hope springs eternal

“A society which eulogizes the average citizen is one which breeds mediocrity. What the world should be seeking, and what in Canada we must continue to cherish, are not concepts of uniformity but human values: compassion, love, and understanding.” —Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1971)

“Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice.” —Baruch Spinoza

“I’ve met people who effortlessly said, ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ but were unwilling to learn to say people’s name right. Learning and / putting effort into saying someone’s name correctly is one of the most basic things and humane things we could do.” —@blessingmpofu

Don’t drive Buurtzorg: change at the speed of trust

“The NHS is unable to cope with two key concepts: giving staff such a high level of autonomy and operating with low overhead,” states [Camilla] Cavendish, adding that “the NHS has much to learn from social care about how to be responsive and human facing”. In that context, it proposes that local government rather than integrated care systems (ICSs) should retain commissioning responsibility for social care.

But must this choice be made at national level? Why not let local partnerships decide how to achieve the best outcomes, just as Buurtzorg allows its neighbourhood teams to do so within a clear and simple framework?

Which brings me back to the Cavendish proposal that the Buurtzorg model should be ”driven” into the system. Please, no! A key lesson of Buurtzorg’s growth is that it has been based on an ethos of enabling and nurturing rather than command and control.

A Twitter thread by Uki Goñi

I have interviewed real Nazis, including the personal aides of Ribbentrop and Goebbels, men who worked at the Reich Chancellery with Hitler, as well as torturers and officers of Argentina’s genocidal dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s.

These killers all considered themselves the victims of imaginary all-powerful entities, world Jewry, godless Marxism. They, and not the people they murdered, were the real victims of history, each and all told me. This self-ascribed victimhood empowered them to commit mass murder.

Assigning imaginary power to harmless groups they outmatched in every way, satisfied their desperate need to feel wronged, without actually putting themselves in harm’s way, without actually becoming real victims.

Again: The Nazis and Argentine perpetrators I interviewed, all considered themselves, and not the people they murdered, to be the real victims of history. Time and again I heard them rap on this theme.

Madonna by @Arf_Arts — Patreon — Anta Frirean