inspired by Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) of 15 November 2020, paradigm.

They say it is a dirty word,
And my response? That’s quite absurd.
Who built that road outside their home?
One man can’t manage, all alone.

Who built the ward on which lives depend?
Or build the school where their kids attend?
Who built that tower, big and tall?
Or fights the fire, when we call?

Who builds that bridge to cross the span?
That can’t be done by just one man,
Who builds the jails? We can’t ignore,
For those who choose to flout the law.

Who defends us, under threat?
With battleship, or fighter jet?
Or from an office, remotely flown,
A missile from an army drone?

There are many more, I could go on,
But I think my work today is done.
I think this one will be true forever,
We’re stronger when we stand together.

There are a few examples of things which we can build together, as a group of individual people with a common overall objective, which are normally beyond the resources of one person acting alone. In other words, acting socially.

I got irritated during the recent US election when I heard Biden being decried as a socialist – it might even have been Trump who first said it, but certainly Fox News were still repeating it as recently as a few days ago. Whoever started, it is clearly meant as an insult, as though socialism is something you picked up on your shoe.

And I was sitting here, thinking, shouldn’t that be a badge of honour? Shouldn’t he be reminding people of all the things they had because they live in a system which acts socially, that they would never have had if they built everything themselves? Things we have precisely because we acted collectively?