How ANGRY is England ?

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Abstract

itizens, are increasingly (once more, you choose) uncomfortable / frustrated / disappointed / scared / worried / annoyed /appalled/ terrified / furious and, yes, ‘Bloody Angry’. We now have whole online catalogues of uncertainties for shaken citizens on shifting sands — guaranteed next day delivery.There is a thriving sub-sector of the mental health industry that feels your fragilities.Anger Management consultants normally deal with over-stretched employees exploding under pressure, or simmering sports-stars, or sad domestic disasters, or, on occasion, whole communities caught up in catastrophic calamities — but can their tools treat the entirety of an ailing nation?We have, alas, been here before. Wordsworth invoked earlier principled thinkers — ‘Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen of stagnant waters . . . O raise us up, return to us again, and give us manners, virtue, freedom, power!’ Today he’d cry ‘Take back control’ and ‘Level Up’ but neither would scan as well.There is a thriving sub-sector of the dogma industry that feeds your fears.‘Creative’ destruction is, apparently, ‘good’ for wealth extraction from the resulta

Options

nt chaos — ‘move fast and break things’ — driven by personal profit but pretending public purpose. Or, increasingly, NOT pretending — fill your boots at the nearest branch of ‘Grab-n-Go’ and care not for those slow on the uptake (AKA rip-off).We can hardly move forward by harking back — old dreams are done — but must deal with this dilemma here and now, by making common cause. Aggression, rage, are self-defeating. Assertion — determined restatement of our values — is surely the better course.Together we must now reassert those things that bind us — the local communities that rallied during the worst of Covid — the commons that we trust — the kindness shared.Together we must ask our communities to choose who they’d prefer to serve. Who of them will now step forward? Who then will be acclaimed and supported?‘How angry is England?’“More than enough to make a difference in the next 12 weeks’, said the old guy sitting quietly in the corner, “If we were to put our minds to it”.The choice is yours.____________This article forms part of the Groupe Intellex ‘Governance’ series — a resource for students.</article></body>

Some are appalled, yet others will say, ‘Not Enough’.

A Question for Consideration (Image Source: INGMedia)

Is the current mood any worse than (take your pick) The Black Death / Peasants’ Revolt / French Revolution / WW1+Gas / WWII+Holocaust / Miners’ Strike / Poll Tax Riots / Bloody Sunday / Iraq Invasion / Hillsborough / Phone Hacking / Grenfell Tower? More than enough candidate cases — even for those with short memories and a ‘D minus’ in British history.

It is not difficult to understand current causes of general grief (again, take your pick) Energy Prices / Corruption / Brexit / Covid / Tax Avoidance / Climate Fears / Inequalities / Housing Costs / Parliamentary Liars / Food Banks / Sewage Dumping / Bullying / or a whole heap of capitalised non-conformances and variable rule impositions — and all supplemented with concentrated anger-juice intensified by social media mobs.

Collectively, we may not yet have reached ‘Peak Pitchfork’ but many of us, who’d always claim to be honest law-abiding citizens, are increasingly (once more, you choose) uncomfortable / frustrated / disappointed / scared / worried / annoyed /appalled/ terrified / furious and, yes, ‘Bloody Angry’. We now have whole online catalogues of uncertainties for shaken citizens on shifting sands — guaranteed next day delivery.

There is a thriving sub-sector of the mental health industry that feels your fragilities.

Anger Management consultants normally deal with over-stretched employees exploding under pressure, or simmering sports-stars, or sad domestic disasters, or, on occasion, whole communities caught up in catastrophic calamities — but can their tools treat the entirety of an ailing nation?

We have, alas, been here before. Wordsworth invoked earlier principled thinkers — ‘Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen of stagnant waters . . . O raise us up, return to us again, and give us manners, virtue, freedom, power!’ Today he’d cry ‘Take back control’ and ‘Level Up’ but neither would scan as well.

There is a thriving sub-sector of the dogma industry that feeds your fears.

‘Creative’ destruction is, apparently, ‘good’ for wealth extraction from the resultant chaos — ‘move fast and break things’ — driven by personal profit but pretending public purpose. Or, increasingly, NOT pretending — fill your boots at the nearest branch of ‘Grab-n-Go’ and care not for those slow on the uptake (AKA rip-off).

We can hardly move forward by harking back — old dreams are done — but must deal with this dilemma here and now, by making common cause. Aggression, rage, are self-defeating. Assertion — determined restatement of our values — is surely the better course.

Together we must now reassert those things that bind us — the local communities that rallied during the worst of Covid — the commons that we trust — the kindness shared.

Together we must ask our communities to choose who they’d prefer to serve. Who of them will now step forward? Who then will be acclaimed and supported?

‘How angry is England?’

“More than enough to make a difference in the next 12 weeks’, said the old guy sitting quietly in the corner, “If we were to put our minds to it”.

The choice is yours.

____________

This article forms part of the Groupe Intellex ‘Governance’ series — a resource for students.