When I worked at what’s now called the NHS Centre for Integrative Care in Glasgow, every patient attending for the first time had a sixty minute appointment. 60 minutes doesn’t seem a lot in the context of a life time but to receive a whole hour of undivided, focused, non-judgemental attention feels like a gift.
My colleagues and I would frequently have patients tell us “You’re the first doctor to have actually listened to me.” I don’t think that feedback ever lost its power to shock. How did so many people get so far into the health care service and not have the experience of being listened to?
We all need to be heard. We all have the right to be heard. All of us.
The recent EU Referendum in the UK, and its political fall-out has made it even clearer to me that, politically, we are not being heard. There is a disenchantment with politics and politicians across the so called democratic world. Maybe one of the reasons for that is that our democracies are not enabling people to be heard.
In the UK there is a whole chamber of government, the House of Lords, which is 100% unelected. There is nothing democratic about it. Nobody voted for them and they aren’t accountable to the electorate.
The electoral processes based on simple majorities lead to government after government which does not represent the majority of the electorate. In the recent referendum 52% of those who voted, voted Leave and 48% voted to Remain. About 30% of the electorate didn’t vote. The 52% of the 70% are heard (on this question). The rest of the population are ignored. Parliamentary elections are like that too.
Is handing power to the largest minority the way to ensure that most people in the country are heard?
How can it be?
Most people don’t have the experience of being heard and, in consequence, don’t feel the elected governments represent them.
There’s an additional problem and that is that politics, as currently practised, is about power, not consensus. Those minorities who are elected believe they have the power to act according to their own beliefs and values. They act to exert power over others. If politics was about creating consensus, rather than wielding power over others, it would be an entirely different kind of politics. It would be more democratic. More people would have the experience of being heard.
Being heard isn’t enough.
We need to be cared about too.
Whilst it’s a good thing to listen to someone, to give them the time and attention to enable them to tell their unique story, it’s not enough. The response to that story, the doctors’ responses, the politicians’ responses, need to show that they give a damn. They need to show that the individual human being matters.
If we don’t have a system based on the principle that every one of us is unique and valuable then we get what we’ve got – politics, economics, education, health care, as if people don’t matter.
Isn’t it within the capacity of we human beings to create something better? What would the world look like if we did?
Reblogged this on heather grace: mindfulness & self-compassion and commented:
Beautifully put. I don’t know how this translates into restructuring politics in a different way, but a different way we must find!
I don’t know either Heather, but we are incredibly creative beings, and if a number of people turn their minds to it, I’m pretty sure something will emerge.
It’s so easy for us to think the status quo has no alternative and I remember having a real moment of revelation when I heard someone list “things that aren’t real” (in the sense of things which are just human agreements, not physical, or natural realities) and first three listed were “money”, “borders”, and “corporations”. OK, so if we collectively invented all of these, we can collectively change them, can’t we??
One of the things I liked about Athenian democracy was that if you wanted to be representative, you volunteered, then the actual representatives were chosen by drawing lots, not by an election. The Athenians apparently thought that Chance was less corruptible than elections!
Maybe the Athenians were onto something there. Sure doesn’t seem like allowing money to buy influence, or having a system that lets certain individuals be decision makers for life is a good idea!
I think there are other elements to throw in…..from exploring forms of proportional representation, instead of “first past the post”, to decision making through working towards consensus, rather than through adversarial fighting.
And there’s something too about decentralisation of power, so that decisions are never taken more remotely than they need to be.
From a UK perspective, there has to be abolition of the unelected second chamber too, surely?
Any other ideas you’d like to throw in?
Oh goodness, this kind of discussion is so sorely needed – you’re a breath of fresh air, thank you!
I absolutely agree with all that you say, particularly in regard to decentralisation of power. I wonder whether technology has reached the stage where it has a part to play here… as you mentioned in your blog post, once a party has been elected it tends to feel like it has the mandate to implement all of its policies, but this kind of politics relies on individual apathy. I think that this Referendum has shown that we’re past apathy and have moved into total disillusionment with the political establishment as it currently stands. I think this goes for business leaders too. We don’t trust them because they don’t have our best interests at heart. I don’t want to endorse a whole bunch of policies with one vote, I would like to have my say on each individual issue. I believe there’s no reason that technology can’t make this possible, and this could go some way towards helping individuals to feel heard. The ‘cared for’ is another matter, and I’m passionate about teaching mindfulness and compassion in schools as a way of developing a caring future generation that recognises how interconnected we all are, but that’s another story!
Ha! You read my mind! I was just reading about blockchain technologies the other day. Now, I’m no techie but I can see the potential there. Is anyone working on this? Ways to use the new technologies to promote more active, participative democracy?
Well, I also read about the Spanish village where the mayor has introduced Twitter as the main platform for communication between the population, the town’s elected representatives and the town’s workers – here you go, here’s the link – http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/09/technology/the-spanish-town-that-runs-on-twitter.html?_r=0
Oh, and more power to you with your teaching and promoting mindfulness and compassion in schools by the way!
Thanks for conversing….
Wonderful, thanks so much for the link! Thank *you* for conversing 🙂