Maria Arpa
This week
The Lie Of Our Governing Systems
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
The Wednesday Whisper
What the Post Office Scandal shows us
How many more times do we want to see unnecessary human suffering before we turn to more sustainable and human ways of organising?
Even though I am personally distanced from the Post Office scandal, I feel a deep connection to it. As someone who has spoken truth to power and been burned on more than one occasion, I and many others, as well as our brothers and sisters from minority communities have some sense of when the ‘authorities’ first label you, then isolate you, then actively set out to silence and then harm you until they scapegoat you. This can be at a local level, in a corporate business, in public bodies or within institutions.
The bigger problem in the Post Office scandal is how many people were complicit in peddling this lie, ‘You’re the only one experiencing these issues’ From the Head Honcho down to people answering the helpline who were ‘only following orders’ when they made the choice to perpetuate the lie to people losing their minds, their livelihoods and their dignity. If somebody had made public this lie at the start and not allowed the lie to be told, so much unnecessary human suffering could have been avoided.
The sheer number of people involved in the lie means that we have to examine something wider than the Post Office. The people involved will have had other jobs in other institutions, businesses and government agencies and suppliers. That not one person said, ‘I will not say that and I’ll tell everyone you told me to say it’ means that lies, cover ups and fear based obedience must be an accepted norm to which workers have become desensitised.
The lie that there are accepted ‘rules’ and ‘ethics’ that we are all diligently following like the good, uncorrupted people we are is a fallacy that we must wake up to. There is a smokescreen of ‘rules’ and ‘ethics’ which does not work because our hierarchical and punitive systems keep people in a state of anxiety motivated by fear of shame and humiliation that will lead them to cover up and lie for people higher up the food chain if required.
Am I exaggerating? These are just a few that have come to light
- Grenfell
- Partygate
- Numerous allegations of bullying: Dominic Raab, Priti Patel, Gavin Williamson
- Covid PPE contracts
- MPs expenses
- Jimmy Saville and the BBC
- Epstein and Prince Andrew
- Ridiculous amounts of Police misconduct
- Ofsted
- Watch out for blaming budget overspend on Special Educational Needs
Time to wake up everyone.
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
The DRM is clear about boundaries. Limits, resources and tolerances may be set by others and we may find ourselves working in less than optimal circumstances. We may even make a choice, on balance, to say nothing for all sorts of very good reasons, yet in the end we choose our personal limits and the lines we will cross and to make such a choice we cannot hide behind the idea that we were ‘only following orders’, when we know that our choice is perpetuating unnecessary human suffering.
The Wednesday Whisper
What are your limits and boundaries? What lines will you cross? Have you had a conversation with yourself about it?
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