Re: Occupation: Nickey Maker


"Graham P Davis" <newsboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:64i4vrF2ckfunU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Don Moody wrote:


"Graham P Davis" <newsboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:64hs8bF2ccvu6U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

Of course, another cheap meal used to be rabbit - usually supplied
by one of
my dad's mates - which I loved, apart from when I'd bite on a
piece
of lead
shot.

Strewth, mate, yer lo' mustve bin rich - and legit.

Hardly rich - dad worked in a shoe factory - but not poor. We just
had to
live within our means. Nowadays we'd be called poverty-stricken. We
were
legit - well, our birth certificates say so (dragging the thread
back on
subject, if only temporarily). Mind you, mum said we had more food
during
the war than afterwards with dad getting meat, fruit, tinned goods,
etc. on
the black market.


Sounds 'rich' and 'legit' to me. You had food on the table and a
father who came by the money for food by having a legitimated waged
job. You had room, not much but some, for moral standards and could
afford - and I hope got - lessons about right and wrong. You might
have been at the less well off end of the normal range but you were
within that range. Anybody looking into your life and movements might
well import their current set of moral values into trying to
understand your life and relationships. They might be correct or
incorrect in their assumptions in your particular case, but at least
they'll have some empathy.

The point I was addressing was that there is a cadre 'below' that
which is not just slightly worse off than the less well off normal but
has essentially the sane behaviour patterns. We tend to think that
cadre doesn't exist in the UK today, but it does. There were a lot
more of them proportionately to the population in the time the OP is
interested in. People for whom there was no food on the table, and
there was no 'job' or prospect of any job. But people nevertheless and
people with a survival drive. They did what had to be done, however
much drudgery, suffering, criminality, or anything else was required
by the exigencies of the situation. If they hadn't been that tough
they wouldn't have lived long enough to have descendants who are now
enquiring about them. But their mindset is a step change away from the
mindset of 'normals' however poor those normals may be.

If you had a daughter with a stomach wound and a friendly stranger
came by, heard the child's screams for water, and put down a cup of
water beside her, what would you do? You will no doubt come up with
all sorts of ideals and fudges about doing your best for the daughter.
In fact the mother correctly assessed the daughter's death as
inevitable regardless of what happed. So she snatched up the cup,
drank the water, and ran away with the cup - leaving the stranger
unable to cope or comprehend. Since the daughter was an obvious goner,
the possibility of having future descendants existed only if the
mother did not also die. If her daughter drank the water both might
die. If the mother drank it , she might live. The incident occurred in
less time than it has taken to recount. Survival discipline in
situations of that level of poverty requires that level of
ruthlessness and speed. And we are all descended from people who could
do that, if we go back far enough. The ''rich', however ;less rich
they are, never had to learn that discipline, and they can't cope when
the situation requires them to have it. Which is why the 'stranger'
mentioned above promptly had a serious mental collapse over the
'horror' he had witnessed. I know, for the very good reason that it
fell to me to put the bloke back together again enough to get him out
of all such situations. A few years down the line he became a Buddhist
monk, and died still not able to grasp what survival discipline is
about. But then if I had the megabucks he and his family had, I
probably would never have comprehended it either. Life does get that
stark for some, and it changes behaviour and choice of action
irrevocably. That's what those looking sufficiently far back in their
ancestry will come up against sooner or later. There is no point in
making moral judgements about what ancestors in survival situations
did.

If some old women made pennies by splitting and tying kindling wood in
order to scratch together a bare, cold and hungry living, and if they
did it in what we'd call 'the black economy' it says nothing about
them. It says a lot about the society in which they lived. And so
what if one of them did a bit of whoring to put food on the table, or
deliberately did some crime which got her transported to Australia, or
even just jailed when at least slops were available to eat? If you
don't approve of it, don't punish the grindingly poor. Go in for
social reform which reduces the number of people in that state.

It is undeniable that some are that poor and always stay that poor
because of some sort of physical, mental, or social inadequacy, and
you may find such ancestors. But most given a chance of a normal life
will take it. They also make the best colleagues on tough work. They
will succeed because they know what it is like when they didn't. Not a
new thought. If you were seeking a crew for a bit of merchant
venturing in the days of sail, you recruited in the jails. And that is
how some of us acquired cousins of many colours, faiths and
nationalities when those dregs got to their promised land.

Don


.

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