Responsibility

As an adult, I like to think that I am big enough, and ugly enough to make decisions that affect my own life without interference from people who have no idea. For example, as a lone worker, I have to make decisions about what is reasonable to carry out my job, if I slavishly follow the 'elfin safety' rules, I could end up in a situation where I could actually be killed by the safety equipment I am meant to wear. I know this sounds bizarre, but a fall harness will kill you (rather unpleasantly) if you are left to hang in it for more than 15 min. A straight fall may also kill, almost certainly injure, but in either case I will not be left hanging to die slowly. This is MY choice. I would cheerfully sign a 'blood' chit and absolve anyone else from responsibility. In day to day life, we all make decisions that affect ourselves and others around us. Some are even life or death; driving, for instance. If you cause an incident, you may actually be held responsible, even forced to accept responsibility. Except, of course you won't. Unless you do something spectacular, like falling asleep at the wheel and causing multiple deaths on a railway, any old nonsense can be offered up in mitigation. A drug addict who steals, uses their addiction as the excuse for, not the cause of, their crimes. Religious nutters can immolate themselves and many around them, but it's not their fault, they are only doing god's will. Only, of course they are not, I mean, if god is so all powerful, surely a bit of smiting is not beyond it's power. Obvious really, no god, no smiting. And our 'leaders' cheerfully abet this, even enforce it. More and more, our individual responsibility is being eroded and we see it as a good thing. However, it isn't. More and more our personal honour  is being devalued. We are incapable of making correct decisions, apparently.

Perceptions

I have often wondered why people are drawn to certain professions. For instance, a Veterinary practitioner has a long and very difficult  training course to pass before they are let loose on poorly animals. Doctors and Nurses do too. Not on poorly animals, but then again, have you seen a casualty department on a Saturday night? Now I know the financial rewards may be quite substantial in some cases, but I bet that isn't the main reason (initially anyway) that one would choose that sort of profession. I wanted to be a vet, well sort of. I knew our local vet quite well, his practise was well thought of . I even helped (well, I like to think that I did) on a couple of occasions. From this I realised that I am squeamish. I found this out by sitting on a cow, holding her rumen in during a 'C' section. It wasn't something I was prepared to do on a day to day basis, and the cow didn't like the idea either. I can understand why you may like to join the Armed forces. The training is the best in the world. The Esprit-de-Corps is something no other profession can provide. The down side is that people try to get you killed. Which brings me to today's point. Politicians. Why would a competent person ever consider being a politician? If you like the job you trained for, and are capable of carrying it out well and, I suppose, be suitably remunerated for it, you would stick with it. Which make me think that most politicians must have been incompetent in their original chosen fields.
    When I was younger, I used to think that our 'leaders' must have either some special ability, or be so much cleverer than the average person. They must be able to do all that I can do, plus more. But now I realise that this cannot be true. Many people I know are extremely good at their jobs, Conscientious  to a fault, and yet their futures are in the hands of an elected numbty who's only concern is being re-elected onto the gravy train. He has no idea of the value of anything. But he knows the cost of all. In as much as it affects his salary. The council needs to save X pounds. If he sacked himself, the savings would; a, be met, and b; be immediate. But he is too indispensable for that. And yet he takes his full holiday quota with no problems, and the place doesn't stop without him. The section that I deal with, on the other hand, is supposed to be manned 24/7, even a few minutes missed due to a fire alarm, say, can be a disaster for some poor member of the public. Even and up to the loss of life. But that's ok if you are a politician.

Annoyed

There's been another stabbing. The victim has died. Foreigners killing each other again. They come here to avoid 'persecution', usually 'persecution' from their own country's police force, (apparently, it's illegal to sell drugs, run prostitution rings in their own countries, but ok here), so to avoid 'persecution' from their own legally appointed officers, they come here. They know if they use the 'persecution' card, they will be able to claim all sorts of things that we, as fully paid up citizens, could never claim. They also can play the 'ethnic' card; 'No speaky inglish' when it suits them. This makes the human rights people immediately take their side.They can do NO wrong. Some how, they have become victims. Except they are not. They are more cynical than our politicians, even more cynical than religious leaders.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why we tolerate a fraction of what we do. I now that we British have always supported the underdog, and been proud of our idea of 'fair play'. But it's time that we defended these actions by not tolerating the abuse of them.