The Judge RANTS!
Date: 18/12/11
Sick, Sick, Sick
If, for one fleeting moment of self-delusion, you have allowed yourself to believe all the shit from those who have never known a day's disadvantage in their lives who tell you that "We're all in this together", and that everyone must "make sacrifices" to put the economy back to a state whereby the bonds market and other sociopaths can use our fair land as a fucking casino yet again; if you have allowed yourself to be taken in by that egregious lie, then read this piece by disability campaigner Sue Marsh:
And so we have come to a pass whereby the seriously ill and disabled are coldly, calculatingly denied the help they need, and the help they should be entitled to expect from a civilised and very rich society.
There are sinister overtones to this particular case, in that it would not be remotely surprising to anyone who has observed the naked politicisation of public administration in the past few years if it were to be found that Sue had been turned down for DLA because she campaigns to defend the weak and the sick.
Beyond that, however, this is merely the current modus operandi of those running the welfare systems of this country. Perhaps this is what that Single Point Of Failure currently calling himself Prime Minister meant when he said that Britain is a Christian country:
"To those who have it shall be given, and those who have not, it shall be taken away."
Leaving aside the sheer chutzpah of Cameron's claims, though, the fact that administrators feel that they can do this because they believe they can get away with it is the inevitable end-product of a process whereby an atmosphere is allowed to develop - or is even encouraged to develop - whereby the tiny minority who abuse the system are demonised out of all proportion to whatever harm they may be causing. Incrementally, that anathema will descend on those who are guilty of nothing more than wanting to receive that to which the law - and common human decency - states they are entitled.
That process of dehumanising that latter category makes it far easier for those in power to do things to that group without the danger of any significant outrage which might otherwise be engendered.
It's an old tactic; indeed, it's as old as the earliest pogrom you can think of. And such is the lamentable state of ignorance in which most of the public exists - a state which is also allowed or encouraged by those who fear that their privilege may be challenged - that it still works. Remember Niemöller.
It really does feel nowadays as if we're living in a land under alien occupation; ruled by people who might as well be a different species, such is their lack of understanding, empathy or compassion. Stand up and fight, in howsoever cack-handed a way, and here come the reprisals in the myriad ways in which the powerful can deliver them, be it by petty officials covering their own arses, by complaisant police who have embraced the status of being private militias for banks and property speculators, or by a judiciary which now clearly sees itself as a caste of class warriors.
Protests and petitions will have little or no effect on this. Despite my wishes to the contrary, I really can see no positive change occurring without violent upheaval for which what happened back in August may have been merely the warm-up act. Perhaps only when the politicians start getting bricks through their windows will they actually take notice of what is really happening outside their cosy bubble and its attendant media flying circus.
I wish it were otherwise; but I fear it is not.
