http://www.pathawi.net/b-log/2005/12/03/2005-san-francisco-collaborative-food-system-assessment/ Pensaments of an Anthropological Patzer Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:58:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://www.pathawi.net/b-log/2005/12/03/2005-san-francisco-collaborative-food-system-assessment/#comment-91 NotSoMuch Mon, 05 Dec 2005 15:25:44 +0000 http://www.pathawi.net/b-log/2005/12/03/2005-san-francisco-collaborative-food-system-assessment/#comment-91 The rich teach the poor to be ashamed of being the poor. Getting to be poor does not usually entail any significant breach of morality, ethics, values, beliefs ... exploitation of others ... putting self above all else. Getting to be rich does. The poor should teach the rich to be ashamed of the way they got rich. If you need foodstamps, get foodstamps. Societal attitudes that look down on and demean you if you do should be stamped out. For the poor to continue to be the poor, it is requisite that they internalize society's message that they somehow brought it on themselves, somehow deserve it, somehow meant to deserve it. The Mathematics of the society we live in tells us that for their to be a few rich, there have to be a lot of poor (and a lesser number than the latter but a greater number than the former can be allowed in between). If there is an embarrassment in being either at the smally populated top end of that scale or the vastly populated bottom end, it rightly should be at the top but in reality most often is found among those at the bottom. Maybe you have to be a decent human being to feel the shame. And those at the top aren't decent enough to see why they should feel shame or if they ever did, are not capable of that feeling. The rich teach the poor to be ashamed of being the poor. Getting to be poor does not usually entail any significant breach of morality, ethics, values, beliefs … exploitation of others … putting self above all else. Getting to be rich does. The poor should teach the rich to be ashamed of the way they got rich.
If you need foodstamps, get foodstamps. Societal attitudes that look down on and demean you if you do should be stamped out.
For the poor to continue to be the poor, it is requisite that they internalize society’s message that they somehow brought it on themselves, somehow deserve it, somehow meant to deserve it.
The Mathematics of the society we live in tells us that for their to be a few rich, there have to be a lot of poor (and a lesser number than the latter but a greater number than the former can be allowed in between). If there is an embarrassment in being either at the smally populated top end of that scale or the vastly populated bottom end, it rightly should be at the top but in reality most often is found among those at the bottom.
Maybe you have to be a decent human being to feel the shame.
And those at the top aren’t decent enough to see why they should feel shame or if they ever did, are not capable of that feeling.

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