Cherishing what makes us the same.

Subject: Cherishing what makes us the same.

We live in interesting times. This years Turner Prize, a price offered to artists in Britain for the best artistic presentation was turned down by the 4 nominees on he basis that you shouldn't  choose which was better then the other, that all their work had equal merit and deserved to receive equal acclaim.
In a world of winner takes all and first past the post politics where everyone other than the winner is excluded this act of rebellion towards the system has set the cat amongst the pigeons. We have this ethos in some schools where winning is nullified  by awarding prizes to everyone and whilst it seems to people of my age and upbringing that there are winners and losers across society, it is rewarding to see four potential winners of a prize which carries a substantial monitory reward refusing the prize on the grounds that for one to receive the prize was discriminatory and that each diverse work had its own value which shouldn't be judged against the other.  It could be argued that in entering a 'competition' the assumption that there would be judging and analysis of which was best meant that they were wrong to renege at this late stage and should have stayed away from entering but the impressive sense of collaborative solidarity was immense.
The question of whether there should be winners or losers is at the heart of the ideological philosophy behind socialism and is completely at odds to the neo-liberal conservatism which has taken hold in the United States and is seeking a reassurance in this country under the direction of Boris Johnson. 
Winners and losers was the cherished ideology of Mrs Thatcher as she sort to shake up the complacency, as she saw it, of the British mindset. No doubt as a political leader she saw her mission to stir up and revitalise the economy by first taking away  the power of worker representation (the Unions) in any labour dispute with the employers. Secondly in placing the individual over the many she re-emphasised the advantages of the class system and money over a lack of it. She illustrated the advantages of private education and the advantage of privilege. Her destruction of large swathes of the North by destroying, as they see it, the social cohesion which bound them together and by disembowelling large parts of the industries which worked in the north through government discouragement of financial and investment in those industries.
Winners and losers. When we see little Johnny's face cracked with disappointment at not receiving a prize, any prize, even the prize for trying it seems that the system is wrong. We are all winners and losers in so many ways that we should be encouraged to look under the mantle of what is taken for success or failure and reexamine the person we are judging, not only in the light of the new BMW but perhaps the effort he or she puts in to caring for their family and the larger group around them. The institution in the Queens honours list to include the 'dinner lady' or the 'postman' who have been nominated by their community is a move in the right direction and should be publicised more. 
The society or community which Mrs Thatcher so famously disparaged in favour of the individual is our strength not our weakness. The men who ran and chased and disarmed the terrorist on London Bridge, the help flood victims give to each other and the population at large in its never ending charity giving to others, both at home and overseas is the real measure of a society not the  bravado of individual success, no matter how important to the individual. 
How do we reawaken the importance of community away from that of the individual. How can we re-equip ourselves with the sense of the people around us, their similarities rather than their differences. We should stop looking to see what puts us ahead and makes us special, rather cherish what makes us the same.