Teoría del riesgo creado

Sometimes we need to get up, shout out the truth, march, protest, do whatever is necessary to protect our life and the lives of others… Retaining our own fierce clarity, we too can seek justice, yet do so with a loving heart (Kornfield, 2017).

Compassionate action in response to suffering can necessitate engagement in protest and political discourse in order to challenge injustice, deceit and abuses of power. I believe it is important to take action in accordance with my ethics and values in all areas of life and I support Kinderman’s (2016) argument that [as psychologists] “we have a duty to speak out about the psychological mechanisms implicated in some of our major social problems: inequality, injustice, abuse, war, terrorism and climate change. And we need to offer practical solutions” (p.415). I have particular political allegiances but the ethics of applying compassion, wisdom, generosity and loving kindness to counter fear, hatred and delusion, transcends party politics (Bodhi, 2017). Sometimes, however, events take a turn that elicits a strong response in me:

Journal: 8May 2015

Cried this morning. Sheer frustration and despair a) at the election result and b) out of fear of the consequences of another 5 Tory years and c) over the sheer complacency for the 73% of people in my area who didn’t vote. I am fucking angry too. Played The Ghost Of Tom Joad (Springsteen, 1995), sang it out loud and on repeat all the way to Group meditation at the Retreat this morning.

On the surface I felt anger but underneath there was dread and concern in the face of the prospect of more brutal right-wing capitalism and savage austerity measures. Although I have strong resolve, I felt temporarily floored and “too heartsick to write over the past few days” (Journal, 10 May 2015). I spent time at the local nature reserve to restore myself and get away from social media. My activist response, in addition to a lot of meditation practice, includes anti-austerity campaigning, supporting local and national initiatives such as The People’s Assembly, Psychologists Against Austerity and Walk-the-Talk, where psychologists protest and raise awareness of the benefits system, homelessness and food poverty, “calling on policy makers to address the impact social inequalities have on mental health” (Walkthetalk, 2015).

In December 2016, I was starkly reminded why social and political issues are so important to me. I watched the film I Daniel Blake (2016) directed by Ken Loach, and found it devastating. The film unearthed painful memories of when Dad and I almost went under. It was 1981, I was unemployed, Dad was the only breadwinner and his wage as a postman was not enough; paying the rent left other bills unpaid and debt increased. Mercifully, friends and neighbours lent us emergency money. At age 18 I felt desolate, afraid, trapped and powerless (McGrath, Griffin and Mundy, 2015), this is reflected in the following excerpts from my 1981 Red Diary.

Thursday, 19 November 1981: Things are really bad at the moment, we have no money at all and bills we can’t pay. Dad didn’t even have enough for any cigarettes and Smokey cats got no food. I have got to get a job soon or social security – Anything.

Monday 7th December: looks like this week is going to be the same, it is only Monday and we are broke already. We have run out of bread. Thursday 10th December 1981: Had a terrible blow today, the interview I didn’t have at the DHSS was the one that determined all of my money, I have waited 10 weeks for nothing. When Dad got home, I couldn’t stop crying. I have never felt so shattered or hard done by in my life.

Monday 14th December 1981: I am terribly depressed, I phoned up the DHSS again to see if I could see someone about my money but I can’t have an appointment till 4th Jan. I am really cuicidle as I will have no money for Christmas.

As I read the entries in my old diary I puzzled at my spelling of suicidal, then I cried and pressed my hand firmly to my heart as I felt the cold shadow of past pain. I felt for my younger self and Dad as we endeavoured to survive and I was moved with gratitude to the friends and neighbours who helped, we could not have coped on our own. One scene in the film was painfully familiar; there was not enough food so Katie, the mother, missed a meal saying she had eaten something earlier. Heartbreakingly, I had heard this before, I will never know for certain whether my Dad went without meals to feed me, but I suspect he did and I cannot comprehend his despair and shame. It was a tough time but I was not alone, I was a “One in Ten, a number on a list… a statistical reminder in a world that doesn’t care” (UB40, 1981). As shown in the picture below, at that time, I filled in my own UB40 details on the 1981 UB40 album cover. We were saved just in time by the death of much-loved Uncle Harry in the winter of early 1982; he left a few thousand pounds, which enabled us to get out of the endless cycle of poverty and back on our feet. Towards the end of this period I was so desperate to get a job that I worked for expenses (bus fares) for 6months until the organisation could get funding to pay me.

7.3 1981: I was a One in Ten

Here we are in 2017 in a position where, although the unemployment rate is down to 4.8 per cent, compared to over 10 per cent in 1981 (ONS, 2017), according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; “Of the 13.5 million people in poverty 7.4 million (55 per

I feel sickened that 36 years later such levels of poverty still exist, for working families and for those unemployed, disabled and needing social support; all facing a benefit system that is punitive to the point of neglect and cruelty. To fall down into the gaps and the margins can happen to anyone, we could all become Daniel Blake, it almost happened to Dad and me. In the media, compassion is thin on the ground where the rhetoric of scroungers and skivers is widespread (Monroe, 2016). It is ethically and morally wrong to treat people with such a lack of respect, dignity and compassion. Evidence from advice agencies (Perry, et al., 2014; Badger and Law, 2015), and many people in poverty and unemployment have testified, that I Daniel Blake was an accurate reflection of peoples’ experiences (Walsh, 2016). In addition to raising awareness of important issues, the film demonstrates the power of story to stir the heart, challenge perspectives and dominant discourses, and hopefully change how we feel and act. I am so acutely grateful for all that my life entails now and even more resolute that inequality and failings in social support continue to be highlighted and challenged. This experience was a stark reminder of hard times and my poem below speaks of these.

Journal: 5 December 2014. Dad died today 11 years ago.

Dad’s Pouch Dad’s Day:

Get up 4am, 4.30am bus to Hockley Post Office Sort the post; fill his postman pouch to capacity, heavy deliveries for miles, then repeat.

Finish work. Go shopping, fill pouch. Bus home to daughter Waiting for her Dad to arrive with his pouch full of delight. There were hard times

When Dad couldn’t afford the food to fill his pouch. He was strong for us both, he had to be.

Dad had a different pouch in his last few months A pouch of food, delivered to him via a peg feed Until the end, this day in 2003