We
have just returned from a holiday on the Shetland Islands and
proved for ourselves the saying that it is a long way to Muckle
Flugga. Apart from the expected benefits of seeing new places
and enjoying magnificent scenery I found an unexpected benefit
was the time to ponder whilst covering 1,500 miles by car and
spending a couple of nights at sea.
Among
the subjects to occupy my thoughts were social constructs, social
norms, conformity and deviations. This particular train started
in a small toilet near the wonderful Meal Beach on Burra. A useful
car park had been provided, in which was located a new, well-built
toilet block. There were stainless steel vandal-proof fittings
and rough-hewn walls. It was beautifully clean and sweet-smelling.
There was even a brand-new piece of soap, a filled paper towel
dispenser and an empty wire basket for used towels.
Sadly,
the only smooth surfaces were the doors, which were adorned with
the kind of filthy graffiti one has come to expect in less savoury
places. Looking at the row of neat little cottages nearby and
conscious of the amount of effort it takes for outsiders to get
there, I wondered who would do this and for what purpose. I was
also saddened when I realised I have come to expect to see graffiti
in public places on the mainland.
I
also wondered why, when someone took so much care to clean and
stock the facility on a Sunday morning out of the tourist season
no-one had addressed the issue of the defacing of the doors over
a period of time. My training as an Approved School Housemother
thirty years ago is still vivid, “If you see damage in the
house unit deal with it straight away. Otherwise the next boys
to arrive will think it is acceptable”.
That,
of course, was also in the era when usually a simple “Don’t
do that” was usually sufficient to ensure conformity. These
days I think most of us would confess to averting our eyes and
avoid challenging antisocial behaviour for fear of the repercussions.
When did adults abdicate responsibility for educating the younger
generation according to the expectations instilled in me? Are
our children really happier for being allowed to do what they
want regardless of the rights, safety and comfort of others? At
what point will we call a halt?
By
contrast with the Burra toilets, at the other end of Shetland,
on Unst, there is a bus shelter which has featured in the Guardian
and, I think, has its own website now. It probably started with
someone putting a couple of chairs in the little glass box, another
welcome facility provided by the Shetland Islands Council. Now
the shelter has chairs, net curtains, a carpet, a TV and video
and a resident stuffed dummy, presumably to make sure the bus
pauses if you haven’t quite made it to the stop in time.
Here there are plenty of opportunities for vandalism and graffiti,
but none has occurred. The community has joined together in an
on-going joke. What a contrast to the ‘job’s worths’
in England, who ban memorial objects from cemeteries and most
recently banned a home-made bench, but would permit one they had
made earlier to be rented at huge annual cost by a bereaved family.
My
thoughts did also take on more serious issues as news of the mayhem
originating in the Middle East and reaching out to engulf us all
kept on reaching us even on the outskirts of paradise. Bucking
the anti-immigration trend some of the Shetland folk were busily
organising to prevent the deportation of a Chinese family. A Benefit
Concert and other fundraising activities were underway to support
the family who would be hidden, should it become necessary.
I
think this typifies the situation where, on a small scale, people
can usually get on well together and appreciate each other as
fellow human beings. But confronted with sufficiently large groups
of ‘different’ people most human beings feel threatened
and start reacting defensively. On small local scales there are
the protests against setting up homes or hostels for people with
mental health problems, people with learning disabilities, addicts,
ex-offenders and so on. Most people accept that services should
be provided, but just not in our neighbourhood.
The
more obvious the differences are, the higher the level of hostility.
The bigger the in-coming group with obvious differences, the more
likely the level of perceived threat which will bring about hysteria
in the resident groups. What ammunition this has provided for
the ‘red tops’.
It
is said that excavations show that after a major eruption of Mount
Hekla in Iceland, the weather was seriously affected and Bronze
Age people in other parts of Europe started to build defensive
structures for the first time, those with resources being afraid
that others who had been more badly affected and had less would
want to share them. Does this sound at all familiar?
But
how much of this is human nature and how much can be attributed
to nurture? Then, how much of our nurturing is conscious and overt
and how much is unconscious passing on of our own learned prejudices?
Some of the prejudices which I inherited from overt parental discussions
were against people who attended other church denominations. Then,
of course, there were divorced people, although the word ‘divorce’
was mouthed, Les Dawson fashion, not spoken aloud and those ‘who
were a load of no good’. I learned early on the merits of
not trying to find out their particular failings.
I
also learned from strict example that the only activity appropriate
for Sundays, when not in Sunday School or Chapel, was reading
a good book, that each day had its own domestic chores, which
could not be done on any other day and certainly not skipped,
that you had to put sheets on the bed with the big hem at the
top, smooth side upper most, when folded over, that the openings
of pillow cases had to face away from the bedroom door –
the list could go on and on.
I
still remember the slightly breathless wait for the sky to fall
in when at the age of about 14 I decided that God would not really
be very bothered if I finished knitting a new jumper on Sunday.
Although the sky did not fall after all, my grandmother could
be heard muttering, “No good will come of this. Mark my
words”. Equally, civilisation has not ground to a halt because
I put laundry in the machine at night, any night and iron the
clothes when I get around to it. But I never did learn to dance
and don’t go into a pub unless it is for a meal. Some habits
die harder than others.
So
from what source has the recent Islamophobia sprung? Nature certainly,
because of the large groups of people from Asia who have settled
in some places, posing a perceived threat to the indigenous population.
Nurture possibly, although there are possibly not too many Christian
families these days warning their offspring against the adherents
of other faiths, in our ‘pick and mix’ society.
When
I was training to be a teacher of Religious Education in the 1960s
the Anglican Methodist Conversations began, ‘many paths
to one goal’ was the mantra, and we thought that racial
tensions would be eased by knowing about each others’ cultures,
which were largely shaped by religious beliefs. Knowledge, better
understanding and tolerance do still go hand in hand, and can
be seen to work, but the rise in fundamentalism in all kinds of
ways has led to frightening polarisation.
Is
it still possible for human adults to influence overtly the next
generation to work conscientiously without being shackled by inflexible
routines, or to tolerate different groups, or to have some civic
pride, or to take responsibility for self?
My
big fear is that we may have lost the battle to the multi-media
- and who determines its social constructs and social norms? The
song from South Pacific is clear that children are taught to hate
by their own families. But do families now know what their children
are absorbing passively or being taught overtly by the little
glowing icon in the corners of their bedrooms?
