Standards are Slipping and People Have Got Used to It!

Standards are slipping and we are blindly letting it happen. People have got used to it. And if we don’t act to change things, they will continue to fall until our whole way of life is destroyed and becomes impossible to retrieve.

Red percent crash hitting the floor

At the start of their book, ‘That Used to be Us’  Thomas L Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum give a very telling comparison of the current difference between the China and the US. They cite the example of the massive, beautiful 230,000 square meter (2.5 million square feet) Tianjin Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Centre taking only 8 months to build, and compare that with the fact it took 6 months to repair the escalators at Bethesda station on the Washington Metrorail – 2 separate escalators of 21 steps each.

If that stark comparison is not damning enough the authors complain that:-

  • A spokesperson for the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority said that “the repairs were scheduled to take about six months and are on schedule. Mechanics need (my emphasis) 10-12 weeks to fix each escalator.”
  • One of the explanations given for this time was that it included “modernisation” because “the escalators were old and had not been kept in a good state of good repair.”
  • The most disturbing aspect was a commuter comment in a newspaper report that “my impression, standing on line there, is people have sort of gotten used to it.”

None of these statements is acceptable. The passive acceptance of a basically unacceptable schedule, justified by an admission of historically poor management, both blandly and blindly accepted by an unquestioning customer, is an enormous indictment of falling standards.

Yet, although this illustration describes a US situation, it is by no means an exclusively American scenario: it is a sample of what is happening today in all “Western” economies. It portrays people who are resigned and have lost their pride in what they do and, as a result, have become indolent, indifferent, and apathetic. This is precisely the point I attempted to illustrate in ‘A Feeling of Worth’ and it is why we need to rethink the way we do things and rediscover our sense of self-worth.

We cannot get used to this: to declining standards and the erosion of all we built up and hold dear. That is why I wrote ‘The Democracy Delusion’ and why I urge you to read it and act. We cannot continue as we are and I believe it offers a very real solution.

10 thoughts on “Standards are Slipping and People Have Got Used to It!”

    • Thank you. The ideas expressed, however, are intended to inspire further discussion and ultimately action. So if you really enjoy the content please participate and share.
      Best wishes,
      Bay

  1. I think everything posted was very logical. But, think about this, suppose you wrote a catchier title?

    I ain’t suggesting your content isn’t solid, however
    suppose you added a post title that grabbed a person’s attention?
    I mean Standards are Slipping and People Have Got Used to
    It! – BayJordan.com is kinda boring. You might peek at Yahoo’s home
    page and watch how they write article titles to get viewers to click.
    You might add a video or a related pic or two to get people interested about everything’ve got to say.
    In my opinion, it could make your posts a little livelier.

    • Thank you for your constructive criticism. I do try to make my headlines catchy and relevant, but find it a struggle to balance the message with the content. Obviously there is room for improvement, and I will keep trying to do better.
      Bay

  2. Howdy! This post couldn’t be written any better!
    Reading this post reminds me of my previous room mate!
    He always kept talking about this. I will forward this post to him.
    Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!

    • Thank you for sharing that. The more people who are willing to reflect on these ideas, champion and improve them, the more likely we will be to make a difference.
      Bay

    • Terry, Of course I don’t mind if you share my blog. The whole point of my writing this stuff is to get my ideas out to as many people as possible so they can be refined, developed and make a difference in solving key problems the world is facing today and for which current efforts are proving inadequate.
      Kind regards
      Bay

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