Sock Free Hideaway

BEATS OF LOVE 

55. Working Class Hero by John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band

I WAS talking to a mate a while ago who welds for a living that told me his one regret in life was not being a postman. During the pandemic I got made redundant despite working around the clock and so I started working in a supermarket. Alas, I don't have a dream job. 

For over twelve long months of arduous slogging about, due to insane volumes of online orders, I went through a polite ritual of carting heavy loads of shopping to customer's cars. Whilst they masked up in fear. And then leaving it a few feet away from their boot, maintaining far more than a social distance before smiling then saying 'thank you very much.' 

I was an instrumental part of their vital service, yet barely registered a 'thanks' in return. This idea that I don't really exist is now confirmed. These folk are finally back in store, long after restrictions have lifted, and, more often than not look away rather than acknowledge me. These folk, I'm guessing, define others by the job they do. And I'm guessing again, that their own jobs pay more. Or did. 

As making ends meet becomes increasingly more difficult, we are more than likely going to see these once panicked snobs become brazenly unsympathetic to others less fortunate than themselves. Actively seeking the collusion of others when stigmatizing anyone financially worse off than themselves has always been commonplace. Often enacted in a humorous way to even get a laugh from the victim. It's all very British and Commonwealth. 

Having the courage to stand against snobbery impresses upon such folk the fact that we won't collude in their wrong-headedness. We can stand against it simply by making direct eye contact and smiling more. At least in warehousing, the dehumanization starts and ends with the embedded management structure, but in supermarkets it can often appear endless as you bounce from person to person invisibly.   

Just spoke to the postman and, like myself, he also gives his own job a big thumbs down. But needs must, for now.