ext_42737 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
mintogrubb.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
talkpolitics2010-10-04 04:24 pm
mintogrubb.livejournal.com) wrote in talkpolitics2010-10-04 04:24 pm
It's Not About You...
I read the story that Futurebird posted here recently. I lift this quote therefrom.
"You're not really an athlete..." the coach had said "... If this is about fitness I don't want you on the team, this is sport not a way to just get in shape." I never returned after he said that.
And that seemed to spark something. that story was about a girl who ran for the joy of it. not to beat someoen else over the line, but just to feel free and enjoy the feeling of the wind on her face. And The System is not interested in that.
The System, in fact, is not interested in anything other than itself. I don't deny that The system rewards and punishes people. Oh, yeah, it even rewards those who did nothing to deserve it.
We call it Privilege. And lets be honest, freind - you do have some.
If you are sitting in front of a computer reading this, even if you went and bought it yourself, you happen to be living in a land where such things are available in the shops, where the lights are on, and where literacy lessons are there for you to come by. If you can read, you are in a minority of the world's population. If you have computer access, you get included among the nearly 1% of us who live on earth with that privilege. So let's go at it from there...
I watched a film once called "One Flew Over the Cookoos Nest" - about a guy in a Hospital for the mentally ill who was always trying to fight the system that put him in there.
And another guy watching with me, when it was over, said to me "Every institution is run for the benefit of those in charge". And I thought about that. See, he didn't just mean 'Institutions' as in 'hospitals and schools' f'rinstace - he meant All Places - the Police, the Military, the Courts, The Government and The State. It is all there for Them , not for me and you.
That School Coach was not here to help a young girl fulfill her dreams or find her potential. He was only interested in finding willing tools to build for the greater glory of Smalltown High, and his own career. And he is not alone.
The cops are not there to protect you, they are there to uphold the Law. They want to see that the Law does not get broken. never mind an old mans leg, or an old woman's windows. If they get broken, the law will be along to take a statement when they are good and ready. But a young woman or an elderly man carries a bit mace or a knuckleduster for self defence on a dark street - the Law does not allow it. Not in the UK, anyway.
A woman called bell hooks (who writes her name without caps) points out in her wrtings that women of colour are getting marginalised even within the Feminist Movement. See, she explains, the women who run NOW and similar set ups - they are wealthy white women, and these fronts want black women and blue collar women to join and pay their dues - but it's the weathy white wimmin who get the benefits- it is the issues of *wealthy white women* that get the time and the attention. Not the concerns of bell hooks or anyone else. Feminism? it ain't there for you, ladies, its there for them as runs it. Not you.
And don't think that if you are white and wealthy and ever so male, that the world is gonna take care of you. Jon Snow was a reporter for the BBC. A white guy who was not just middle class- he was Upper Class. And English. You may decide that he was truly Privileged, on that basis. But, he explains in his book what happened to him at school.
At boarding school, the boys slept together in dormitories, but there was also a 'day room' where the young boys were allowed to have a small desk and pin up pictures of mum and dad on the wall and keep personal items in the small desk that was allocated to them.
Imagine Jon Snow's horror and suprise in coming back to the dayroom after a school rugby match and seeing all his stuff was gone. then a bunch of half a dozen lads came rushing in, grabbed him by the hair and dragged him over to the large wooden wastebin , where all the tattered remains of his photos, books and possessions were lying in the bottom mangled and spattered with ink and Blanco. They pushed him in as well. Oh, there was a lot of noise. The school masters must have heard something, but nobody ever intervened. The bullying was institutionalised, and sexual abuse of younger boys by older pupils happened on a regular basis, he says - it is all there on page 28 of his book "Shooting History".
So, even if you are white, and pay an absolute fortune for your sons education, you just can't expect them to take care of your child. They don't. And if you are a 14 year old white boy, you can't expect anyone to treat you well, or even decently, just b/cos you own a White Priv card. I know, because I went to an English boarding school myself.
Even here, in a political forum, we are debating mid term elections. Let's put this in perspective - one twentieth of the world's population lives in the USA - so what the hell has their election got to do with the rest of us? The majority of us who have never even been there? Why are some of the tags in this community about minor *American* personalities unknown in Mexico, never mind Madrid or Manchester? I mean, where are the tags for Tony Blair or Margetret Thatcher? I can't post tags about Caroline Lucas, or Paxman , but I see that someone called Rush Limbo gets a spot - who the heck is he?
But it's no good saying that this community is US-centric - the Guys In Charge obviously just love it that way and anyone who complains too loud will find that the rules get changed in order to kick 'em out. You watch.
But yeah - it is not about you - whoever you are. It is about *them*, and keeping Them in cushy jobs and easy money, and giving them the right to frame the debate in their terms and to set the agenda. Police, teachers, politicians - even popes and preachers - very few of these actually give a damn about the people they profess to serve.
When they come to us and tell us we need to tighten our belts, when they come and say that we need to get in the queue and wait till they get round to addressing our issues in their own sweet time, we need to remember that it isn't about them either.
If it doesn't work for us, we have the right to say so - and lemme tell ya people, this lousy world that those guys out there are running does not work for me! it is not about you - any of you. But it should be about Us, me included.
"You're not really an athlete..." the coach had said "... If this is about fitness I don't want you on the team, this is sport not a way to just get in shape." I never returned after he said that.
And that seemed to spark something. that story was about a girl who ran for the joy of it. not to beat someoen else over the line, but just to feel free and enjoy the feeling of the wind on her face. And The System is not interested in that.
The System, in fact, is not interested in anything other than itself. I don't deny that The system rewards and punishes people. Oh, yeah, it even rewards those who did nothing to deserve it.
We call it Privilege. And lets be honest, freind - you do have some.
If you are sitting in front of a computer reading this, even if you went and bought it yourself, you happen to be living in a land where such things are available in the shops, where the lights are on, and where literacy lessons are there for you to come by. If you can read, you are in a minority of the world's population. If you have computer access, you get included among the nearly 1% of us who live on earth with that privilege. So let's go at it from there...
I watched a film once called "One Flew Over the Cookoos Nest" - about a guy in a Hospital for the mentally ill who was always trying to fight the system that put him in there.
And another guy watching with me, when it was over, said to me "Every institution is run for the benefit of those in charge". And I thought about that. See, he didn't just mean 'Institutions' as in 'hospitals and schools' f'rinstace - he meant All Places - the Police, the Military, the Courts, The Government and The State. It is all there for Them , not for me and you.
That School Coach was not here to help a young girl fulfill her dreams or find her potential. He was only interested in finding willing tools to build for the greater glory of Smalltown High, and his own career. And he is not alone.
The cops are not there to protect you, they are there to uphold the Law. They want to see that the Law does not get broken. never mind an old mans leg, or an old woman's windows. If they get broken, the law will be along to take a statement when they are good and ready. But a young woman or an elderly man carries a bit mace or a knuckleduster for self defence on a dark street - the Law does not allow it. Not in the UK, anyway.
A woman called bell hooks (who writes her name without caps) points out in her wrtings that women of colour are getting marginalised even within the Feminist Movement. See, she explains, the women who run NOW and similar set ups - they are wealthy white women, and these fronts want black women and blue collar women to join and pay their dues - but it's the weathy white wimmin who get the benefits- it is the issues of *wealthy white women* that get the time and the attention. Not the concerns of bell hooks or anyone else. Feminism? it ain't there for you, ladies, its there for them as runs it. Not you.
And don't think that if you are white and wealthy and ever so male, that the world is gonna take care of you. Jon Snow was a reporter for the BBC. A white guy who was not just middle class- he was Upper Class. And English. You may decide that he was truly Privileged, on that basis. But, he explains in his book what happened to him at school.
At boarding school, the boys slept together in dormitories, but there was also a 'day room' where the young boys were allowed to have a small desk and pin up pictures of mum and dad on the wall and keep personal items in the small desk that was allocated to them.
Imagine Jon Snow's horror and suprise in coming back to the dayroom after a school rugby match and seeing all his stuff was gone. then a bunch of half a dozen lads came rushing in, grabbed him by the hair and dragged him over to the large wooden wastebin , where all the tattered remains of his photos, books and possessions were lying in the bottom mangled and spattered with ink and Blanco. They pushed him in as well. Oh, there was a lot of noise. The school masters must have heard something, but nobody ever intervened. The bullying was institutionalised, and sexual abuse of younger boys by older pupils happened on a regular basis, he says - it is all there on page 28 of his book "Shooting History".
So, even if you are white, and pay an absolute fortune for your sons education, you just can't expect them to take care of your child. They don't. And if you are a 14 year old white boy, you can't expect anyone to treat you well, or even decently, just b/cos you own a White Priv card. I know, because I went to an English boarding school myself.
Even here, in a political forum, we are debating mid term elections. Let's put this in perspective - one twentieth of the world's population lives in the USA - so what the hell has their election got to do with the rest of us? The majority of us who have never even been there? Why are some of the tags in this community about minor *American* personalities unknown in Mexico, never mind Madrid or Manchester? I mean, where are the tags for Tony Blair or Margetret Thatcher? I can't post tags about Caroline Lucas, or Paxman , but I see that someone called Rush Limbo gets a spot - who the heck is he?
But it's no good saying that this community is US-centric - the Guys In Charge obviously just love it that way and anyone who complains too loud will find that the rules get changed in order to kick 'em out. You watch.
But yeah - it is not about you - whoever you are. It is about *them*, and keeping Them in cushy jobs and easy money, and giving them the right to frame the debate in their terms and to set the agenda. Police, teachers, politicians - even popes and preachers - very few of these actually give a damn about the people they profess to serve.
When they come to us and tell us we need to tighten our belts, when they come and say that we need to get in the queue and wait till they get round to addressing our issues in their own sweet time, we need to remember that it isn't about them either.
If it doesn't work for us, we have the right to say so - and lemme tell ya people, this lousy world that those guys out there are running does not work for me! it is not about you - any of you. But it should be about Us, me included.