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Why it should be “All Lives Matter”

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I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time, mainly to explain my disappointment at a number of “supposedly enlightened citizens” lack of ability to understand why “all lives matter” is so important whilst they bang their drum for Black Lives Matter/save the planet/free the whale or whatever the latest “bandwagon” to jump on is. This was mainly prompted by my disbelief at the stupidity of an “all houses matter” meme that’s been going round social media etc. The lack of understanding shown by some in this area simply defies belief etc. Of course, the downside for me in writing it is I will no doubt be branded fascist or far right or whatever and I’m not sure I can be bothered with the grief you know? But hey ho here we are.

Ok so you’ve all seen the “Black Lives Matter” protestors (I suppose it made a change from EU remoaners protests or Extinction Rebellion p*ssing everyone off in Central London). Here we go:

Well the retort of much of the populace was “All Lives Matter” and lo and behold the Black Lives Matter protestors came up with “All Houses Matter” as a meme to explain why Black Lives Matter was so important, sigh:

So I am going to explain this clearly as to why in fact all lives DO matter, well the vast majority of them at least. Let’s assume the fire brigade turns up to put out that fire and the house on fire represents racism and hey presto they put it out. Well, that’s fine and dandy IF it’s the only house on fire but it isn’t is it? The reality is if each house is a different discrimination/prejudice then the fire brigade would turn up and most of the street would be on fire not just one house. One house might well be racism, but one is sexism, one is homophobia, one is ageism, one is uglyism (seriously I don’t know the word for prejudice based on aesthetics) and so and so on.

Loads of people are discriminated against, constantly, day in and day out and I don’t see anyone campaigning for them, do you? And if anyone is campaigning for them, there’s not very many of them. Now I don’t want to make this about me but I am going to give some of my own experiences as an example. Until 2009 I was the Managing Director of a somewhat successful group of companies loosely trading under one parent company and selling products online, not Amazon level for sure but still not so bad. Due to circumstances beyond my control (a chain reaction started by the demise of Woolworths and a company it owned called Entertainment UK) the companies had to be liquidated/put into administration. It hit me hard but I didn’t anticipate the resistance and sheer obnoxiousness of what was to follow.

I figured that as a former project manager/consultant for two leading UK consultancy firms and a Managing Director for a .com I would at least be able to find a job. But no, I met a constant stream of problems and disappointments which basically came down to discrimination and prejudice primarily based on age. See, thing is I am “old” for my industry, think I’m “seeing things”? For obvious reasons (I don’t want to end up in court) I can’t go into details but I’ve seen and heard plenty of evidence that my age was clearly the issue. The final “evidence” was then I started putting my date of birth on my CV deliberately, the calls from recruiters stopped almost instantly, well “imagine my surprise”, it works brilliantly as a “time waster filter”.

Anyway, I digress. The point I am getting at is the vast majority of us are discriminated against in one form or another, be it colour, sex, gender, age, appearance, disability or whatever. So turn up to that street and virtually every damn house is on fire. Ergo, it’s a dumb stupid meme, biased to Black Lives Matter’s “cause”.

So what’s the solution? Stop sectioning off discrimination, stop making it about racism or sexism (let’s face it those are the two we hear the most about, closely followed by homophobia). If you want to give a damn about people then give a damn about people in general, whatever their colour or sex etc. Tackle discrimination in general and not just one part of it, because (whether it be right or wrong is irrelevant) if all you do is tackle racism then all you’re going to get is “but what about ….”

Care about people, care about each other, aspire to equality of opportunity. Stop being a “concerned citizen” sheep and jumping on the latest “cause” to protest about. Strive for equality of opportunity and a better life for every person who is discriminated against. In other words, let’s put out all those damn fires, not just the racism one.

Steve

PS I am aware equality of opportunity isn’t necessarily ideal BUT it’s a damn sight better than what we generally have now.

All that’s needed is “opportunity” REAL “opportunity” and society will thrive.

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I’ve had to give this blog post a lot of thought. I kind of “knew” what I wanted to say but wasn’t entirely sure how to word it properly, so even the most “radical” lefts (or rights for that matter) would, hopefully, see my point.

There’s much talk these days of “lefties/liberals/libtards/Corbynistas” and then “racists/alt-rights/republicans/Conservatives” and so on. I thought about myself in this context and at first glance I would indeed appear to be one of the so called “right”, purely on appearance only. But then I started thinking more carefully about it and I realised the world simply isn’t that simple, especially as we live in a multiphrenic society where people tend to “pick and mix” the best bits from ideologies, lifestyles and politics that they like.

So, let’s break this down a little more. Am I “right”, well at first glance yes. But there again I don’t agree with the death penalty, period, regardless of the crime, that’s pretty “left” if you ask me. I agree with social welfare (aka “benefits”) and fair housing and all the rest of it, again pretty “left”. So where am I going with this? Well, it occurs to me to our society has not exactly mirrored the people within it from this perspective, our society, our government, our “establishment” (Police, media, council staff etc) don’t tend to be that varied and therein, I think, lies the modern dilemma.

We live in an age where information can be spread (be it true or fake) at lightning speed. We have more access to more information than ever before and this is likely to increase. However, politically we (I’m referring mainly to the United Kingdom here but I suspect you can find parallels if you live elsewhere) “swing” from left to right, back again, then back again. Labour’s in and they do a bunch of stuff some people like, a bunch of stupid stuff, a bunch of stuff nobody likes. Then Conservatives come along and they undo it and do some stuff some people like, some stupid stuff and some stuff nobody likes. Then a few years down the line and Labour comes in and on and on and on. This has been going on now for what, 50+ years?

Neither party is that “great” if you think about it, because no matter what they do (or don’t do) it’s going to piss somebody off, somewhere down the line. One party is somewhat “left”, the other is somewhat “right” and we don’t stop to think “hang on a minute we need the good stuff from both sides”, they just charge ahead with their own ideologies regardless. Think about it, you become prime minister tomorrow, surely you’re not naive enough to think what YOU think is right is the ONLY WAY? Now ok, proportional representation, it’s not going to happen. But would we want it to? Hell no, all we’d get is constant disagreement and nothing would actually get done, it’s be like postmodernism for politics, it’d be totally “meh, can’t be arsed”.

The problem we have, as I see it, is we’re being offered one way or the other way (the United Kingdom is essentially a two party system after all, Lib Dems? Hahahaha). Instead of actually listening to people and helping them (which let’s face it is what they are supposed to do) they just storm ahead with their ill thought ideas instead. I mean, fox hunting? Just grow up, we have far more important things to think about right now.

If government was actually accountable and acted upon the wishes of the people and “looked out” for them then maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t think they were all just useless overpaid …. You get the idea. This is why Theresa May nearly lost the general election. We know she’s busy, we know about Brexit, BUT the vast majority of us are still in “da shite” from 2008/2009 (except the bankers and CEOs) and what did she offer those people, the “JAMs” (Just About Managing) as she called them? I’ll tell you what, sod all. She didn’t have to do a lot, just a few tweaks here and there to say “I haven’t forgotten you, this isn’t much but it’s a start”, stuff such as banning unpaid internships (much discussed but what’s happened about it?), capping utility bills and banning letting agent fees (EDIT: Letting Agent fees now finally “gone” since I first wrote this, so she managed that at least). Theresa May has been prime minister for over 2 years now and has done NONE of these, it’s just all “talk talk talk” and no “action action action”.

Anyway, the crux of society’s modern “ills”. Interestingly enough I mentioned unpaid internships above and that’s part (a small part but still relevant) of the problem. Socialism doesn’t work, people take advantage and virtually everybody ends up with “sod all”, history bears witness to this, time and time again. Capitalism sucks, big time and don’t even start me on the “trickle down theory”. Neither extreme is ideal but what I think is lacking, for most of society, isn’t money, benefits or ideology but OPPORTUNITY. Government needs to remove and dismantle the blocks to opportunity, such as banning unpaid internships which only certain people can “afford” to put up with and consequently get “the job” at the end of it; JUST ONE EXAMPLE.

I’ve done my hardest to “improve my lot” you know, I did all the “right things”, went to university and when I left university all I got when trying to find “decent” employment was barriers, more barriers, prejudice, discrimination (age mainly as I was a mature student). Think I’m paranoid? No I have proof, I’ve kept emails and recorded phone calls that shouldn’t have been made etc. University itself, yet more barriers; I got to pick 6 universities on my UCAS form (bear in mind I had 3 A Levels at A+, a BTEC with 17 distinctions and more at the time) and Oxford, Cambridge, University College London and Birmingham all rejected me without even seeing me (there goes the myth of “white privilege” out of the window, wooosh).

These are the problems we face. We’re being given the message “study hard, work hard and you’ll be a success” but it’s largely nonsense. It mostly comes down to who you know, what school you went to, where you interned (is that a real word?) I got a job at Arthur Andersen, impressive stuff you may think, but ONLY because my ex-wife (well common law wife, obviously we were still on good terms) worked there and “got me in” so to speak.

This is what needs “fixing” in our society, we need to break down the barriers to “opportunity” (real opportunity that is, not MLM or Utility Warehouse sales scams) so that people who do study hard then work hard will do well, will succeed. I bet if we got to that stage the colleges and universities would suddenly be bombarded with people wanting to “better themselves” and who could blame them? If I knew that going back to university right now meant that I would 99% get a £30,000+ a year (bearing in mind I’d be studying at postgraduate level) job afterwards I’d be there in a shot. Who is going to study and/or “work their rear off” when all they’re likely to get is “meh” at the end of it?

That’s what Theresa May needs to do, show us you’ve “got our backs”, don’t go mad (no Corbyn style bankruptcy thank you), then break down those barriers and when more and more people “do well” watch how much better a country to live in this will be, for the many, not just for the few. Finally, before anyone says “but there are opportunities”, try thinking of others for a minute not just yourself, sure there’s opportunities for you with your MSc from Cambridge and membership of the Masons etc but think of others for a change.

Steve