The writer
Will Self, on the first episode of the current Question Time series (BBC 1, 26
Sept 2013), questioned why the panel, and by extension the rest of us, were so
concerned with terrorism. He was inevitably lambasted by the live audience and
the ‘social-media’ lobby. Mr Self’s point, quite rightly, was that we should be
far more worried about road safety than terrorism. This should not be taken in
jest. The numbers just don’t add-up- there are a thousand things more likely to
harm you than terrorism. The threat of terror is minimal yet ‘promoted’ as
ever-present.
The truth is
the reaction to terrorism is a greater threat to us all- affecting social
cohesion, travel and migration, and freedom of speech. The horrific events of
9/11 and 7/7, and the more recent murder of soldier Lee Rigby, are seared in
all our minds. They ensure that terrorism and our response to it remains a
‘sacred cow’ that few are willing to speak out against.
Crime has
never been worse. You’d certainly think so if you believed everything you hear.
The Jimmy Saville scandal and other high profile cases that have subsequently
come to light have been a travesty. The number and scale of these crimes has
been shocking, the ignorance if not complicity of those around horrific. Yet
the media would have you believe every male soap star is a criminal yet to be
uncovered, that there is a paedophile in waiting on every street corner.
Parents everywhere lap this up, sheltering their children indoors, not daring
to risk ‘possible’ danger.
Successive
governments have failed to help the situation. CRB checks are now a requirement
for even the most innocuous of roles. Volunteering has become a questionable
activity, with doubts over your motivation and character. Even those who’ve
passed the checks are at the risk of false accusation. How many opportunities
and experiences are being lost due to over-protectiveness and lack of supervision?
Terrorism
and crime are natural bedfellows. The worry they bring shares an immediacy-
that something terrible could happen today, tomorrow, even right now. Pensions
and savings bring a fear of a different kind! They induce anxiety of the
future. ‘Saving-up for a rainy day’ is the cliché that has been peddled for
generations. Excuse the flippancy, but surely your money would but better spent
(and enjoyed) in good weather! With the on-going recession pensions have been
in the limelight for several years now. Companies and workers, politicians and
unions are all battling over them, fanning the flames of fear and anxiety that
surround savings.
In this time
of austerity, many are making the choice to ‘go without’ to put money aside for
the future. This is the thing I have never understood about savings. The future
holds no guarantees. Why shackle yourself today, at least financially, when you
have no idea what tomorrow may bring. According to US comedian John Mendoza
(don’t know who he is but saw this in GQ magazine!):
“They say if you smoke you knock off ten years. But it’s the last
ten. What do you miss? The drooling years?”
I’m no fan
of smoking, but this echoes my own thoughts on savings. Why are we all so
concerned with having money aside for a time in our lives we may never see, or
may be in such a condition we cannot enjoy it as much as right now?
