An expression which I hold to be the truism that it so obviously is. Although, of course, many of us spend much of our lives trying to act as if we were, islands, that is. Mostly, I believe, to our personal detriment. After all, human beings are social animals and to choose not to be so, to my mind, requires effort, even if it is subconscious. That, however, is not to say that each of us isn’t responsible for our own actions. In fact, unless we have some sort of disability which helps to determine those actions, we are. I would describe the situation as being responsible for your own actions while having responsibilities towards others. The starting point of which should be treating others as you, yourself, would like to be treated.
Now, I may be old fashioned, although I think not, but I still believe that most of us are decent, honest people just trying to get by in life. Furthermore, that those who, wilfully, aren’t comprise a very small section of the population. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that people who do behave in this way can only get away with it because of the inherent decency of everyone else. Unfortunately, they have the capacity to cause disproportionate damage. Need it be that way? I think not.
Experience has shown me that some people are very self motivated while others may be less so. Also, that individuals may be motivated by different things and that that motivation may change during their lives. I also believe in, what I have heard described as “the extraordinary talents of ordinary people”. This in relation to a group of people who were homeless and unemployed who built their own sustainable homes. I would also use it to describe a group of people with special needs who, in 1991, built their own horticultural training centre. These projects demonstrate the vast amount of untapped talent in this country which we need to release both for the good of those concerned and society as a whole. So, why are we governed by people who don’t seem to see this and appear to view life so differently to the rest of us? Well, that tells me more about the people they, themselves, mix with than it does about how the rest of us behave. What wouldn’t any of us give, though, for a government that actually helped people to develop those untapped talents and, in doing so, create a better world?
Oh, and if you should want to read about the schemes I mentioned and how we might start to create that society, my first book, “The Real Big Society and My Part In It” is available on Amazon and in Kindle format. Happy reading.