The charred remains of Grenfell Tower stand over the city of London as an accusing finger.
The anger seething in those Kensington streets boils in its own intensity.
Seeking an outlet.
Seeking someone to blame.
There have always been fatal calamities in our society, yet Grenfell Tower is assuming a significance way beyond that of a tragic accident.
Grenfell Tower is a sign of the times.
It is a dark monument to the trust crisis that engulfs our nation.
It speaks to the growing conviction that ‘they don’t care about us’.
Theresa May doesn’t care. Sadiq Khan doesn’t care. The Council doesn’t care.
Anyone in authority doesn’t care, so we are left to care for ourselves.
An outpouring of common humanity and compassion spontaneously erupts from individual citizens to compensate for the institutionalised callousness that condemns, dismisses, explains away and hides.
The Kings that count their money in the counting house.
Humans that stop being human the moment they step into a position of responsibility.
Cultures that seek every self-serving, short-term benefit and cut every corner, because ‘that is how it works around here and don’t you forget it’.
Grenfell Tower demands that we understand what we have become – ‘feverish, selfish little clots of ailments and grievances‘.
Grenfell Tower demands that we ‘put our bodies on the gears and upon the wheels of this odious machine and make it stop‘.
Grenfell Tower demands that we start to ‘trust one another again in some essentials. Not that narrow little bargaining trust that says ‘I’m for you, if you’re for me’ but a bigger trust. A trust of the sun.’
It’s time to trust again.
So let the trust-builders come!
[ First posted on johnblakey.co.uk ]
