Amongst the teachers who shaped my social values, moral commitments and ethical worldview were two of the most remarkable human beings from whom it has been my great privilege to learn. Bob Holman and Kay Crmichael in the 1970's were immersed in the social problems and community concerns of the east end of Glasgow. They were respected academics who taught Social Administration in Glasgow Arts faculty, and I spent a year doing a course that started with the Beveridge Report and took us through the philosophy and politics of welfare, the meanings and consequences of poverty, issues of health and social security, the connections between health, housing, employment and human flourishing, the criteria for a humane society, and they did so as acdemics engaged in social activism, or as social activists who could engage in discussion, debate and research at the highest levels.
Ever since those university days I've been a restless but constant reader of Micah, Amos and Isaiah, and have used some of the great Hebrew themes of justice and righteousness as the criteria by which I judge political decisions, social movements and the changing norms of a consumer society. I found it both intriguing and uplifting to find today in the Guardian the column of Polly Toynbee in which she is highly critical of Ian Duncan Smith, the allegedly compassionate conservative, whose flagship benefit reforms have further decimated the lives of people in Easterhouse. Now of course Easterhouse in Glasgow's east end isn't the only place where the benefits hatchet has been wielded with the brute force of an impatient butcher. But is is the place where, ten years ago, Ian Duncan Smith shed tears at the plight of poor people and their courage and dignity in seeking to build, maintain and nurture commnity life in areas where resources are so hard to come by.
Maybe a millionaire isn't the best person to put in charge of the nation's policies for social security, looking after the vulnerable, assisting the poor, and behaving with compassion and respect for human beings. Amongst the new gods in the political pantheon, Austeritas is rapidly monopolising the attribute of cruelty. I'm sick of the word, and the hypocritical inconsistencies of those who mouth it as a mantra, while offering the sacrifices of other people to assuage its lust for human hardship. And all in the name of welfare.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/08/duncan-smith-poverty-benefit-sanctions-easterhouse
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