Respect Yourself

A couple of days ago, Channel 4 News, had a story about a growing number of children entering school, who lacked basic skills such as not being toilet trained, some still using dummies, unable to talk in sentences (a problem not confined to disadvantaged children as I described recently in relation to some politicians), others who had never seen a book, and, when they did, tried to swipe left and right on it, as though it was a tablet. Of course, the people they had on to talk about these problems, explained it in terms of increased poverty, parents who worked long hours and so on. No; its child neglect pure and simple. 

One middle class woman, on the programme, even tried to blame the technology companies that produce the tablets and other devices that, in fact, are a means of making life easier, of saving time, and so on, for the fact that parents misuse them, by neglecting their own parenting responsibilities, by handing over the technology to their kids to keep them occupied, or because they are too busy themselves swiping left and right, or looking at the latest Instagram pictures of someone's dinner to be spending time with their own kids. Yes, technology companies producing various bits of social media software use sophisticated psychological techniques that work like drugs in promoting addiction, to keep people glued to their screen, but, at the end of the day, its your mind, take responsibility for it, just as its your body, and you should take responsibility for it, and not blame someone else because you eat too much, are too lazy to cook cheaper, healthier food, and instead live off expensive takeaways, and just as they are your kids; take responsibility for them. If you can't even exert some control over your use of your devices, at the expense of your kids lives, then its time to get rid of those devices, just as if you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, its not a good idea to keep them around the house. Don't expect someone else to do it for you, or look to blame someone else for your own failure to do so. In the words of the Staple Singers in yesterdays Friday Night Disco – Respect Yourself. 

The blame culture that was presented by the various contributors to the Channel 4 News item, is what you get as a result of years of middle-class, liberal welfarism, that sucks any sense of dignity, and self-respect from the working-class, reducing it to a state of abject dependency. It is the very opposite of the approach of Marx and Engels, and of other earlier socialists who sought to promote not the dependency of the working-class on philanthropy, either from rich individuals or the capitalist state, but who sought to have the working-class develop its own respect in itself, its own self-reliance, self-activity, and self- government. Marx and Engels recognised that, in the middle of the 19th century, many workers themselves still had not reached a level of education and culture that would lead them to ensure that their kids were properly educated, which is why, although they opposed the state getting involved in education, they saw a role for state school inspectors, just as there were state factory inspectors, whose job was to police minimum standards. But, Marx and Engels certainly did not see the lack of education and culture of some workers in that respect as something that was to be accommodated to or excused, or the responsibility for which was to be thrown on to others. They saw it as something that the workers, as a class should themselves address, as soon as possible by raising up their own level of education and culture. 

“If the middle and higher classes neglect their duties toward their offspring, it is their own fault. Sharing the privileges of these classes, the child is condemned to suffer from their prejudices. 

The case of the working class stands quite different. The working man is no free agent. In too many cases, he is even too ignorant to understand the true interest of his child, or the normal conditions of human development. However, the more enlightened part of the working class fully understands that the future of its class, and, therefore, of mankind, altogether depends upon the formation of the rising working generation. They know that, before everything else, the children and juvenile workers must be saved from the crushing effects of the present system. This can only be effected by converting social reason into social force, and, under given circumstances, there exists no other method of doing so, than through general laws, enforced by the power of the state. In enforcing such laws, the working class do not fortify governmental power. On the contrary, they transform that power, now used against them, into their own agency. They effect by a general act what they would vainly attempt by a multitude of isolated individual efforts... 

The combination of paid productive labour, mental education bodily exercise and polytechnic training, will raise the working class far above the level of the higher and middle classes.” 

(Marx – Instructions For Delegates to the Provisional General Council of the First International) 

The consequence of the last decade of austerity, not to mention the effect of the last thirty years during which time wages have been stagnant or falling has undoubtedly resulted in a rise in relative poverty. But, things like spending time with your kids, so that they are toilet trained, don't still depend on dummies, at least know what a book is, and have at least the minimum of verbal interaction with you that they understand basic words, and sentences, are not a function of relative poverty. It requires even pretty high degrees of absolute poverty for those things to be justified. But, the reality is that, although relative poverty has risen as a result of the effects of conservative social-democracy, over the last thirty years, and particularly of austerity over the last decade, real living standards today are much higher than they were thirty years, let alone fifty years ago, or a hundred years ago, when these problems did not exist at this kind of level. 

The average deficit to GDP ratio under the last Labour Government
was half what it had been under Thatcher/Major, up to the financial
meltdown.  Even taking that into consideration it was still much lower
on average, and for four years at the end of the 90's and start of the
 2000's, Labour actually ran a budget surplus.  The Liberal-Tory claims are
simply lies. 

The middle class woman on C4 News, who wanted to blame the technology companies, stated that she had told her teenage sons to spend less time on their devices, but then admitted that, whilst she was conveying this message to them, she was herself engrossed in her own device! What this reflects is a lack of self-respect, and self-control, and a willingness to fail to take responsibility for your own actions, on the basis that you can always lay the blame on someone else. That is the culture that liberal welfarism has engendered in people. And, of course, why wouldn't you take that easy option. After all, when greedy speculators, having created huge bubbles in asset prices, saw their paper wealth shredded in 2008, and other occasions, when the prices of property, shares and bonds crashed, they were bailed out too by the state, in Britain, to the tune of £2 trillion. And, of course, the Tories and Liberals instead of putting the blame for that where it lay, instead lied and blamed the Labour government for supposedly overspending, when, in fact, the deficit to GDP ratio under Blair and Brown had been only half what it had been under Thatcher and Major. 

The responsibility for child neglect cannot be placed at the door of technology companies, whose devices actually are part of the general improvement in living standards, and act to free up time that could be used for people to spend with their kids, if they chose to do so, rather than wasting their lives, swiping left and right. Nor can it be placed at the door of increased poverty. When I was a child, I suffered from chronic bronchial asthma, and was seriously ill for long periods of time, during which my parents had to take it in shifts caring for me. When I almost died from pneumonia, at the age of 12, my father, having worked from 7 in the morning until 5 in the evening in a heavy engineering job, used to come home, and literally carry me on his back, around the house, jogging up and down, to try to enable me to breathe, and that went on for about a fortnight. 

In my father's family, he was the youngest of four sons and two daughters. My grandmother started work on a potbank when she was 10 years old. My grandfather was a miner, working in three foot seams, on his back, digging out coal, manually, with a drill, pick and shovel, at a time when 10 hour days, six days a week were the norm. In a two bedroom terraced cottage, the kids had no choice but to share not only bedrooms but, beds, sleeping head to toe. The cottages had a shared outside toilet. But, neither my father nor any of his siblings failed to get toilet trained, or continued to use dummies, or failed to be able to read when they started school, and so on. 

So, save me the liberal blame culture bullshit that tries to excuse child neglect by trying to lay the blame on someone else. If you can buy a tablet, that your kid is palmed off with, so that they try to swipe books, rather than read them, you can afford to buy a book instead, or you can borrow a book, go to the library and so on, none of which costs any money, unlike a tablet, or iPhone. I see young women every day, pushing around pushchairs, too busy swiping their smart phones as they walk, to be paying any attention to their own children, and that is not a result of poverty, or of being too busy. 

Respect yourself, because if you can't how do you expect anyone else to.