First awakening of a social conscience

I well remember the first occasion that I felt something akin to outrage at what I perceived to be  - albeit in a work of fiction - a social injustice, that is something I thought just wasn't fair.

I was seven going on eight. There was a story in my school reading book about a Dutch farmer and a farm worker, who was fed each lunch-time with bread and cheese. Eventually, the farm worker asked the farmer if he could have some variety in his lunchtime meal, to which the farmer agreed.

However, the next day the farmer again provided just bread and cheese to the farm labourer. When the labourer complained that the farmer had not kept his word that he would provide a different lunch from braed and cheese, the farmer replied, 'Oh, but I have. Today you're getting cheese with bread.'

It was, of course, meant to be funny, but I couldn't see the humour in it, only the injustice. It was the beginning of a life-long concern about injustice.