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..There's a little Samuel Pepys in all of us..

Saturday, November 26, 2011

This peripatetic journal, over the past few years, has been dedicated for the most part with matters political and/or economic.. and indeed these topics have been worthy of note. But the ball that was set rolling in the 1970's is still lumbering along.. and recent events have been reported on almost ad nausiam, with results already noted becoming fact..
Yet it remains to take a closer look at the attitude of the members of the silent majority.. Those who rise every morning, according to their individual schedules, make their ways to their various jobs within the light blue to the white collar, count the hours 'til they can either pick up a takeaway to be eaten in front of the television or head home to a wife, perhaps a family..
These are those who could well forget to exercise their franchise, perhaps with a fatalism which firmly believes if matters little which of the major powers forms the government, that either will face the Herculean task of repairing our economy, and our increasingly fractured society.. and at the moment is moot as to whether there is a palatable solution..
It's expected more than a million members of various unions will 'down tools' at the end of the month.. pensions at issue here..
But..bacl to those who still pay taxes, albeit with a vague sense of injustice as inflation passes 5% and petrol sets you back £1.34/l..
These are those who will wait patiently in a queue, in the rain, at the buss-stop, letting older folks board first..
Those among whom Edward George Bulwer-Lytton would have called 'the great unwashed'.. although applied in a non-pejorative sense.. The Urban Dictionary defines those defined by the term thus: "Can also be applied to a person who follows 'the crowd' and doesn't have a mind of their own." This might well apply to many who's lives are almost rigidly bound by routine..
And that, defines most of today's workforce..
When the news.. politics shows.. economic reports and the like are presented.. the average person is baffled at numbers in the trillions.. and likely has little to support an informed opinion on the collapse of the Euro.. trade checks and balances are not the stuff of common conversation..
And with good cause.. These are the people who are being hit hardest by ever increasing electricity and heating fuel costs.. These are the people who see their weekly shop costing £10 more.. despite supermarket adverts which claim you're actually saving.. These are those who would far sooner concentrate on their own economic squeeze..
This attitude of quiet resignation can be seen any day of the week by walking the High Street, especially this time of year. So many more out preparing for the holiday..
This attitude is stereotypically British.. Perhaps Dudly Moore and Peter Cooke said it best in one of their skits from 'Beyond the Fringe'.. When wife comes out to the garden to tell husband that .."war has been declared, with all the horrors it entails.." And husband answers "Never you mind the war.. just put on the kettle and we'll have a nice cup of tea.."

Indeed..

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