In decision-making in society the Pillars are very influential. Their thinking tends to dominate to the extent that those who do not agree with their thinking, and promote different views or beliefs, can be marginalised, isolated, considered out of touch, or even subversive.
There are many examples of this of which Galileo Galilei, in Italy in the early 1600’s, is probably one of the most famous. He proved that the Earth went around the Sun, whereas it had been assumed for many hundreds of years that the Sun went around the Earth. The Catholic Church at that time was a major Pillar in Italy, and Galileo was derided, vilified, placed under house arrest and ultimately excommunicated for suggesting that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe.
A less famous, but just as interesting example is that of the Hungarian obstetrician Dr. Semmelweiss who discovered that, just by midwives and doctors washing their hands in chlorine, infant mortality (and that of young mothers) reduced significantly. When he tried to bring this discovery to the wider world, he was laughed at (and even discredited) by medical academics and learned physicians all over Europe.
On the other hand, when a trend or practice becomes accepted by the Pillars, it becomes (almost) beyond criticism and then fashionable. For instance, nowadays, to say that Sun goes around the Earth, or that babies should be delivered with no regard to basic hygiene, would be the stuff of heresy and be immediately rubbished.
At a local, Irish level, consider, for example breast-feeding, cycling, thatched cottages, and Gaeilge, the Irish language. Once upon a time all four were associated with poor and uneducated people. Now, because they have Pillars’ approval, they are more associated with the middle and educated classes. Think about it!
And, as an aside, consider one of the above. The top prize, in Ireland, as an example of disastrous-Pillars-design must go to the revival of Gaeilge – a stated aim of every Government since 1922. In this project, the State (with the support of the body politic, academia and the public service – the media are mostly disinterested) teaches children a language for 12 or 13 years, three or four times per week, and ends up with the average school leaver not being able to speak it. This is truly a remarkable achievement! The method of teaching that is used has been failing to revive the language for almost a hundred years and no Pillars entity sees any problem with it. [1]
Getting back to the Focus Group, families (and individuals) are often deemed by staff working within the Pillars to be virtually impossible to reach [2].
Such families often grow to distrust, and be cynical of services. They frequently play a game, giving false information to secure some advantage, justifying what the system would label as their dishonesty, or wrongdoing by focusing on what the system has not delivered for them – and to which they feel they are entitled like the rest of the population [3].
Now from my long life experience I can say with a fair degree of confidence that what we call milking the system is widespread at every level of society. If we don’t have a sense of belonging but we do have a conscience we will, kind of, force ourselves not to milk the system. And if we have a sense of belonging, the idea of milking the system will not really enter our heads because we will be robbing ourselves (and fooling ourselves too).
So, obviously, the amount of milking speaks volumes about whether or not we have a sense of belonging in the society that we are all part of!
The perceived dishonesty of the Focus Group induces a punitive reaction amongst the Pillars. The punitive reaction may take the form of withdrawal of rights, discrimination, exclusion from mainstream services, financial sanctions, prejudicial comment, medication (when a more holistic solution is available), poor housing leading to family fragmentation and isolation, even imprisonment, heaping more disadvantage on people who are undergoing significant suffering already.
And talking about punishment, a light punishment for people who break the law, in order to avoid a custodial sentence is community service. It’s amazing – if we think about it – that helping out in one’s community is deemed to be something that one does as punishment – to avoid prison [4].
[1]. I have often considered the possibility that the Pillars are unconsciously embarrassed by, or even fearful of Gaeilge, which has more of an anarchic and disrespectful-to-authority feel to it than English. Some modern commentary – for example Machán Magan in his book 32 Words For Field – would also support that. Those of influence in Irish society (in particular the Catholic Church) at and from the foundation of our state, would have been very wary of such influence. The modern Pillars may be fearful for similar reasons. Perhaps a more enlightened and less fearful generation will have more success in reviving our native tongue!
[2]. I was at a seminar organised by the HSE some years ago which described such families as impenetrable families. A term such as impenetrable has implications for the type of service design aimed to assist them as will be explored in Section Five of the blog. I thought it was an interesting term to use, as many people in the Focus Group would find services set up to help them so difficult to reach that the services could be termed impenetrable too.
[3]. This, of course, mirrors behaviour that is commonplace in society in general – and in particular among the upper echelons in the Pillars, who ensure that through their connections, many going back to childhood and schooldays, their advantaged and privileged status is maintained and perpetuated. This is probably the same in all societies. I just wish to point it out here. A long discussion on white collar milking the system in society is not really that relevant in this website.
[4]. I’m not against community service at all – I’m just mentioning it to provoke deeper thought on punishment in general.