The older I get the more negative I seem to be concerning the society (hive) in which I live. Here rapacity is good for business and hunger is distorted. Here wants trump needs. Here ego is tied to getting, not giving or sharing.
I wield the negative knife not from a death of delight, but to remove the leeches we give to ourselves and each other. I would gladly affirm those whose occupation is in feeding actual hungers. Some of that goes on in our town where the homeless are fed daily hot meals. But, I would ask how did all these people become homeless if they live in the best of all possible worlds?
Capitalism. The funnel whereby all resources - natural and human - flow into a bottomless pit of greed, leaving behind an ocean of despair surmounted by a fug of malaise.
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Perhaps the fact that my natural appetites are never fully satisifed - they become more whetted, they become more profoundly involved in searching out that meaning.
The more I experiece and learn, the more my natural curiousity rises up. Meaning can be transient, it is not set in stone.
Mystery and wonder is what keeps my natural appetites flowing.
In the summer of 2004, while walking from Vezelay France to Los Arcos Spain I was introduced to a 19th century writer whose pen name is George Sand. Turns out 2004 was the 200th anniversary of her birth. I felt mysteriously drawn to this writer … read a couple of her books. The following paragraph is the most colourful expression I’ve read on the topic of human greed.
" … there is a lack of hands to work the land but every profession has a host of aspirants; where human beings, hideously massed together around palaces, crawl and lick the footprints of the rich; where enormous capital, accumulated in accordance with the laws of social wealth … in a few men’s hands, is the prize in a never ending lottery of avarice, immorality, and ineptness … in this country of lewdness and misery, of vice and desolation, in this civilization, rotten to its very roots, you want me to be a loyal citizen? You want me sacrifice my will, desires, imagination to its needs, being either its dupe or its victim, so the penny I might toss to a beggar will end up in a millionaire’s coffers?"
Replace the word “palaces” to “corporations” and you have the 2015 version 
I particularly enjoy the imagery I conjure from the words “crawl and lick the footprints of the rich” … priceless
She really didn’t like the aristocracy of her day! I’m not mad keen on the present aristocracy. They change their tactics and their titles - not their nature.
Yah! … we bitch and complain yet the sad irony is … we … the masses … empower them with a vengeance.
We contribute all our energy … physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual … to their ‘game’ … a ‘game’ in which they are continuously assured the lion’s share of the ‘winnings’. We … who contribute most … are left to the “crumbs that fall off the table”
The good news about all this is eventually … and perhaps sooner than most people think … we will reach the point the Chinese call Reversion of the Extremes.
All that you see in humans can be seen in other species but, more violent less merciful. We have issues that still are primitive but, in a generation some have become less. In your lifetime bigotry has become far less, mixing is acceptable. Mixed ethnicity , mixed religion marriages. Social charities and programs are more.
Ier, Do not forget progress by concentrating on the bad. One or two generations cannot change all.
We cannot blame homelessness on just society. The homeless more often then not put themselves in that position. To blame society for all , is wrong. We as sentient individuals must bear responsibility for our lives.
Tell that to the homeless veteran who died on a park bench in view of the White House.
“Civilization is an old bitch gone in the teeth”–Ezra Pound.
Yes I realize there has been some progress in society in my lifetime. But it appears obscured by the Western lie of rags to riches. Anybody can make it. Raise yourself up by your own bootstraps! That lie is why we continue to play the lottery and kiss the feet of our executive aristocracy. The bigotry of haves against have nots outweighs all forms of social progress. You can be black or homosexual now and still buy the Western lie.
The idea of bearing responsibility for our own lives can be distorted, which is why many rape victims will not report their defilement. It’s so easy to blame the victim for the crime. Some things simply happen to persons beyond their control.
I know plenty of veterans that are not homeless, they used their benefits and brains to make a home, to make families, to make careers.
Progress is obscured because your focus is fixed on the bad. You want the haves to babysit and take care of the have nots. My dear friend forgive me but, that is bullshit. That way creates dependency weakness and ignorance. We cannot be so giving that we take away pride, drive, desires and independence. I am not saying be heartless, I am saying no handouts unless the recipient gives to society in return. Give the person reasons to give back not take.
I cannot see as you, I can see the progress, see the continuing progress. I also know that it all takes generations. Memes and instincts are natural in all species. Changes are not passed down always at birth, it takes multiple births.
Change your focus, truly look around the species. Look at other species, look at what is happening slowly, what is all.
Many more report it. Many more think about not getting into a place where it can happen. Many of those that do not report it also know that their own actions caused it. Some that do not report fear being blamed. It is not a clear cut thing.
It does not take a change of focus to understand that the wealth of America is concentrated in the hands of !% of the population and that here in America one in five children go to bed hungry. For some children the only meals they get are at school. So what of the pride, drive, desires and independence of children or of those adults who have worked all their lives only to discover that a single tragedy could wipe out their savings and income? The children cannot wait for generations for maturing memes. They are hungry now. The working poor cannot wait for some miracle of changed minds. I do think that if these problems were first addressed from the point of need, children and adults would be able to give back to the society that gives a damn.
I go to a church where the poor or fed. Do you think I would ask any of them if they deserve to be fed or what can they give back? I don’t like disagreeing with you, Lady K., but even Jesus made sure the persons he preached to got to eat fish and bread. Meet the need first. Then, quibble over notions of personal responsibility.
If all Christians were like that, I would have no problem with Christianity. But it hasn’t been, and isn’t like that: the big, powerful churches take from the poor, give to the rich and relentlessly excoriate their victims. The big powerful churches invariably support dictatorship and prop up corrupt regimes. Indeed, the sects - and there have been more than a handful, over the last couple of millennia - that sincerely attempted to follow Christ’s teaching were persecuted and extirpated by the big powerful churches. The sermons attributed to Jesus are read in pulpits, but disdained and rejected outside of church. Just try proposing any of his commandments as a government policy — and then, duck.
Because
Those whose hunger is for wealth and those whose hunger is for power always climb to the top together.
And those whose hunger is for loving-kindness are always bamboozled with nice stories. Once the nice story has entered the heart of the good man and generous woman, it can be twisted into a grotesque parody of itself; it can turn love to hate, compassion to contempt, the mind against the heart.
Once the doctrine of power and wealth have shaped a social system, everything and everyone in that system is, to some degree, a victim.
Ier, why not ask if they deserve? How can needs be truly met with temporary or quick fixes. Jesus fed so that they would listen or as a bribe.
Would you rather feed them today or teach them how to feed themselves today?
One in five kids go to bed hungry in the USA. Quite the phrase they put together is it not? Along with some heart tugging video. Look at the phrase, it is not saying starving or dying of starvation or even sick because of malnutrition. Why? Because it is not true. In other countries the above is true and worse.
We have 1/5 of kids that might go to bed hungry, not starving but, hungry. It is not even every night. Some Orher first world countries can’t even say that.
The one percent, the controllers of all…
Two things: try dividing it up. Then see just how many more homeless you will get. Taking from the rich only makes more poor.
No one should have to take anything from the rich. “Unto whom much is given much is expected.” As a socialist I do not see the same world the capitalist sees. It’s a matter of life vs lifestyle. I cannot believe the vast majority of American are poor because they are ignorant or lazy.
Satire- The good Samaritan finds a man who has been beaten and robbed and who is lying in a ditch. The Samaritan asks the man, “Where do you work? Do you contribute anything to society?” While the Samaritan goes on asking questions about the victim’s worth to others, the man dies.
Marx was more moral than Mill.
Yes! Nominal Christians support the status quo. And the predominant hungers in a capitalistic society are wealth and power. Many of us do not know the difference between actual hunger and taught hunger.
Seems rather pessimistic from someone capable of such lofty thoughts! … as expressed in some of your previous posts.
If I understand your comment correctly … you see the historical perverse drive for luxury and covetousness as the only possible means to advance the species. Hmmm!
I’d rather believe that eventually conscience will trump money.
Why are they poor?
What can be done about it, (if something should done)?