Social Responsibility

 

Social care, social prescribing, link workers, community champions, social enterprise, community interest groups, social value… All of these names and all of these words relate to social or communities, i.e. being together, yet words do not make a moment. It takes something more.

Over my 53 years, I have seen these things be, and then in the rush of consumerism, lost, and then over the last 10 years an emergence of wanting these things again. The difference this time is that the authorities want us to act and behave in a way, they have almost let go, politically. The attitude of get up and get it has been followed by the people and in our rush we have gone along for the search of shiny bright things.

In the search for bigger houses, better jobs, a safer economic balance for us, have we slowly eroded our social and community spirit. I believe with the emergence of the internet bringing us closer and allowing to stay in place (whilst still be mobile), and as Covid has taught us and forced us, to think different. Rather than the need of moving around so fast, we need more than ever, to rekindle our communities and bring the social aspects of being human to the front of our lives.

Mental health, and physical issues seem to surround us, yet I hear the voices of the ancients still ringing true, as Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine is quoted “before I can cure you, are you willing to give up the things that ail you.” Is this not true? Often the very things we do, or the lives we choose, often are the cause of the issues around us.

A recent book I read opened my eyes to this concept of what is real. I would recommend it to anyone who sits and questions their lives. The book Human Kind, a hopeful history @rutgerbregman, questions the past and the things that we have been told. Right from the beginning when he states that, our issues first started when the first man decided he owned this piece of land and fenced it. Before this, we lived in a social commune, sharing and cohabiting peacefully. He also questions and offers alternative to so-called truths and many long held societal beliefs.

Another book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari leads us to this same conclusion, that we were happier not owning things. Problems arose when we started farming (settling land) and producing wheat.

It may feel to you that the world is too big and you are powerless to make a difference but you do not have to fix it all.

Take the step in believing you can make a difference. After that, take one-step and smile to the next person, or make them or buy them a spontaneous drink, or say a heartfelt thank you. That is all that has needed. Even Big Ben with all its intricate machinery has to rely on tiny cogs to function. It is just as important as all the others, without which the whole does not work. You may be that cog but without you time, like life, stops.