From meritocracy to mediocracy in the wink of an eye

 

Subject: From meritocracy to mediocracy in the wink of an eye.

Our interpretation of events are inevitably clouded by our interpretation of the world and how it works and mediocracy is a frame of mind, etched out of the generations who were told what to do and what to think and have stopped thinking for themselves and rather wait patiently to be told what's best for them, the doffed cap, the bowed head says it all. Meritocracy is for others with time to think and space to think in.

Surrounded by thousands, living in tiny houses in the claustrophobic streets of the cities and small towns dotted mainly in the more stark northern landscape, they are squashed and shouted at, shoved around all their lives seeking the sanctuary of the pub and the common humour of friends who share much the same lives and speak an accent which reflects their heritage.

The idea that a new fast railway service which was planned to connect London with the north was a soap opera in itself. The myth of a cost budgeted system to persuade everyone that it was affordable was only the first of the cruel mistruths propounded by the politicians who feared the growing divide between north and south. Proper investment in new industry which would incentivise the north to think it had attained parity was never likely to allow to happen and so the idea of shipping influential business people from their homes in the north to jobs in the south seemed a good solution.  As always the bulk of people would be left behind isolated in their Victorian Crofts left to value their open countryside and their humour, the result of being the poor second cousin in a country which designates itself ‘Great’.

The budget to build the lines soon doubled but once started the idea that fed hope into the people living in the north that the decision makers in Westminster had their interests in mind was allowed to prosper. To feel wanted is a deep human desire and with years of neglect anything, even a questionable service, which would be unaffordable for most and only cut 30 minuets off the journey, was a gratuitous piece of bribery to placate the wealthy business people living above Coventry.

The history of this deceitful deficit thinking is described in Orwell's "Road to Wigan Pier" and J B Priestly's books such as "An English Journey"  the description of his journey around England and his reflection on the people he met and their way of life.

The wealth of living in and amongst austerity is contrasted with living in the Home Counties, the infusion of interlocking responsibilities which being poor brings is a trait best seen in the north and makes one pause when confronted with a paucity in much of the south where the competition to get on kills much of our time for others.