Apologies in Advance: Some things are hard to hear

This is how things used to be:

Why is it that the mere mention of mental illness arouses such extreme reactions?

We are freaks, outcasts, deviants.  We  arouse hostility and fear.  Unlike Bedlam today’s lunatic asylums do not attract tourists.  Nobody wanders through the wards laughing, joking, pointing at the inmates. But I  know that if they could they most certainly would. We are  protected by the thin veneer of civilisation.  But something tells me that in the years since Bedlam closed its doors, humanity hasn’t changed a bit.  The stage occupied by the mad has moved to that voyeur’s paradise: reality television.

The mentally Ill represent devastation.  Lives laid to waste by some invisible force over which we  have no control.  We do not follow the rules.  We do not obey instructions.  We are weak, we are feckless, they are helpless.  Our very presence corrupts society.  The industrious middle classes are the most hostile.  It is  not that they lack imagination.  It is not  that they are devoid of empathy.  Far from it.  They posses those qualities in abundance.  They understand more than they want to.

People are afraid because one day they know it could happen to them.  Like aerial bombardment.  No one knows who the missiles will hit next.  But they will never acknowledge that.  Not in a million years.

If you have a problem with this then please tell me why you have a problem with this. I need to hear alternative views.

 

Cyclical Amnesia? (Or The Rats Are Fleeing the Sinking Ship)

When the rats start fleeing a sinking ship it is time to start looking for the nearest lifeboat!

According to Labour MP Tom Harris: (See here and here) “I remember scoffing when John Major said we should understand a bit less and condemn a bit more, but he was right.”

No he wasn’t. It was wrong then and it’s equally wrong now. Understanding should be an essential prerequisite to condemnation. For example you wouldn’t want a jury to find the defendant in a criminal trial guilty without a thorough understanding of the facts of the case. Or would you?

And, if I recall correctly, John Major made that comment at a time when members of his own government were falling far short of the standards of morality they were attempting to impose on others. Did he make that remark before, during or after his affair with Edwina Currie? Or is adultery acceptable in his moral universe?  (Addendum: It was after but he only expressed public regret when the charming Ms. Currie ‘exposed’ him in her execrably written diaries. Am I the only person on the planet who believes that those who claim to be superior should actually be superior? I love the caption beneath the picture of what looks like Edwina Currie admonishing the then PM for some perceived wrongdoing: ‘Currie said she felt ‘forgotten’ when Major was premier’.  Oh boo hoo! Diddums etcetera! Could somebody please remind me again why I should take advice on morality from an adulterer?  Here is yet another blogger who seems to think we should. What is it with all this selective amnesia?  Are they putting something in the water?  I knew there was a perfectly sensible reason why I only drink diet coke! It is not, I suspect, that the Tories et al want us to lead morally flawless lives but that, like them, we should be seen to be living morally flawless lives while doing exactly what we please when we are off stage.)

John Major presided over a bunch of toe-sucking, duplicitous, avaricious, hypocritical adulterers but they were, at the very least, entertaining.

Mr. Harris proceeds to assert that: ‘Common sense dictates that, in general, children benefit from having the love of a mother and a father.’ Interestingly though, according to this wikipedia entry, he himself is divorced.  One rule for him, another for everyone else.

According to a commenter in The Daily Mail (yes, like Lot’s wife I looked back) ‘Scummy mummies have been on Nu-Lab agenda since taking office, I’m of the opinion many blinkered Nu-Lab MPs are appalled at the speed a which Nu-Lying-Labour has destroyed our way of life and family values. ‘ My response (which was never published): ‘I think you’ll find that the number of single mothers rose exponentially under the Tories, as did the practice of shunting the jobless onto incapacity benefit in order to massage the unemployment figures. The major political parties seem to believe that the population of this country suffer from a kind of cyclical amnesia and I fear they may be right.’  Actually I’d go so far as to say that the population of this great nation have the collective memory of a retarded goldfish.

And we don’t really want to eradicate poverty, do we?  The children of the impoverished (intellectually, spiritually and relatively) have traditionally made rather good cannon fodder and God knows we need some of that right now. And middle class parents should remember that the success of their children depends on the failure of the children of their social inferiors. If they don’t tolerate this then their children won’t be next.

Now more than ever before we are measured solely by the amount of money we earn. This means that, in the UK, the average footballer is of more worth to society than the average doctor or the average teacher. There are many people on low incomes who work very hard and make a valuable contribution to society. One example that springs to mind is an acquaintance of mine who is a care assistant who works in a retirement home. She receives tax credits and she deserves them too. Her low income is part of the reason people can afford to send their elderly relatives to these places.

It may also be useful to look at history. Many writers, artists etc who made lasting contributions to our cultural history were not particularly economically productive in their own lifetimes (examples include Emily Dickinson, Vincent Van Gogh, Jane Austen, the Brontes).

It is a barren, depressing world indeed if the only measure of our worth is our economic productivity.

Fragility

Our world is too small, our weapons too powerful and we are too fragile for this.

Episode of Panorama:

on euthanasia, in the wake of a number of British citizens travelling to Dignitas in Switzerland.  It can be found here. They are described as a ‘Swiss assisted suicide (euthanasia) group that helps those with incurable physical and mental illnesses’.

The possibility for voluntary euthanasia for the mentally ill is hardly ever addressed.  It’s too controversial.  We too are trapped not by physical pain but by emotional pain.  I am not asking for your empathy.  I am not even asking for your sympathy.  I am only asking to be heard.  I can’t do what you want me to do.  I cannot be like you.  All the medication in the world will never be enough.  Nobby is the only thing that is anchoring me to this life, and as much as I hate to acknowledge this, he is the only human being on the planet I can relate to in any meaningful way.  With other people it is as though there is an invisible, soundproof wall that descends and stands between us whenever I try to initiate contact.  I am screaming and pounding on the wall until my fists are bloodied but I remain unheard.  I can see and hear them but they are not even aware of my existence.

Dr S says that I look nothing like Karen Matthews.
Dr S says I am nothing like Karen Matthews.
He says I do not deserve to die
I say he is wrong.

‘Welfarism’

In response to this although it probably won’t be printed:

Most of the people I know on ‘welfare’ have very serious mental health problems. In the past such people would have been inhabiting long-stay mental health wards in traditional psychiatric hospitals. They do not exist anymore because they were closed down and the land on which they were built was sold off at rock-bottom prices to private industry. Who was responsible for this? The last Tory government. You say you have been a doctor for twenty years. Did you approve of this and, if not, did you protest? Just curious.

I am also curious about what the good doctor thinks of middle class people who abuse their children.  When I was on an eating disorders unit I heard some pretty nasty stories* of  middle class parents maltreating their children.  What causes this?  These people most certainly were not on welfare.  And, if the actions of Karen Matthews reflect the morality and ‘values’ (or lack thereof) of an entire class then is the same true of their social superiors who subject their own children to abuse? And, if not, then why not?

*And I am prepared to admit that my fellow patients’ stories may have been exaggerations or even outright fabrications.  But these people are middle class.  They wouldn’t do a thing like that, would they? They are, after all, innately superior.  But in the unlikely event that my fellow patients were lying, whining attention seekers then that must mean that all middle class brats are lying, whining attention seekers because for the concept of collective guilt to have any validity then it must be applicable to all groups of people, right?

Addendum: You may be aware that more and more working class girls are now suffering from eating disorders. Anorexia, in particular, used to be an illness confined almost exclusively to the middle classes. Still, the lower classes have always been urged to emulate their ‘betters’ and I guess that is exactly what they are doing. Good on ’em, huh?