Equality...
Eusebius Mckaiserwas talking about this on his show today. I wish I had time to phone in but I was rushing from one end to the other today...
How do we achieve a more equal society?
Personally I think we can only do this by ensuring that our children all get properly nourished in the womb, get a safe delivery so they are not disabled at birth, get good food and the right amount of it, a reasonable and safe roof over their heads, clothes, good and accessible health care (transport and proper roads) when they need it , a supported, nurtured and healthy parental couple who can nurture and provide for a child’s emotional and other needs with at least one having a job and earning money, safe, clean and attractive places to play, good pre-primary, primary and high school education and support to do what they want to do (and have the ability for) after they leave school whether it is to deliver the post or build rockets that go to Mars, have a good idea of their history and their countries history, understand their bodies in a basic way so that they do not have magical ideas about illness, tolerance of others born of a deep respect for difference and basic human rights. An understanding that school is not the end of personal learning will also help a lot... Also to have some idea of how to save and grow their personal wealth so that they can live a life that is satisfactory and feels that it has progression and meaning...
So for me it is access to housing, health, education and work that will eventually create equality. Not forgetting that to achieve this we also need to have a healthy planet to live on – so we need to plan to look after mother nature too – or else what looks after us will become too ill to support us!
Of course I agree we are all given a different ‘IQ’ at conception. And yes some people will just somehow manage to be more ‘able’ than others, better leaders, better at teaching, better at learning...so yes we won’t all be ‘the same’ and we won’t always achieve the same things.
But who is more useful? The person who cleans the wards and theatres or the surgeon? The surgeon would not be able to do his/her work without someone to keep the theatre clean or the ward where the patient will be cared for – sepsis would soon set in without all those hard working cleaners and nurses aides...Florence Nightingale showed this in the Crimean war.
And who is more important? The mothers who bring up the next generation or the latest boys in the lastest ‘boyband’? Or even the CEO of a cigarette company? Strange how little mothers get for their 24 hours a day work for the good of society...!?
And whatever we are given at conception can be interfered with. A pregnant woman may smoke or drink and damage her child’s IQ. A father may kick his wife in the stomach and damage his unborn child’s abilities. And we know that all too often working class children are born with good IQ’s but their lack of early stimulation puts them in the ‘100’ or less bracket even before they are 8 years old.
And children who are breastfed are found to have a couple of higher IQ points that their bottle fed counterparts...and middle class children hear 100 000 words by the time they are 4 with their working class children perhaps only 10 000...
So, in my opinion, society must be geared towards looking after all aspects of humans needs and provide all with the basic needs for a full and happy life. Only this will create a reasonably ‘equal society’. And we need to all concentrate on sharing the pie not taking as much as we can grab from it...
Personally I have a lot more respect for cleaners of all kinds who look after their family and all our health than I do for some people who use their contacts and political clout to take more than their fair share of the pie....