What is it people really need? Are we obligated to help others get it? Is it necessary that we take care of one another, and not just ourselves? How exactly do you take care of people? Should you? Is it even possible anymore? Have the values insinuated in our personal and collective psyches by an economic system that values self-interest and maximizing profit, on both individual and corporate level, become so dominant that an increasing number of us not only can’t take care of others, we don’t want to? There is a lot of talk about community, and ‘it takes a village...’ etc. but the countervailing and increasingly dominant narrative of our times has moved from ‘people have to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps’ to, essentially, let them die if they can’t. Then pretend it’s their fault because they didn’t want to. Too many people feel it is unnecessary to care about, let alone take care of, others outside their own narrow tribal circles. Maybe that’s a big part of the problem, the breakdown from seeing ourselves as an American community to identifying as members of small tribes of like-minded people. Tribes that think only they are worth taking care of, only their interests matter. Am I my brother’s(sister’s) keeper? was a question posed during a time when the answer was Yes, your brother’s, but not your neighbor’s, not those outside your tribe. Western culture, it seems – and correct me if I’m mistaken – for a while tried to move towards expanding that definition of brother to include all others in our community. We took care of people by passing child labor laws, creating government jobs(DPA) during times of economic duress, providing food stamps, financial assistance, unemployment benefits for those who were suffering. Creating public schools and libraries to feed the minds, as well as public parks and playgrounds to strengthen the bodies. No one was ever asked what they believed before they could use these services. They were open to all. Now, we have gone from taking care of our citizens to taking care of predatory corporations. Monied interests. Can’t ask Exxon or GE to pay taxes, but damn those people on food stamps. Can’t provide healthcare for everyone, but let’s not restrict profits in the healthcare industry. Clean water for all? Hell no, Fracking Uber Alles. I know this is rambling, and I haven’t even touched on how we take care of, or don’t, one another on an individual level. And is that enough? Help me out here.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 13:12:58 +0000
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