We continue to hear a lot about social mobility and the claim that it has flat-lined and is not available to as many people as it used to be. I don’t propose to debate this point in this blog, as I covered it last year in a blog on the many external threats that it now faces, specifically the government’s “green” agenda.[1] Instead, I intend to evaluate the extent to which it is a combination of accident and design, by looking at two of my all-time favourite books which I re-read over the Christmas break.
The first of these is PEOPLE LIKE US[2] by Hashi Mohamed, a lawyer of Somali origin who came to the UK as a refugee in the early 1990s. His ascent from a damp-infested council home in my home borough of Brent to becoming one of a tiny handful of Somali barristers has not led to some of the conceited, complacent attitudes that were often encountered among products of the” never had it so good” generation of the post-war period. These attitudes arose from what Mohamed terms “system justification.” This refers to the extremely naïve view that many “never-had-it-so-gooders” had of the over-arching economic, social and political order of the time being “legitimate, fair and ultimately good.” That was a lethally dangerous delusion if ever there was one.
Sensibly, Mohamed is at pains to stress that social mobility is dependent on a measure of luck, that no-one can make it on their own, and that even the best education does not GUARANTEE that you will progress upward. He is 100% right in every respect. He talks about successful people over-estimating their personal role in their success and convincing themselves that they have more control over their destiny than they really do. This is dangerous, as it raises the expectations of others to totally unrealistic levels. All things considered, Mohamed is a beacon of commonsense and contemporary awareness.
But let’s take an example from “across the pond” that illustrates Mohamed’s points even more clearly, namely the case of working-class-boy-made-good Bill Bratton, son of a mail sorter, and the only police commissioner in the history of American policing to have been top cop in three major cities; Boston, New York (twice) and Los Angeles.In his book TURNAROUND; HOW AMERICA’S TOP COP REVERSED THE CRIME EPIDEMIC[3], Bratton describes a series of narrow escapes that almost prevented him from even joining the police force, let alone becoming a world-renowned police commissioner. On a cold and snowy day in January 1970, he was driving to the centre of Boston, his home town, to sit the civil service exam, the first step on his journey to becoming a cop. His car, unable to withstand the adverse weather, died on the freeway. Fortunately, his sister had an operative car and was willing to rescue him and take him to the centre. He got to the exam centre two minutes before the doors closed. The second narrow escape that he had was later in 1970, when he had to pass the physical exam, which involved swimming 100 yards. Bratton was, and remains, afraid of water, but again his sister came to the rescue and taught him to swim. Guess what, on the day of the exam, the examiner, who already had a reputation for being “four sheets to the wind,” was drunk and issued a pass certificate despite Bratton turning in a less than perfect performance. He was duly hired to the Boston Police Department (BPD) on 7 October 1970. But even then, it was by the skin of his teeth. Just a few days after his appointment, various pressure groups brought lawsuits against the Department, claiming racism in recruiting practices which ensured that a city that was then composed 20% of minorities was policed by a force that was only 2% minority. The result was that the Department did not hire any new officers for several years afterwards! In his own words, Bratton had “just made it.”
The next obstacle that he faced was the promotion system within the police department, which was based on the old “Buggins’ turn” principle. You had to serve a minimum of fifteen years as an officer (the bottom rung of the ladder) before being eligible for promotion to sergeant. That was going to be a major handicap to Bratton, who was recognised in his first year of service by no less than the Superintendent-in-Chief of the BPD as “a kid who’s going to go far in the job.” Enter stage left Bob di Grazia as police commissioner, with a reform agenda the like of which was not to be seen again until Bratton himself shook up the New York Police Department in the mid-1990s. Out went Buggins’ turn, in came promotion on merit. In 1975, only four years after being recruited as an officer, Bratton sat the sergeants’ test. He came first in his class and was duly promoted.
So, in a nutshell, Bratton owes his success partly at least to his sister for bailing him out twice, to his physical training examiner, for being idiosyncratic and drunk, and to his first police commissioner for changing the promotion system. He owes no such gratitude to the then emerging, but now all-powerful, diversity industry which nearly ruined all his (and his sister’s) good work.
“On the basis that assumptions make an ASS out of U and ME, the assumption that personal success depends solely on personal brilliance has a very high asininity factor.”
But does that mean that Bratton’s success was all a matter of chance and accident? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Here are a few examples of the professional competence that he brought to policing in his early years in the BPD. Bratton accepted danger as an element of the job and ran towards it, acquiring the nickname “Cannonballs” whilst barely out of the academy on account of having – how shall I put it? – the “brass balls” to stand up to a hostage-taker on a bridge in Boston. From Day 1 on the force, he embraced zero tolerance of corruption – unusual in the early 1970s when bribe-taking was part and parcel of a cop’s daily routine in most US police forces. He virtually invented modern crime mapping, albeit using only paper in those pre-internet days, by using pins on paper street maps to pinpoint crime hotspots. He put these on notice boards in his station house. They became known as “Billy Boards.” He got himself out in the field with the officers under his command – “as much to assist as to supervise.” Whilst a sergeant on the Commissioner’s staff in the late 1970s, he drew up the Standard Beat Plan to monitor the comings and goings of officers. He did all this as an officer, then sergeant, then lieutenant – the most junior ranks on the force. He brought desperately needed innovation to a then very conservative, risk-averse police department.
“An ability to anticipate obstacles and defeat them is a prerequisite for any kind of social mobility.”
Incidentally, I can relate to Bratton’s story about the journey to his written exam. On 22 June 1982, when I was booked to sit Paper 2 of my O level maths exam at a Central London centre, the tube drivers staged a strike. By using Network Rail services and walking, I made it to the exam hall in time. Had I not passed that exam (I did – I got a Grade B) I would not have gone on to obtain my accounting technician’s qualification 25 years later. But I learned my lesson and in 2004 chose for my accounting studies a college (Harrow College) to which I could walk, drive or catch a tube so that neither the vagaries of the weather nor the fragility of automotive technology nor the now resurgent militancy of the rail unions could scupper my exam performance. I passed all my exams comfortably. An ability to anticipate obstacles and defeat them is a prerequisite for any kind of social mobility.
In his excellent book WTF[4], Robert Peston says, “It is human nature to assume our success is all about our brilliance and not the lucky break of being in the right place at the right time.” On the basis that assumptions make an ASS out of U and ME, the assumption that personal success depends solely on personal brilliance has a very high asininity factor. Bill Bratton’s experiences are living proof of that.
“In the extremely uncertain 2020s, true social mobility depends on a combination of accident and design.”
The truth is that social mobility is both desirable and possible – possible, in fact, for a much wider section of society than it was in the allegedly golden post-war period. But, more than ever, in the extremely uncertain 2020s, true social mobility depends on a combination of accident and design. If we accept that reality, we are less likely to be disappointed, and disappointment is one of the most difficult emotions to get over. The best way to avoid experiencing it is to be aware of the contemporary real world and tailor your expectations to the challenges that it presents.
May I wish all my followers a happy, prosperous and (within real-world constraints) socially mobile 2023.
[1] SOCIAL MOBILITY; A SAD CASUALTY OF THE “GREEN” AGENDA? – DAVID LAWES (wordpress.com)
[2] Available in Kindle form from Amazon at ; People Like Us: What it Takes to Make it in Modern Britain eBook : Mohamed, Hashi: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
[3] Available to download on Amazon at ; Turnaround: How America’s Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic eBook : Bratton, William, Knobler, Peter: Amazon.co.uk: Books
[4] Available in Kindle form at Amazon at ; WTF?: A Times top 10 bestseller eBook : Peston, Robert: Amazon.co.uk: Books
DAVID LAWES 