That's Just the Way it is
You can say that about a lot of things. I can't fly. That's just the way it is. Monopoly money is no good on the high street. That's just the way it is. Yet when somebody - an advisor at our local jobcentre - says this about a certain benefit law, I have to disagree.
A little background: I'm a student at Teesside University, where my final year commences in October. I've just finished the third year of my degree, which was a full time placement at our local hospital. I/my family are now without income, with me having received hardly any (student) support for the year because of my placement, and I am of course looking for (and available for) full time, if temporary work until October - no luck yet.
The law in question says I can't claim this countries unemployment benefit (Jobseekers Allowance, or JSA) because I'm a full time student (p53 onwards on that link), even though I'm not at Uni now for nearly three months (p55, para 30219 onwards on that last link). Get this: my wife has to claim (p30), even though she has a 5 Month old baby to look after - who is pretty much a permanent feature of her body, hungry lad that he is! So I'm the one looking for work and available for work, and not able to be classed as either; she's the one who has to be available and looking, though she is (if truth be told) neither!
To paraphrase Dickens, the law is an ass, and to paraphrase Jesus, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. I don't think I need to explain the Dickens reference, and what Jesus said can be summed up like this I think (in this context): man makes the law, therefore he is bigger than the law - THE LAW IS NOT BIGGER THAN THE MAN - therefore you cannot say "that's just the way it is" about a man made law. Men make the laws and men can change the laws, for good or bad. This one law needs changing, for good: A student who is in my position, with a wife in my wife's position, needs to be able to make a claim in their own right.
The advisor who said the above to my wife is only mouthing a very human response in the face of the 'big' (or the 'bigger than me'). It's a shrugging of the shoulders - a little shrug in this case, but the same apathetic shrug could most probably be seen, much more pronounced and multiplied a million times, all over Germany under Nazi party rule. That's how many must have known what was happening to the Jews, but felt powerless to stop it. After all, this wasn't people doing those things: it was the party, the organization with those flashy uniforms, the thousands that marched as one in those parades, etc etc. What could they do, individually, against such a big thing as the Nazi party?
I know this is an extreme example, but I see this "shrugging" attitude in myself too. My friend Peter e-mails me all the time pointing out the terrible atrocities done by nations around the globe, particularly by the US. And I think "yeah, it's terrible, but what can I do? That's just the way it is...." And so too with this benefit law. What I should do is put in a claim myself - then appeal, re-appeal and re-appeal all the way to the highest body which presides over these things, and hopefully get the law changed. That's not going to put dinner on the table now though. Tell me how that's different, at least in principle, to what those Germans did(n't)? People aren't dying, but it could benefit a lot of people if I did appeal. I'm putting my immediate concerns above everything else. It doesn't make me feel good, but then again, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I don't lie awake at night thinking of those poor people in Lebanon either. Do you?
A little background: I'm a student at Teesside University, where my final year commences in October. I've just finished the third year of my degree, which was a full time placement at our local hospital. I/my family are now without income, with me having received hardly any (student) support for the year because of my placement, and I am of course looking for (and available for) full time, if temporary work until October - no luck yet.
The law in question says I can't claim this countries unemployment benefit (Jobseekers Allowance, or JSA) because I'm a full time student (p53 onwards on that link), even though I'm not at Uni now for nearly three months (p55, para 30219 onwards on that last link). Get this: my wife has to claim (p30), even though she has a 5 Month old baby to look after - who is pretty much a permanent feature of her body, hungry lad that he is! So I'm the one looking for work and available for work, and not able to be classed as either; she's the one who has to be available and looking, though she is (if truth be told) neither!
To paraphrase Dickens, the law is an ass, and to paraphrase Jesus, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. I don't think I need to explain the Dickens reference, and what Jesus said can be summed up like this I think (in this context): man makes the law, therefore he is bigger than the law - THE LAW IS NOT BIGGER THAN THE MAN - therefore you cannot say "that's just the way it is" about a man made law. Men make the laws and men can change the laws, for good or bad. This one law needs changing, for good: A student who is in my position, with a wife in my wife's position, needs to be able to make a claim in their own right.
The advisor who said the above to my wife is only mouthing a very human response in the face of the 'big' (or the 'bigger than me'). It's a shrugging of the shoulders - a little shrug in this case, but the same apathetic shrug could most probably be seen, much more pronounced and multiplied a million times, all over Germany under Nazi party rule. That's how many must have known what was happening to the Jews, but felt powerless to stop it. After all, this wasn't people doing those things: it was the party, the organization with those flashy uniforms, the thousands that marched as one in those parades, etc etc. What could they do, individually, against such a big thing as the Nazi party?
I know this is an extreme example, but I see this "shrugging" attitude in myself too. My friend Peter e-mails me all the time pointing out the terrible atrocities done by nations around the globe, particularly by the US. And I think "yeah, it's terrible, but what can I do? That's just the way it is...." And so too with this benefit law. What I should do is put in a claim myself - then appeal, re-appeal and re-appeal all the way to the highest body which presides over these things, and hopefully get the law changed. That's not going to put dinner on the table now though. Tell me how that's different, at least in principle, to what those Germans did(n't)? People aren't dying, but it could benefit a lot of people if I did appeal. I'm putting my immediate concerns above everything else. It doesn't make me feel good, but then again, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I don't lie awake at night thinking of those poor people in Lebanon either. Do you?
posted by John Doran-Armstrong at 9:30 AM
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