Since Christmas is nearly on us, and the Apocalypse appears to have passed without incident, I thought I’d take some time to reflect on the past year.
Last Christmas, The Not So Big Society was only a couple of months old. Prior to starting the site, both Ermintrude and I had been running successful blogs that we’d felt compelled to shut down due to people causing trouble for us in meatspace. As result we’d both found ourselves at something of a cyber-loose end, and agreed to set up a blog together. Since then we’ve been joined by other writers, including Abe Laurens, Politicalnurse, Gary, Bonkesoul and Z3r00n3. I like to think we’ve evolved nicely into a forum of ideas and opinion about health and social care, with the occasional dollop of small-p politics.
Over time the readership of the blog has slowly but steadily grown, from 2,648 views in October 2011 to 14,466 in November 2012. A rather unscientific browse through our list of followers on Twitter suggests we’re being read by a healthy mix of professionals, service users, students, academics, politicians, campaigners and interested individuals.
We also get a steady stream of angry, at times abusive, messages from people who believe that social workers are engaged in a massive conspiracy to steal children. If I’ve learned one thing this year about building up a readership, it’s that quality is as important as quantity.
In terms of how people are finding us, the most popular search string (apart from the obvious like “not so big society”) is, believe it or not, “tin foil hat”, probably due to this post. The most popular sensible and non-obvious search term was “AMHP training”. There’s also a very high number of search hits for information about the John Smalley case, which I used to demonstrate how appallingly under-regulated the psychotherapy industry is. I suspect this may be because although it’s not a huge issue in terms of widespread media interest, there’s not many other places highlighting this problem.
Oh, and hello to the small number of you who found us with the following search terms.
“the queen should die”
“fascist child protection services”
“tin foil child”
“fifty ways to save pickles”
“cosmic schmuck principle”
This time last year, the spending cuts that followed the credit crunch were yet to be fully implemented. Now we’re beginning to feel the full impact, very possibly with more to come. I’d vaguely hoped that austerity would prompt a greater sense of compassion in society, that we would feel compelled to spend more time looking after our friends and neighbours in order to protect the vulnerable.
In fact the opposite happened. This year has seen a ramping-up of unpleasant rhetoric that tars and feathers the poor, the sick, the unemployed and those who work with them. Disabled people are all faking it. If you’re unemployed it’s been you don’t want a job rather than because you can’t find one. The poor need to be given vouchers instead of money so they don’t spend their benefits on fags and booze. Nurses are all lazy and compassionless. Social workers are all loony-left ideologues. Our political classes may not have been responsible for the financial crash, but they are responsible for turning the struggling masses against themselves.
I’m more angry at the government and the world in general in my mid-30s than when I was a stroppy, immature teenager. What’s that about, then?
If there is a Christmas message from this blog, I hope that it is this: despite what Margaret Thatcher claimed, there is such a thing as society. If there is a true measure of society, it is the way it behaves towards those in need of care and support. We did not create the ongoing austerity, but we live with it and face the consequences every day. We are the have-nots rather than the have-yachts. We believe in compassion and decency, and we oppose stigma and victim-blaming.
We are the Not So Big Society.
Harry
December 22, 2012
I’m more angry at the government and the world in general in my mid-30s than when I was a stroppy, immature teenager. What’s that about, then?
It’s simply the end of the world as we know it.
Edna Fletcher
December 22, 2012
“despite what Margaret Thatcher claimed, there is such a thing as society”
Society is not something ‘out there’, each one of us is society itself. In our own behaviours, thoughts, actions, beliefs lies the whole of society. I liken it to something said by a figure in the series ‘Midwives’ : there are only two reasons why humans do things, fear or love. Well I have seen very little pure love led behaviours and actions, over now a long life. Fear is what drives most of ‘society’ and the individuals comprising it:
Fear is pervasive, deceptive and incredibly hard to unravel if you start from any book learning, theories by others on psychology etc. To understand fear in every possible sense and how destructive it is, (hence the way ‘society is moving’ including we ourselves with it), requires a hell of a lot of personal awareness in relationship and mental energy. Humans take the lazy way with belief systems, theories, judgements and ideologies and not only make themselves unhappy, but go on to make others unhappy in the main at some point.
Websites and blogs promote ego’s and the discussions are usually with those whose views or opinions resonate to some extent with ones own.If it were the end of the world… it would in my view be no more than we collectively have brought ourselves to by our own thoughts and actions.
I expect if humans have stopped evolving in terms of brain / thought and necessarily co-operative behaviours, (which helped small human groups survive during early evolution), then somewhere we have sown the seeds of our own destruction.
politicalnurse
December 23, 2012
Great post as always from our leader and inspirational guru (yes I do mean it) and thank you for summing up 2012 so nicely. I do believe however ( being the eternal optimist) that despite the lack of political compassion and empowerment people have become more resilient – but maybe that was the plan all along? There have been many tragedies over the last 12 months including the most horrendous crime and natural disasters but this has come to generate strength in our society, a coming togetherness that no government could have planned or created. I am deeply moved by the compassion ordinary people have shown to others in distress but maybe that is because we can all now feel their pain more deeply and sharply than ever before.
It would be nice to think that this blog has brought some of those people together and I look forward to being part of this virtual society in 2013.
Wishing a very merry xmas to everyone and a peaceful new year
Zarathustra
December 23, 2012
Inspirational guru?
Bristol Michael
December 30, 2012
At last! A photo of MN from the previous blog wot you mentioned! His/her references to SF/fantasy are greatly missed. Merry Christmas and a delicious Meatfeast New Year to the lot of you!