It doesn't surprise me that Socialism has come to have such a negative connotation among many in our society, especially within religious circles. It's affiliation with various villainous dictators in history with their often ethnocentric, close-minded beliefs serves to disenfranchise people at face value. If we take the time however, to see what Socialism, as it stands on its' own, freed from the shackles of the tryannical philosophies of their historical proponents, we may not cringe the next time we hear the word used in political discourse. Before you start picketing and calling me a "Liberal, communist loving, hippy" hear me out. I agree that Socialism is a bad economic structure. I don't think that people should be forced to share their income with others based on government imposed law. After all, God gave us free will. The concept behind Socialism is to create an egalitarian society, where access to resources is equal for all. Yeah, I Wikipediaed that shit. Economic equality may be achieved, but i'm skeptical that Socialism would create social equality. Sharing and giving cannot be forced, but need to be done with compassion, otherwise the result will be bitterness. But Socialism as a virtue is an entirely different thing. Socialism should be a virtue practiced by all who claim to follow Jesus. It breaks my heart to know that people including myself, can claim to be Christian or the recently popularized term "Jesus Followers," yet be so blatantly opposed to the idea that we should share with those less fortunate. We were charged to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and visit the prisoners. Socialism is an economic system that is trying to implement a structure that would provide a way of doing two out of those three, yet most Christians shudder when they hear it. Something is fundamentally wrong here. We've gotten off track.
"According to the Federal Reserve, in 1990 the richest 1 percent of America owned 40 percent of its' wealth -- the greatest level of inequality among all rich nations, and the worst in U.S. history since the Roaring Twenties. Furthermore, the richest 20 percent owned 80 percent of America -- meaning, of course, that the bottom four-fifths of all Americans owned only one fifth of its wealth."
These statistics are disconcerting to say the least. Imagine what would happen if we practiced compassion for our neighbors. God promised us that there was enough on this earth for everyone. It seems that there is more than enough. Sadly something has gone wrong and instead of sharing the bounty, the priveledged hoard it. Sometimes I wish, that like fruit left out too long, money went bad; that it would rot and fall away so that stockpiling money would be as absurd as stockpiling bananas. No offense DK. Maybe then people would be more apt to share. I think Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, says it best.
"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."
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It IS incredibly disconcerting.
ReplyDeleteI'll never understand why people feel the need to hoard money in bank accounts. They find comfort in all the zeroes, I assume? But really... there's no point to it.
I'm criticized by people by always giving change to beggars and hobos. They claim it's just going to fund alcoholism and/or drug dependencies. My argument: 1) How do we know that? Do we follow them and coach them through life of the goods/bads of money spenditure? 2) I was probably going to waste it on something stupid anyhow, or just end up losing it in a couch, on the floor, etc.
But anyhow. Good read!
Thanks for the the feedback Christine. I agree with you 100%. I think it's pretty bold of us to say we know what that money is going to. Just to be sure though, I've started offering to take them to get food when asked for money. I think it's good for me and I like to think that my willingness to actually spend time with them restores some lost dignity. It's so easy to just avoid eye contact. I did it in New Orleans and the week before that in Austin, and I'm sure I'll do it again in the future. Hopefully, though, I won't. Hopefully I'll stop. Hopefully we'll talk, so that I'm reminded on a more intimate level of the poverty in our world. The funny thing is. It doesn't have to exist. Thanks again for the comment. Grace, love.
ReplyDeleteHaha, this could become a comment conversation, but speaking of New Orleans, the last time I went there with the guys, a homeless man came up and asked us for money to buy himself and his girlfriend food. As we were going in to eat, I invited him with us and offered to buy extra food as well, but he ran off. Sad, but oh well. Then we met another hobo on the way home and we stopped and chatted with him for a good half hour. Turns out he's had a special done on him before... he had a family somewhere, but he was addicted to the streets. But anyhow, my point: I have a strong passion for the homeless, because when I look at them, I see the children they once were and think of all their dreams that never came true. No child dreams about becoming a tramp, or wants to grow up to live on the streets. It's incredibly heart-rending.
ReplyDeleteI'm very caught up in how we intentionally remove a person's humanity in order to preserve ourselves from feeling guilty.
I agree. In a weird way I think people don't want to get involved because they don't want their fears to be confirmed. That even though they may be flawed, they are people too. I recently saw a homeless man I took to McDonalds back in the spring. His story at the time was that he had only been on the streets a few weeks. I knew he was probably lying, but oh well. I guess he thought if he could convince people he was just having a run of bad luck they would feel bad for him. Anyway, seeing him again saddened me. It's like part of you wants to believe that these people will get out of their situation. It's easier to detach from it and blame it on the individual. Nobody wants to help someone only to see them stay on the streets. It's heartbreaking. I don't know what to do though. How do you make a lasting impact? Feeding them once is great, but for those who want to get a job it doesn't really improve their situation. And then you have the issue of which ones actually want off the streets? I don't even know where to begin.
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