Welcome to my blog site!
I have spent my whole life asking questions. “Why?” could well have been my first word. It’s instinct. This can be annoying for people who haven’t got used to it. As a child, my mother didn’t send me to Sunday school because she feared I’d embarrass her by asking awkward questions. However, done with no malice, good humour and a smile I have usually got away with it. I don’t discriminate – I’ve also spent a life time challenging myself. If you stop challenging yourself then you quickly lose the ability to convincingly challenge others.
This instinct has, on balance served me fairly well. I’ve almost got to a fifth decade with all my own teeth (so can’t have been that annoying) and have managed to find ways of making a living out of challenging myself and those around me – firstly as a teacher, then as a worker representative and trade union official. This isn’t easy, as member organisations are often much better at challenging others than themselves and some of my writings here will reflect that tension.
The point of “Looking Up!” is to look at topics around me and try to find the less obvious perspective, then ask the questions, and occasionally offer a possible solution, that isn’t otherwise obvious in the wider discussion about the subject.
A lot of my subjects will reflect work in the UK, political and social challenges in British society – and sometimes sport, ukuleles and other things I’m engaged in. Social and criminal justice came up a lot when I was at Napo so since joining the Society of Radiographers in December 2019, expect a health sector slant.
However, I hope that they’ll be of wider interest to anyone looking for a different perspective.
A different perspective is really important today. We’ve been trained to expect rational answers and outcome in a rational world, where the State and it’s structures and systems will look after us. Anyone with any semblance of reason knows this isn’t now working. We are living in a post-rational world. Emotion is dominant again. Covid19 showed you can’t follow science when a problems new and still being explored and discovered…we have todraw upon instincts.
What happens next isn’t obvious. We all feel less safe – the world rushing and hurrying around us. Change is constant and always unsettling. But we can and must be hopeful. These systems are breaking down because they don’t work any more. New systems can and will emerge. Those who challenge themselves and others will be well placed to shape the new future.
When I was young I played a lot of football – very enthusiastically but not very well. Like most of my playmates, we ran around chasing the ball, looking down until it came our way then hopefully whacking it in the general direction we wanted it to go. It was all emotion and instinct. In our heads we were Platini, Cryuff, Mickey Thomas – but only the kids who looked up and took their time ever really had the space or control to direct and seriously influence the game. My hope is that this blog will encourage readers to step back, look up and consider things from a different perspective, not from the centre of the hubble and bubble of the match, and see how they can re-direct their game and have more influence and control on what happens…being better placed to realise the emotional triggers behind people’s actions so they can find a reasonable way forward.
Please comment on any of my ramblings and add any thoughts or challenges of your own. This site will be a success if it prompts polite and reasoned debate and discussion.
You can also look me up via LinkedIn, Twitter ( @deanrogers25 ) and my Facebook ramblings and rants.
LOOKING UP! 