The Depravity Of The Poor Means That They Can Be Killed.

This blog doesn't get so many hits and as far as I know, it's the only one of its kind. It seems to me to be indicative of the state of counselling: talk about the latest research into the amygdala and there'll be some interest from counsellors. But the tsunami of poverty, anxiety, sheer misery that's sweeping the country doesn't seem to have the same urgency as, say, becoming a coach. Never mind that the state of the amygdala and the misery so often caused by poverty are often linked.


Never the less, a steady number of people do drop in here, and I'm grateful to you for that. It does feel as if I'm speaking into the void most of the time. But rather than join the apathy, I'm going to continue to post about the results of blank bureaucracy on the most vulnerable.


After returning a verdict of suicide at Westminster Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, August 23, Dr Fiona Wilcox said: “What I find particularly tragic in this case is this act appears to be pursued by a man who was not suffering from an illness and appears to have made a considered act in response to his inability to find employment. 

“The fact his housing benefit was about to be cut and the family would be at risk of having nowhere to live, and being ordered to give up his training course because of job centres rules, would appear to be especially poignant and tragic.” 

Or evil and catastrophic.


We can imagine some of the misery that Mr Sanderson endured before he succeeded in killing himself and some of it will have been caused by attitudes such as this:


"It is simply a fact that our social problems are increasingly connected to the depravity of the poor. If an American works hard, completes their education, gets married, and stays married, then they will rarely — very rarely — be poor. At the same time, poverty is the handmaiden of illegitimacy, divorce, ignorance, and addiction. As we have poured money into welfare, we’ve done nothing to address the behaviors that lead to poverty while doing all we can to make that poverty more comfortable and sustainable."

David French is honest enough to say what he believes which is what a great many people - by no means just Americans - believe, including some people who are poor. Which ignores poor people in stable relationships, without addictions or who may be innately more intelligent than a person with more income who has greater access to decent education or, after 16, any education at all.

 

We've heard a great deal about how the middle classes have begun to live hand to mouth but this is how people on a low income have been living forever. Mr Sanderson would not have been looking forward to becoming homeless with all the endless running around after bureaucrats that would have come with it. But I think it's fair to say that shame and humiliation would have had something to do with his sane decision to kill himself. Perhaps these feelings were amongst those that Christelle Pardo had as she held her child and jumped to her own and her sons death. Jenni Russell:

 

On websites there is a striking lack of sympathy for the Christelles of this world, and a marked resentment about the number of people demanding our collective help. 

 

It's quite clear: Christelle - and all the other women with babies who've been made homeless and destitute by the State, and all the men who are despairing at the thought of their families becoming homeless, and all the women wondering just what more they can do, since missing two meals a day still isn't making ends meet - can go to hell, and good riddance. 

 

If someone had stabbed Mr Sanderson twice in the heart, or pushed Ms Pardo and her baby out of her fifth floor flat window, or lynched a disabled man there'd be outrage from every media outlet and politicians making hay from it. But no one at all actually cares when it's done legally. Because they're poor.

Campaign Against Living Miserably

Young men are killing themselves at an alarming rate.

Male suicide rates are consistently higher than female. A man takes his own life every three hours in England and Wales.

Being a young man can be a lonely, miserable experience particularly if you don't have the means to distract yourself. Women of all ages are generally more used to discussing their feelings and problems and have networks of other women who can help them through difficult times. Having children helps women grow up, take responsibility for themselves and engage with life, even if that means just getting up in the morning, feeding their child and themselves, getting them to and from school. By comparison, many men don't take responsibility for themselves.

The majority of men drink alcohol at a level that could be harmful to their health. In 2005, 35% of men exceeded the recommended daily limit (four units ) at least one day during the previous week. A further 19% drank more than eight units, double the recommended daily limit.

This isn't a value statement but one of truth for a great many men, which is one reason why they still die before women particularly if they are poor.

Men who are defined as partly skilled or unskilled have a far lower life expectancy. In 2005, the last year for which such comparative data is available, life expectancy at birth for men in social class 1 was already 77.7 years (higher than the average for all men today). For those in Social Class V, it was just 68.2 years.

The Campaign Against Living Miserably is a charity set up by men for men. This is important. It recognises that men are not women and that there are important cultural differences.

Many mothers and female partners manage the health and wellbeing of men, a paradoxical situation which recognises that many men will not take responsibility for themselves and denies them the opportunity to do so. Men are further distanced from their own cultures and from themselves. Most counsellors, nurses, social workers, teachers, most of the professionals that boys and men in Britain come into contact with are women, and whilst there's no doubt that a masculine agenda still dominates every sphere of public life and most areas of private life it's an old truth that patriarchy hurts everyone, women and men.