Humansolutions Bulletin - October 22nd 2015

Neil’s Effective Writing e-book is now on Kindle (and other e-book platforms) as are his two brand new e-books, A Career in Social Work and How to Do Social Work. For a limited period they are available for only 99p each. We hope you will like them and feel able to give them a positive review. https://astore.amazon.co.uk/neilthomp-21?_encoding=UTF8&node=14

Owen Jones has established himself as a highly respected social commentator, first in his column in The Independent and more recently in The Guardian. This book extends and consolidates that reputation. In a clear, well-written text he provides a powerful and convincing critique of the Establishment, the institutionalised power interests that have such a far-reaching effect on ordinary people. Across eight chapters he offers an impressive analysis of how certain groups of people have the ability to present their vested interests as the interests of the country or the economy or the social order in general. His scope is broad, encompassing politicians, the media, the police, and, of course, wealthy capitalists. In each case he provides evidence and argument to…

The gap between the richest and the rest of us is less of a gap, more an interplanetary divide. Executive pay, in particular, has reached dizzying heights, stretching far away from the salaries of the mere mortals they employ. Research published ... by the High Pay Centre shows just how vast this chasm is. On average, FTSE 100 chief executives now receive almost £5m a year - or, put another way, 183 times the average salary. It would take someone on the minimum wage more than 400 years to earn what a top boss takes away in just 12 months. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/columnists/theres-no-defence-for-sky-high-pay-packets-when-top-bosses-are-worth-127-police-officers-10459341.html

I don't personally have a big history of playing with dolls, and as a large, bearded male who enjoys violent sports, I might not even be the sort of customer that doll manufacturers have in mind when creating their products. I'm not really offended by that. But a story that didn't sit as well with me comes from Nigeria, where, one day, Taofick Okoya's daughter told him that she wished she was white. The comment didn't sit well with Okoya either, and instead of lamenting the lack of dolls who could make his daughter feel content in her own skin, he got to work. "All the dolls in the house were all white, and I was like, 'Oh, OK, that's…

Feeling like a failure has little correlation with actually failing. There are people who have failed more times than you and I can count, who are happily continuing in their work. There are others who have achieved more than most of us can imagine, who go to work each day feeling inadequate, behind, and yes, like failures and frauds. These are not cases of extraordinary outliers. In fact, external data is almost useless in figuring out whether or not someone is going to adopt the narrative of being a failure. Failure (as seen from the outside) is an event. It's a moment when the spec isn't met, when a project isn't completed as planned ... https://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/10/on-feeling-like-a-failure.html

Sadly there are many people who seem to feel that they can – or at least should – get through life without support. For many people, asking for support is seen as a weakness, as if only inadequate people need – or ask for – support. This sort of stoic or ‘macho’ approach is both ill-founded and potentially dangerous. We need to be very clear that this perspective on support is something we need to move away from. A major part of the problem is that western societies tend to be characterised by a strong emphasis on individualism, and this involves a conception of each of us as a more or less fully independent, autonomous individual. This is set up…