I've been mentally connecting a few things together in my mind over the past few days, all of them pointing at a question about sense of worth, recognition or achievement, each article comes from a different stance, yet I see them pointing to the same place.
The first is the New Statesman essay from the 8th November issue, this is about the lack of other measures of public value, save money that our culture promotes. Celebrity is just another aspect of this, many people are famous for money or association, Heat is full of them.
Sunday evening, last week, there was an episode of Panorama on the notion of a Winner takes all Britain, exporing the consequences of following the commercial model to its fullest extent. The website for the programme contains a mine of interesting facts and some interesting opinions on the type of society this will create, I think I side with Professor Robert Frank.
Lastly in this triptych of prompts there is the new report from Demos, Tom Loosemore drew my attention to the report on the new ProAms. These people are the groups who in their spare time make offerings to the world of professional quality, but not as part of their full time employment. There is a launch event hosted by Demos on the 30th November. A short overview by Charles Leadbeater in Fast Company is available, prior to publication of the full report, at the end of the month.
I'm all for this rise of the amateur again, it reminds me of a more egalitarian view on the gentleman explorer or scientist of the late 1800s, with not only the rich men allowed to participate. One drawback is that you do end up working all the time, I'm often seen on the train with my powerbook perched on my lap hacking away at some template code or some blog post.
The people that Demos highlight, the ProAms, are key to changing this view on the world and moving the point of recognition from wealth to a more rounded view of achievement. The competition is strong though from the tabloid and celeb-based press and the notion that someone is "worth" an amount of money. Both of these mitigate against a wider definition of the achievement of an individual.
On the whole this philosophy is about using your talents and abilities for personal satisfaction and for the benefit of others, rather than for pure personal gain or for the benefit of some shareholders. Those of us lucky enough to be able to work and play in the same areas have a small advantage, but there is no reason why we cannot all participate. It is only a small step beyond the volunteer of the past, just a more focused participation.
To tie all of this together a bit, perhaps if we all did a bit more ProAm work then we'd see less of the world being about money and worth. Perhaps a bit more about what people did or contributed to local communities and interest groups. There is also an interesting aspect of this about how those in their 60s and older can contribute their skills and experience, hopefully in a manner that gives them consultancy income, but to the benefit of all. Mentoring small companies is something that I know Lucy's Dad and mine both do. There is something beyond working in a charity shop that the generation who went to university in the 60s can offer.
It is very idealistic, but I'd certainly prefer to live in a world where value was placed on contribution and knowledge rather than on brand labels and conspicuous consumption.
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