all allowed to have opinions, a right to freedom of expression, on anything. Free speech is important. But are we also allowed to voice those that are derogatory or offensive to others? No, unlawful harassment or unlawful incitement to hatred or violence, for example, does not constitute free speech within the law and is not protected.

I try to be careful what I write & what I say. I have no wish to offend. The difficulty is that speech or the written word are both open to misinterpretation. For example, however careful I am with emails or texts, sometimes what I mean is interpreted differently by whoever reads it. I cannot be responsible for the thought processes of my reader, or listener. They may be emotional or irrational or suffering from some sort of mental disturbance. They may just have a different perspective. I know what I mean, but they can read or hear it completely differently. That's life. It's out of my control.

So I am concerned to see the trend, in the press & media, to speculate wildly, to voice unsubstantiated opinions without any evidential context, to react over emotionally to situations, to not be balanced. It's even worse than that because we have become the post truth era, where half truths & lies are routinely published without challenge. 

The big problem is you can't know what someone is going to say until they say it. You do know what people have said before & can anticipate their opinions though. You also do know what someone has written before. So surely the public need to be informed if an opinion is questionable.

Humans are very diverse. Our intelligence varies hugely.

 

The press & media are there to inform, accurately. But they can manipulate & influence opinion. It is important that we all realise that & each take steps to verify that what we are reading or hearing is accurate. Unless we do we will forfeit democracy & choice. We need to be selective about the voices we listen to. 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-opinion/Mass-media-and-social-media 

 

Thoughtlessness - Cause & Effect

I once had a house with wood burning stoves in 3 rooms. We burnt all sorts of wood. It was in a very rural area & wood wasn't difficult to come by. We were very prone to power outages, which often lasted days, so the wood burners that had a hotplate were very useful. We thought we were being very eco.

Now we know that burning the wrong wood risks a fine, the life of your stove, or even a house fire if you burn irresponsibly. https://www.hetas.co.uk/consumer/advice-hub/advice-articles/16-things-you-should-never-burn-in-your-wood-burner/  The main thing to understand is the emissions can be very  harmful, releasing greenhouse gases. Burning wood releases more CO2 for the same amount of heat or energy than fossil fuels like oil or gas. It is not carbon neutral because trees take decades to regrow and absorb the carbon they released during combustion. 

It's cause & effect rather than thoughtlessness. The big problem we have in decision making, whether it's micro / individual, or macro / political & philosophical, is that we need to engage our brains before action. We need to try to look to the whole question of what our actions today might mean for the consequences down the line. But we tend to make decisions that are expedient.

We need to develop creative thinking skills. We need to effectively gather, analyze, & evaluate information to solve problems, make decisions & achieve goals. People need critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, and reasoning in order to understand, apply, and create new knowledge. These skills are crucial for navigating the complex tasks the world today presents us with. 

In order to become people who make good choices & societies that do not push humanity towards oblivion, we need to first recognise that we have made poor choices in the past. Then we need to learn how to be more thoughtful & try to predict the outcomes of our actions & inactions.

We understand what cause & effect means, both individually & societally. But we are not yet prepared to take responsibility for outcomes & change in ways that are difficult. Until we do, thoughtlessness & expediency will take us down a path we really don't want to travel.  

 

 

Are You Transactional Or Altruistic?

On a micro scale a transaction is typically when money is exchanged for goods or services. But the meaning is wider than that. It can include when we do something in order to gain some sort of benefit for ourselves. So I might help you today expecting that you might eventually help me in return. "Quid pro Quo". Or I might do something in order to make me seem a better person. Life is often transactional, there's nothing innately wrong with that. The economy depends on transactions.

On the other hand human relationships also need altruism. The selfless concern for the well being of others. Helping someone at a cost to oneself without expecting anything in return, usually stemming from empathy and compassion, or a sense of duty and moral obligation. For example donating to charity or volunteering. 

In order to survive societies need both. There needs to be a balance. There are always choices between self interest & the good of society as a whole. The choices we make affect not only ourselves, but also others. That is at the level of family & friends, but also our society as a whole & even the wider world.

We each have intellect & an inner instinctive voice of right & wrong to guide our choices. But we also have self interest & the temptation to do something that could harm others but benefit us personally or someone close to us. These micro moral dilemmas happen in macro form on the world stage & have untold capacity for good or harm. 

There is a tendency to be blind to the impact the wrong choices make. There is also a protectionist tendency to convince ourselves that our individual choices make no difference in the "grand scheme of things". We deliberately ignore the impact of cumulative not "putting our head above the parapet". 

On the other hand we can make our voices heard today in ways that were impossible a few years ago. We can affect change. I am old enough to remember taking part in the Ban the Bomb marches & the protests at Greenham Common. We didn't have mobile phones, computers or social media, but we were a force to be reckoned with. 

Now there are so many easy & immediate ways to participate in politics & decision making. There is the possibility of every voice becoming a cumulative groundswell of opinion.

We must use it or it will be taken from us. "1984" is not just a novel, it's a real possibility. 

 

 

 

Trumps Behaviour & the Nobel Peace Prize.

I can dislike your behaviour intensely, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I dislike you, or think you are a bad person. Why am I thinking that? Because of Trump, the Gaza ceasefire & the Nobel Peace Prize. In actual fact, in Trumps case, I do dislike him - a lot. I certainly don't think he is a good person. But I can only judge him on his behaviour, because I am never likely to meet him. 

I was quite surprised at the 1895 criteria for the Peace Prize - "the person who, in the preceding year, shall have done the most, or the best work, for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses". This seems to me to be surprisingly narrow. 

There have always been controversial winners - Shimon Peres who developed Israels nuclear capability & was arguably a war criminal, also Henry Kissinger who was notorious for his devastating bombing campaign against Cambodia for example. 

 

There have also been notable omissions - Mahatma Ghandi & the Dalai Lama stand out. 

This years winner Maria Corida Machado is a Venezuelan opposition politician & activist who played a leading part in organising demonstrations against Maduro's dictatorship, which is characterised by electoral fraud, serious human rights abuses, rampant corruption & severe economic hardship. Opposing Maduro in a country like Venezuela takes balls. She is in her 40's & has 3 children. In my view that makes her very brave.

So where does Trump come in the list of those bidding for recognitian as peace makers?  According to the White house he has brokered peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Cambodia and Thailand, Israel and Iran, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India & Pakistan, Egypt & Ethiopia, Serbia & Kosovo & the Abraham Accords. According to BBC Verify those claims really don't stand up. A ceasefire isn't lasting peace as the Palestinians & Israelis may well discover. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y3599gx4qo 

He actively lobbies to get the prize & is so narcissistic that he thinks it's a done deal. He didn't actually write the current ceasefire agreement between Israel & Palestine. The proposal was first drafted by mediators from the United States, Egypt, and Qatar, accepted by Hamas on 5 May 2024, and presented by U.S. president Joe Biden on 31 May. On 10 June, the United Nations Security Council supported it as Resolution 2735. He's a bully too.

But my opposition to even considering him for a Noble peace prize is even more than that. He was impeached for inciting a mob to storm the Capitol building because he lost the election to Biden saying: "if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore". He has never conceded that Biden won. Incitement is not a crime under the First Amendment unless it meets certain criteria. So he got away with it. He uses aggressive, divisive, and dehumanizing language, which is hateful against racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.

I rest my case.