Aspiration. It is a politician’s word. It is a word that rolls around in the mouth with the taste of cough medicine and the texture of raw sausage meat. The same texture as words like moist, phlegm, pustule and squirt. Aspiration is supposed to be a good thing. It used to be about the hope or ambition to be more, to achieve something. Something significant, not just to aspire to have a corned beef sandwich or a decent haircut.
It is aspiration that changes our world. Without it ideas fade like the plot of a bad film. Our visions collapse in on themselves, like bloated neutron stars that have for too long, been gorging on shop bought pasties and tins of super strength lager. It is aspirational people that make the world better for everyone.
It is sad that aspiration has become more synonymous with the accumulation of wealth, the success of business, than with the conception and formation of ideas, the want to improve surroundings and challenge stubborn, outdated paradigms. Society changes as technology changes as politics changes and needs and wants change with them too.
What is it that people like? They like Topshop and Amazon and dog shows. They like chain pubs that have key-less pianos as part of the decor. They like Michael Bay films, The Sun and free carrier bags. They like Ant and Dec, lattés and Poundland. But what they really like is property.
They like owning property. They like that property prices go up because, well, there are not enough properties. People aspire to buy loads of properties (often with government subsidies) and then rent those properties to people who can’t afford properties, and because there are far less than are needed, they can charge whatever the hell they like because, well, it’s the current market rate isn’t it, a rate which increases on a near weekly basis, even though no one is controlling it, apparently.
Aspiration and property should not go together. Yes, you can aspire to live in a better house, or a more pleasant area, where you don’t have gangs huddled outside on street corners, drinking cider and throwing bits of debris at other bits of debris, setting fire to wheelie bins and pensioners. It is fine to want those things but the aspiration for a decent place to live should be on balance with the aspiration to be able to afford to eat. The person who works 50 hours a week, on minimum wage, should be able to afford their rent, whatever it is and wherever it is and unfortunately, a lot of people can’t and it is not through a lack of aspiration or determination to do better.
Speaking of minimum wage. Where is the aspiration in paying somebody the minimum wage? Surely the minimum wage should be for school-leavers, whose first job is scrubbing burnt gravy from the bottom of a pan in a pub kitchen, or working the counter in a corner shop. It is not for someone who has experience and works a demanding and tiring job like many carers and support workers do, or someone working for a company that turns tens of millions in profit every year. There is also no aspiration in taking away statutory rights, like holiday and sick pay, a practice that is rife in the hospitality and service sectors.
Aspiration is a mess because gain is no longer related to productivity or societal value. It is related to the accumulation of assets, status and monetary wealth. When a politician says aspiration, you now know what they mean, to have more, not to be more. Maybe if we were encouraged to be more, there would be less bad things, like crime, homelessness, poverty and people who have given up on working and sit at home all day, watching endless repeats of Family Fortunes, dipping slices of white bread into a jar of mayonnaise and sticking two fingers up to the world. And it would stop me spending all of my day wondering why everybody gets everything so wrong all of the time.
“Aspire not to have more, but to be more” – Archbishop Oscar Romero was an outspoken defender of the poor in El Salvador
