Struggle Street

[rabbitearbandicoot]

so, who's watching this show tonight at 8:30 on SBS?

if it's not cancelled that is. The people involved have tried to get it wiped because it represents them in an unfavourable light.

[the_great_she_elephant]

You CAN get out - we are proof of that

No, you are proof that some people can get out of it.

I am currently working my way through Les Carlyon's book on WWl and the chapter I am reading deals with the phenomenon of shell shock. It was a psychological disturbance caused by prolonged exposure to active warfare, especially being under bombardment. Some soldiers suffered from it, many didn't. Why do you suppose that was? Was it because - as many believed at the time - those who succumbed were lacking in moral fibre or was it simply because some soldiers were temperamentally better suited to coping with those conditions than others?

[bella_again]

Yes but Rabbit you are assuming everyone has the same capacity or ability to do so as you have.  Some people try hard and never win, never get out of their circumstances.  They do everything within their power and life still kicks them down then they get depressed and the cycle continues. Sometimes people really can't for various reasons do anymore than they do. That is the problem, working hard does not make you luckier you may catch a break like you did and you might not.  What do we do for the ones who don't catch a break I wonder ?  I just don't think its that simple for everyone.

So what then do we do for those who don't have the capacity, the ability,  the support, or help to change their circumstances? The one thing we all have in common no matter what is our need for purpose and belonging.  Fulfill that and we go a long way to changing lives.

[bella_again]

I just watched the third episode on catch up TV, the whole scenerio is almost heartbreaking but in some ways it also showed me that despite all of the addiction, pain, conflict, lack of hope and fear that there is still a sense of family.  It was great to see Peta doing some community type work in helping to put together the town fair.  Their son was amazing that despite his brain injury he was trying to stop other people making the same mistakes through his talks at schools etc.

I'll say it again, you can shoot me if you like but I think in their own way they all have potential its just a matter of having the  right supports in place.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

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@bella_again wrote:

Yes but Rabbit you are assuming everyone has the same capacity or ability to do so as you have. So, you are saying, it's different for me - I am somehow special? Some people try hard and never win, never get out of their circumstances.  They do everything within their power and life still kicks them down then they get depressed and the cycle continues. You don't need to talk to me about depression - I've suffered it for years. Sometimes people really can't for various reasons do anymore than they do. That is the problem, working hard does not make you luckier you may catch a break like you did and you might not.  What do we do for the ones who don't catch a break I wonder ?  I just don't think its that simple for everyone. I agree. But I am not talking about single mums or those with severe handicaps (physical or mental). I am talking about otherwise healthy people who are too lazy to get out of their own way. Those who think the world owes them something.

In my early days, I have applied for jobs and got them and the first thing the employer says to me is:"are you really going to turn up for work on Monday?". "Yes, of course I am". "It's just that we have stacks of people who don't even bother to turn up on the first day even after we employ them". That is largely the attitude of most I have known in Mt Druit - well, not so much old Mt Druit itself but the various suburbs of Mt Druit - Bidwill, Shalvey etc. They DON'T WANT TO WORK. They just apply to satisfy the Centrelink requirements.

So what then do we do for those who don't have the capacity, the ability,  the support, or help to change their circumstances? The one thing we all have in common no matter what is our need for purpose and belonging.  Fulfill that and we go a long way to changing lives.

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[the_great_she_elephant]

So why do you think it was that some soldiers succumbed to shell shock in the trenches and some didn't? 

[rabbitearbandicoot]

"So what then do we do for those who don't have the capacity, the ability,  the support, or help to change their circumstances? The one thing we all have in common no matter what is our need for purpose and belonging.  Fulfill that and we go a long way to changing lives."

As I said, some will never get out. They don't have the WILL to get out. I know of a few that have had the will, and they have succeeded - not because they had any special abilities but because they had the WILL to get out. One got a job driving a concrete truck - they saved and eventually bought a block and built. Another started up a little gardening job which he built up over a few years - now he employs 5 or 6 people. They had the WILL to do something better. They didn't let lack of capacity or ability stop them. They didn't have any help - they did it themselves. They made their own purpose.

Face it. Some will be in their rut forever and so will their children and grandchildren - until someone makes an effort to get out. The trouble is that then the rest will bludge on that one, and say how lucky he/she is to have a job. 

[rabbitearbandicoot]

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

So why do you think it was that some soldiers succumbed to shell shock in the trenches and some didn't? 

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Mental strength. I don't know how I would go under those circumstances. I would probably fall apart. I don't know.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

So why do you think it was that some soldiers succumbed to shell shock in the trenches and some didn't? 

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How do you think some would go who have had my problems (and worse). I came down from a good career / business that I built out of nothing - my son was born with brain damage and then my wife suffered a stroke - I am now living on the same pension as those people in the show. Yes, I get depressed and often wonder if I made the right choice to wind up the business and stay home to look after them. As it turns out, I would be retired now anyway and in the same situation - probably with a lot more money? But who knows? If I had kept working, I may have had a heart attack or a stroke, Who knows.

{edit: but at the end of the day, I can say we got out. We are not still stuck in Bidwill with a drug habit.

[bella_again]

Rabbit: While I see your point I'll have to agree to disagree! Because there are people who want to work, who want to change their lives and can't no matter how hard they try. It's called reality if it was easy to go out and get a job 800,000 odd people looking would find one.  I know of many families doing it tough working their guts out on minimum wage who don't smoke drink or anything else that can't find more work and its not through lack of trying.  It just isn't there and if they find other work employers usually take advantage of them because they are hardworking.  So its all the more harder for those in cycles of addiction and in housing commission to get outside of their environment to change their lives.

The places are like ghettos in some areas and its damn near impossible to escape.  There are a lucky few that do but they are lucky most can't and it is not through lack of trying. Believe you me Rabbit from what you say my experience does not seem that different, I've just about seen it all.  All that was on my side was luck really.

[bella_again]

It's great you got out Rabbit and it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job for your family.  I'm also on that same carer pension so I get it a bit more than you think maybe. I often have the same sort of questions like should I, could I, well you know the drill! OH is sick and it appears getting sicker and the kids have special needs (intellectual) I think I've probably told you before.  We were lucky, not without our battles but lucky not to be in that situation.