Thread by @ClearlyPossible, So a thread about social cohesion, why it matters & the problems [...]

So a thread about social cohesion, why it matters & the problems we are storing up.

Currently readying 'Utopia for Realists' by @rcbregman. Wonderful book that is making me think -recommend it +++

An interesting (real) tale about when the Irish bankers went on strike..

1/18

In 1970, the Irish Bankers went on strike - Overnight 85% of the countries reserves were locked down - For 6 months and no one really noticed.
2/18

It wasn't like nurses or refuse collectors going on strike - people just worked around it. The realisation was that the main job of the bankers was to shift wealth around,
rather than create wealth or do something really necessary that keeps us alive and keeps us well.

3/18

In the 1970s, the Irish found another way to shift wealth around via homemade currency -£5 billion of homemade currency.

And they did this by using their 11,000 pubs and basic trust because they had high social cohesion. Strong communities where people knew each other...

4/18

They still needed the banks for large capital for investments but for everything else, they relied on each other, relationships and trust.

And this is where we have issues. Over the years our social cohesion has become wobbly and brexit and inequality has made it worse.

5/18

The uncertainty of the last five years has not sprung up creativity, rather its increased stress & stressed people make bad decisions

In this country we have fetishised work & long hours. Presenteeism is not productive, it keeps you away from important things-like family.

6/18

Countries with shorter working week have more volunteers and higher social capital. Individuals and countries are more invested in their communities success in all sorts of ways - not just increasing GDP (which is an arbitrary measure anyway).

7/18

but this increase in working hours has also brought about an more inequality - (which despite what the current myopic campaign might tell you - is highly connected to ill health and obesity). Time is money and time is a gateway to health.

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Inequality, bring dis-enfranchisement. It reduces access to education & participation in society. People look for ways to belong and belonging happens in smaller & smaller subsets as belonging in big groups is inherently unsafe.Tribes happen, gangs happen, racism happens.

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Connecting with people outside of your group is harder as it takes a greater extension of trust. We get more tribes & more suspicion (people aren't nice to people outside their tribe-it's the oxytocin effect).

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Poverty switches on bad genes, increases domestic violence... I could go on... and people stop voting. People stop voting when they don't feel like they are heard or listened to. And if society has no meaning to them, then there is no society.

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We are getting dangerously close to bigger and bigger sections of society feeling disenfranchised and what needs to happen is something Theresa May should have done but was inherently incapable of - there needs to be the political will to bring people together.

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It's no good just telling opposite they should whatever... * It's no good putting in 'should' solutions for poverty. We need to have the political will - lead by political leaders to create a society where we can all have belonging and a vested interest.

13/18

And my fear is that Johnson (and Cummings) are also incapable of this as they are inherently bad at relationships. Johnson is superficial and we are widgets to Cummings.

It might have to be the next leaders @Keir_Starmer if it's not too late.

14/18

I don't think we can 'should' people into connecting with others with a different point of view. Personally, I think we need to be kind and see beyond the anger on each side, to what is going on underneath.

15/18

This doesn't mean accepting the other person's point of view, and it doesn't mean agreeing. It's looking to understand it.

And, as got to the end of this long ramble - belonging to society is hard and it's got harder during the last 5 years.

16/18

I find contributing a really hard thing and have thought and still think about giving up all the voluntary things I do. The words 'why bother' frequently cross my mind - particularly where it feels like people are tearing down a country I once recognised.

17/18

It's the hope that gets you. It's the hope that leads you to anger. But at least anger shows you care-after all as the Elie Wiesel said :the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.

If we get to indifference, we really haven't got a hope of getting social cohesion.

End

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