7 ..7
When the vertical loyalty is lacking, the horizontal solidarity will disappear very fast as well. An almost exclusive tendency towards fast or simply more profit implies the rejection of everything that stands in the way. Consequently, everybody is confronted with the threatening image of potential redundancy – there is always somebody who is better, faster and cheaper. In such a discourse, it is inevitable that colleagues become rivals and that solidarity is a luxury that you can’t afford. The next step is that this combined disappearance of loyalty and solidarity is felt on the level of the smallest group, which is the family. Our contemporary love life is a very strange one. Partners distrust each other from the start; try to protect themselves against possible fraud via complex marriage contracts, keeping separate saving accounts from day one, etc. In case of a conflict, negotiations are no real option, get packing and go, because flexibility is better, and more often than not, a new and supposedly better product, that is, a new partner is already waiting. Indeed, there is always somebody better, faster and cheaper than you.
The resulting balance is rather pessimistic. Durability is bad, elaborating a common long term project is impossible. Distrust is obligatory and solidarity is nothing but a tax deductible item. The whole thing bathes in a sphere of general tiredness, chronic lack of time and, most importantly, in a sense of loss and distrust in the other. This leads to another conviction: if something goes wrong, if I don’t get the right answer, it is the other who is to blame. This idea is today very wide spread, meaning that the contemporary mean mental age is about three, that is: pre-oedipal.
I have to conclude. This general distrust is indeed general. The Health Professions Council doesn’t trust the professionals. The professionals don’t trust the council. On top of that, the clients don’t trust the professionals. As a client they want to be helped immediately and completely. On top of that, they are convinced beforehand that if things don’t work out as expected this is because of the incompetence of the other. So, if you are offered the opportunity to put in a complaint, just do it! The next step will be that they will have complaints about the council and vice versa, thus joining the contemporary spiral of control and super-control etc.
Instead of participating in that kind of spiral, we should stop it as soon as possible. We don’t need additional control, we need to put our trust in the already existing evaluation systems.
Firstly, the state needs to trust its educational system and the professional societies. If somebody graduates, it means that he or she is competent. If this fails on a large scale, then you will need to invest more in your educational system.
Secondly, the state should trust its own legal and jurisdictional system. If somebody breaks the law, he or she should be put to trial following the normal standards. Creating extra rules and extra controls adds to the idea that the law in itself is failing.
Finally, the state should avoid at all costs creating a further opportunity for individuals to put the blame on others. If not, it will be blamed itself, and this for a good reason.