I’ve been getting rather riled up lately at just how out touch the government and upper classes are with society. The rise of tv shows, news articles and propaganda that demonise many vulnerable groups of people sicken me. This type of propaganda which generalises and tars everyone with the same brush, encourages hatred, resentment and much dsyphoria in society. Whether it be single mothers, people on benefits, Muslims or some other poor or disadvantaged group, we are constantly being fed by the media from a bottomless sack labelled ‘hate’.
Many families in Britain this year will be struggling on the breadline to put their children in a smart school uniform and buy school dinners. At the same time, no doubt some cashmere clad, Hennessy Cognac swilling buffoon will be announcing how terrible society is and how lazy the jobless are. Between regaling tales of their recent trip to Tuscany, Upper Middle class journalists will be throwing down their Louis Vuitton handbags to have a pop at the under classes and tell us all how these vulnerable groups are ‘ruining Britain’ and ‘drag the rest of us down.’
The thing is if you take away the expensive education, the designer clothes, and the privileged lifestyle, the privileged really are no different to those living in poverty. Underneath the grandeur, every one is made from flesh and bone. We all suffer pain, we all get sick sometimes and if we are cut we bleed. The only real difference can be summarised in one word – ‘Opportunity’. Those on the breadline, those struggling to pay their rent each month may never have had any opportunites or choices. They’ve never been given a chance. So why do so many people, who have been born into a privileged life style and who have never had to struggle a day in their lives, feel entitled to judge and criticise others less fortunate than themselves?
I was ranting earlier on Facebook when it came to me. I would love to see the upper classes in a reality tv show called something like ‘Toffs on the breadline’. The idea of the show would be to take someone with a privileged lifestyle who was born into wealth, perhaps someone like David Cameron, and have them swap places with a family who are struggling on the breadline. The family would live in a swanky pad or stately home for a month, eat at his favourite eateries, live his lifestyle and would also comment on what government policies they would scrap/introduce/change if they were in power. Cameron on the flipside, would live in a poor area in run down terraced housing. He would have to eat the families usual diet, visit the poor schools the children attended, and budget to survive on a shoestring. The choices he would be faced with would be things like choosing between having meat on the menu that week, or replacing worn out shoes and holey socks. He would also have to interview very poor families who faced much bleaker decisions. My guess would be that many of the upper classes that are so quick to judge the needy, would not last five minutes. In fact I can envisage some of them having a meltdown when they realised that they couldn’t hire staff in to iron their ties and stock the wine cabinet!
I think this would be a brilliant show and would go a little way to bridging the massive gap between the privileged and the under privileged. Who would you like to see on the show living like a pauper? I’d love to hear your suggestions and if you want to join in my rant on Facebook you can do so here https://www.facebook.com/KarenLouise.info
