Our stream of hope is to take care of ourselves and each other. It isn’t easy in the world we live in, for various reasons, but we all still have to get our act together and grit our teeth to make it as good as possible. To paint the society in pink and promise the earth would be deceiving and stupid, but we can’t put this on the back burner, because we have to do this at once. Never say die! I would be as thick as two short planks if I thought that our world would become perfect and turn into Utopia – it won’t, but still… We must see the good things in ourselves and each other to oppose the destructive forces that make our world into hardship sometimes.
Now, we must see what we can do about it. The society is sometimes destructive. Unemployed people are forced down on their knees to beg for mercy, for being unemployed, irrespective of background and forced to take jobs with extremely low wages, almost slavlike ones, and with little or no social protection. This goes for young adults and middle aged or older people alike, people with good or no education. If you protest against the system you’re put on a black list and seen as pariah, simply for stating the truth. When people get ill or in some form of life crisis, the cynical forces jump at you at once and hit down hard and destroy your life even more. It would be a direct lie to say something else. The rules that exist are often rigid and do not allow varieties or different life destinies. The poverty is here and there severe, but the demands from society to live according to certain standards are crystal clear, and those who for various reasons do not fit into a specific mold often become harrassed, bullied and thrown out into the cold of loneliness. That is disrespecful and provokes anger, frustration and becomes a foundation for the enmity between different groups in society we see today. This worries me enormously. So what can we do about it?
To oppose extreme forms of hatred between different social, religious and ethnic groups we must see the underlying factors for why a certain individual or group behaves in this or that way. We must improve our ways of listening in each other in a respectful way. There are laws and regulations in a society, and nothing strange with that. But we must become better at applying those rules in a fair way. When people feel neglected and disregarded it grows steadily into protests and rebellion. Everyone want to live a dignified life and will do their best to achieve that – in one way or the other. If we want to work with crime prevention, make our society whole again and improve people’s security we must take care of ourselves and each other. I am no extremist, but try to live according to a kind of golden middle road ideologically to improve the situation. I can’t take on the cross of everyone or the society as a whole, if I try to do that I’ll drown. I have to take care of myself, my own life and love myself to be able to help others, but I’m not naïve or believe that everyone is good. Of course not. The society is full of psycopaths, evil doers and people who like creating mischief just for fun. Nevertheless, we all have an obligation to do our best to make our own lifes and others a little better. “To make love, not war” is an old cliché and might sound silly, but there is a certain amount of truth in it. People need love, affection, care and respect. Tomorrow I’ll write about the labour market and what has to be done there. Until then… Take good care.
Anders Moberg, December the 4th 2012
swedish heart and soul 