We are angry, but no one's listening

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/29/we-are-angry-no-one-listening

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The answer to Tanya Gold's question (Britons are masters at class denial. Where is the anger?, 25 August) is that the anger is everywhere – in streets, pubs, homes and workplaces. If you listen, you can hear it and feel it all over the place.

Why doesn't it show? Because most of us no longer believe we can effect change. We used to believe our votes made a difference; we used to believe that governments could be run and laws made to benefit the majority, that political engagement and activism could change things – but no longer.

Recent decades have shown us we are powerless to affect the decisions of those who govern. Blair takes us to war with Iraq, against public opinion. MPs fiddle their expenses but keep their jobs; exorbitant salaries are paid in spite of public disgust. The system is controlled, exploited, manipulated and used for personal benefit by the rich and powerful.

We are no longer blind to it, our media has seen to that. But knowledge is not power, and when we are repeatedly ignored and our efforts feel pointless, we stop wasting our energy.

Denial of the effects of class is not the issue; it is the denial of those in power that matters – the denial of their deafness to public opinion, the denial of their habit of saying one thing and doing another, the denial of the obvious effects of their actions.

Whatever we do, the powerful turn it to their advantage – they cannot, and will not, see that they must give up their advantage; they are terrified – after all, if they let go of what they've got, they could end up just like us! All we can do is get on with our lives the best we can. Deborah Duffin Totnes, Devon