…goes I.
Never, ever forget that.
So many of us do forget that basic lesson, our personal circumstances, who were our parents, help determine what tools we have in our psyche to confront a universe indifferent to our fate.
I have been trying to assemble together a grand post that links together several themes and ties together many different topics into a philosophic whole.
Time limitations have prevented me from completing this work, but some parts of it cannot wait, so in the interim, I will recommend you read these posts:
“The poor really are different” from Jane Galt at Asymmetrical Information
“Structural Unemployment” also from Jane Galt at Asymmetrical Information
“New Orleans – On the mend, but changed forever” at The Economist (subscription, but worth it, the key paragraphs are quoted below)
The storm’s most dramatic political effects could turn out to be local. It has seriously aggravated race relations in New Orleans. Blacks tell pollsters that they are mad at Mr Bush for the slow federal response. Whites are more inclined to blame the looters, the thugs who shot at rescue boats and Mayor Nagin, who is black. A drunk white householder asks a rhetorical question: “Can you name a country run by blacks that is an example to others?â€? When your correspondent suggests Botswana, he roars: “Get off my property!â€?
Two thirds of New Orleans’ registered voters are black. But the floods could change the city’s racial mix. Those who lived in the worst-affected areas were typically poor, black and renting. They are now dispersed, some as far afield as Montana. They have no assets to tie them to New Orleans. Many will find work in Texas or Mississippi before their neighbourhoods are habitable again. No one knows how many will come back.
There are other links I will add to this post later, but the key point is this;
We are all responsible for ourselves, and we make our own choices.
However, the choices we make are the result of what we were taught, and more importantly, shown as children.
If there are no examples of good choices presented to us when our minds are forming, how can we make good choices later?
This is the fundamental dilemma when dealing with poverty.
Do we abandon those who do not have the tools to climb out of that pit?
For those who say we are a “Christian nation” I sincerely hope the answer to that question is “NO!” for otherwise they are abandoning the very principles upon which their faith is based.
So, where do we go from here?
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Cross-posted to Random Fate.