Accustomed to mediocrity

The tumble dryer broke down just after New Year. It was a recurrent fault, and the repair man had made several visits over the previous few months, so we decided it would be cheaper to replace it. A new model was duly delivered and installed. I asked the driver if he would take away the old one and he said for £10 they would take it to the dump.
"Ach no" I said, "We pass that way most days, so we'll just take it in ourselves."
So it sat out in the kitchen for a couple of days, as for one reason or another, we didn't seem to be going into town. Then, I got fed up of manoeuvering round it, so made space for it in a corner. It meant that my thrifted vintage tea trolley,with various retro items artfully arranged, was squeezed up against a cupboard, and that the kitchen door didn't fully open. Every time I came in the door rattled off it and rebounded in my face  - I had to squeeze round between it and the table, and it looked messy - certainly not part of my ideal kitchen vision. I put up with it though, because it was  really only for a day or two Yet -those days came and went - and, here we are two months later and it is still sitting there. We were busy - the truck was full of other stuff - one of us was away - we forgot - lots of excuses for it. Mostly though, as the days went on, we noticed it less and less. We became used to it - adjusted our movements around it. It has actually become useful as a dumping ground for all those bits and pieces that don't have a place, or that we cant be bothered to put away properly. In fact the area round about it has become a bit of a junk pile, although we don't notice that much either. First world, middle class problems - eh?

In a previous life, I worked for the SSEB, in the dying days of the nationalised industies. In the lead up to Thatcher's privatisation of our public organisations, our far-seeing management decided we had to be prepared for our new role, ensuring profits for shareholders, so they sent every single employee to a "self improvement course" - honestly! We were bussed to Glasgow, in carefully selected representative groups, put up in the Hospitality Inn for two nights, while we attended this course. There we watched videos of an American self-help guru, had group discussions, where we were encouraged to say what we really felt, and basically were instructed in the language of "corporate-speak". What a jolly that was, I can tell you. Aside from learning about "positive affirmations" the thing I remember most clearly from this "experience" was a story about becoming accustomed to mediocrity, when we stop noticing things that used to bother us. (Our depot closed within a year of the sell off, and I was made redundant.)

I saw First Minister's Questions yesterday for the first time in ages. Not for the first time, however,  I was struck with the mediocrity of the questions asked by the leaders of the opposition parties. No imagination - no ideas, no vision that sought to advance the outlook and lives of the people of Scotland. Each one in turn focussed on the same headline from yesterday's newspaper and flogged it to death - three times! They each perpetuated the idea that Scotland too small to manage on our own and we are doing okay as part of the union - why change?

Everything is okay as we are.

Being okay means a quarter of our children live in poverty, while we pay for nuclear weapons to be kept in our waters. Being okay means that our elders, who have worked all their lives, find their pensions raided, and go hungry or cold, while the bankers and politicians who caused their hardship are rewarded with massive bonuses and lucrative speaking contracts. Being okay means that the wealth generated from our resources has been drained away to Westminster, where it has been mismanaged by incompetent governments.

It's not okay.

For decades, we have been moving around these issues, putting up with the inconvenience, having to struggle to get the door open, being used as a dump for nuclear weapons, listening to the corporate-speak.  It is beyond mediocrity - it is absolutely dire - but - there is something we can do about it. On September 18th - let us  just take that broken system, and throw it in the skip.  Then we can start to build a country that works for us - that lets us open the doors wide for everyone, that gives people the chance to flourish. We no longer need to be accusotmed to mediocrity - let us expect the best for ourselves and our children.

Vote Yes.