THE Concise English Dictionary defines resilience as the ability to “recover quickly from illness, hardship etc.” Whatever it is, it’s clearly important. The UK Government bolsters our resilience through the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR). We have our very own tartan version, the Scottish Government Resilience Room.
As winter draws on the resilient Transport Minister will be readying himself in front of a bank of monitors to reassure Jackie Bird should there be unseasonal winds, rain and heaven forbid, snow at Drumochter.
Yet, do we require special committees and rooms to help us through happenings that are run of the mill and short-lived? Can it be, as a nation we have gone soft?
A flurry of snow is enough for a crisis about a salt shortage or the gritters being stationed in Helensburgh instead of snowbound Helmsdale. Our parents and grandparents were made of sterner stuff. If in doubt, Google the winter of 1947 to see what a real winter looks like. Not long ago London ground to a halt due to what was in reality, a touch of frost. It’s just as well Hitler didn’t find a way of dropping snow instead of bombs. The war would have been over in no time.
The stiff upper lip may be unfashionable, but it still has a lot going for it. I would never underplay the danger and hardship endured by our service men and women in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m unsure how I would have coped in their situation. They are however, part of a professional army. Encountering nasty people possibly comes with the territory.
Consider those who served during the Second World War. To a large extent the armed forces were made up of citizens. For example, a very elderly relative was plucked as a 20-year-old from rural Aberdeenshire and a few months later was on the Normandy beaches. Although still unwilling to talk about it, he saw and experienced things that no human should have to endure.
A couple of years later, along with tens of thousands of others, he was dumped back on civvy street with no job and no support. No help for heroes or post-traumatic stress counselling for the class of ’45. “Just get on with it, son.”
The home front was no bed of roses either. Around a million homes were destroyed or damaged in London alone. Yet, people still got around and went to work to support those doing the fighting. Contrast the near hysteria that accompanies a short-lived power outage, the temporary failure of a bank’s IT system or a late running train.
In recent weeks much has been heard of groups such as teachers and police officers being so stressed they are “near breaking point”. We all have bad days at the office, but how far is work-related stress a creation of the “no win, no fee” brigade rather than the medical profession?
My grandfather was the sole breadwinner for a family that included five young children. His enlightened employer, a pillar of both the Kirk and the Tory Party, didn’t believe in sick or holiday pay. The summer “holidays” amounted to a two-week lockout. Now, that’s work-related stress and I still feel bitter and angry on his behalf. I suspect no one told him he was near to breaking point.
Yes, yes, I know that was then. But, in my darker moments I wonder if we should be preparing ourselves and our young people for a world that isn’t necessarily going to be easier or better. Social and economic progress may well have stalled. The most rabid Brexiters are intent on rolling back many of the gains of the past half century.
A majority of Britons swallowed the lie that everything would be milk and honey post-Brexit. During the 2016 independence campaign I longed for a politician to say, “Yes, it will be really tough for five to 10 years, but it will be worth it in the long run”.
The concept of resilience has been devalued through over-hyping of events that are little more than inconveniences. Unfortunately, around the corner lurks things that will require much greater resilience.
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