What We’re Fighting Against

Today was like every day of my life; there was something about it that I observe, feel and know through my experience every single day. And my life is no different to yours if you’re reading this. Chances are that you’re reading this because you’re a caring person. You care about people, our planet, and yourself, for instance. And you see the same thing I do each day. It’s part of life, frustratingly so.

That thing that we see each day is the motorist that thumbs their nose at the road laws, or the adult that abuses or neglects a child, or the legal system, which yet again, decries the victim. One feels for authorities like the Police and Customs who are at the pointy end of the cursed life where things routinely get just plain ugly. We could certainly understand a hardening of attitude in these circumstances over years of one person’s career. There’s no immunity. But, we all taste this life because none of us is immune to it.

What we’re fighting against each day is a lack of justice and respect and often a sense of gross unfairness. Only today I had to counsel a couple of contract employees for horseplay--that phenomenon we don’t see much of these days. Horseplay is not only “rough and boisterous play,” as the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it; in the workplace it’s often a reckless endangerment to parties beyond those engaged in it.

The types that engage in this rebellious behaviour normally take a dim view of being taken to task, and they normally have a rampant distaste and disregard for authority. And we might ask, ‘How did they get these attitudes?’ There are probably many reasons why the minority don’t respect authority figures, and thrive on injustice to others, creating the sort of inequity of fairness that leaves us outraged, if not simply bewildered.

Is there a comparison we could make here to the typical spoilt child? Perhaps these people have never been disciplined and trained to conform to societal norms, i.e. sacrifice of self for the benefit of the many. We look at parents of young children who can’t control them and we just want to take over and be firm; and this is where I believe it starts. These children who’ve never been exposed to strong, firm but fair parental discipline will either be disciplined by others who love them less later in life (and this is rare) or not at all.

And then there is us. We are the people left to deal with the problem. We ought not to give up and get despondent--although there are times when we will, inevitably. We need the support of our own; people who will encourage us to go on in our good work in the defence of justice, respect, and fairness. That’s what we’re fighting for.

Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.