The Morals Of A Gnat

As I watched the rant of CNBC analyst Rick Santelli concerning the proposed housing bailout of the Obama administration I couldn’t help but think is this where we have evolved to as a country? Where our chief concern is what’s in it for me. Have we gotten to the place where we are taking our moral cues from the same greedy, profit at all cost mentality that got us into this mess? According to this crowd it is now immoral to help those who have become unemployed, sick, or homeless because they have had the misfortune of working for a company that had lay-offs and didn’t have golden parachutes. Because these people are still fortunate enough to be employed and have homes then the rest of the world be damned?

The popularity of this type of behavior illustrates how through the media and our decades of greed we have become desensitized to the suffering of others. We are emulating the attitudes of the “Gilded Age” prior to the “Great Depression” where as long as the misery is affecting others then it is not my concern. This type of behavior is often times seen in courtrooms where we blame the victim in order for us to not believe that we ourselves could be victims of similar mishaps. It is a response to a deep-seated fear and insecurity because deep inside we all know that we could just as easily be that victim. So rather than accept the possibility that it could be us we place blame and give the victims characteristics that reduce their humanity. In this case that all of the people who are being foreclosed on are somehow responsible for their misfortune due to bad decision making or some other moral deficiency.

The problem I have with this guy in particular and with the recent criticism of the economic plans of this administration in general is that people are treating this crisis like it is just another recession and so all we need are a few minor tweaks and the system will right itself. Anyone with the slightest understanding of this crisis and of our history realizes that this is not the 1970’s or 1990’s where we faced market corrections and slight downturns and our solutions did not require radical departures from previous policies. The current crop of naysayers whether they be the greedy or the Republicans seem to be focused on the short-term, for some reason they refuse to look at the overall view. They take snippets of data and scraps of the solutions and say this does nothing to change the crisis this week as if we got here overnight. The problem with many of them is that they believe the history of America started on January 20th and ignore the systemic problems brought about by years of neglect and greed.

What I don’t understand is when did our morals become everybody for themselves? I find it hard to believe that we have become a nation of such selfish proportions. I was taught and firmly believe still that if my neighbor is struggling and if I can help him then I should. We are being bombarded by article after article and rant after rant about the ignorance of the average American for buying homes they could not afford or speculating on the real estate market. It is a common refrain of the right and the greedy to blame those less fortunate for their circumstances as if they were the ones who brought down our economy. It is like the welfare queens of Reagan claiming that every woman on welfare was a black woman driving a Cadillac and living in some fancy condominium. The sad part is that it resonates with people. It allows those who are selfish to ignore and overlook the suffering of those they see every day. It allows them to make judgments about those they don’t know and based on those judgments walk by the homeless, the hungry, and the poor without feeling guilty.

Have we become so jaded that our national conscience can no longer be shamed into action on the part of those less fortunate? It is a shame how the wealthy and the greedy have turned this into a referendum of the middle-class and not a condemnation of the greedy who ran our economy into the ground. While the CEO’s are brought before the cameras not to be drawn and quartered for their excesses, but merely to be scolded like unruly children and sent back to their mansions and country club lifestyles. Yet those poor Americans who can and have lost their homes are told you were stupid and we won’t help you. We reward those who have lost billions of dollars of other people’s money and blame those who have lost thousands of their own dollars. Is it me or is there something wrong with this picture?

No Mr. Santelli, the message our government is sending is not that you don’t have to pay your mortgage if you are laid-off or you have a rotten loan, the message that our government is sending is that we care for all Americans not just the greedy and the wealthy. The message we are sending is that we are a compassionate nation and if that offends your delicate sensibilities then maybe you ought to relocate to a country where excess and greed are not frowned upon. Do I think that it is fair that I have to continue to pay my mortgage while others may receive some help? Of course not, but I thank God that I am not in their shoes yet! How about you Mr. Santelli if it is such a great deal why don’t you quit your job and apply for foreclosure assistance?

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Everyone Is Not A Celebrity

Is it just me or has this reality show craze gone too far? There was a reason why everyone was not on TV before, because not everyone had talent. While I agree there is hidden talent all across the country, not everyone has it. I am not a fan of the television medium in general and the reality show genre in particular. I find it difficult to watch ordinary people make fools of themselves for their 15 minutes of fame. It seems that with each and every passing year Andy Warhol’s famous for 15 minutes is more and more prophetic. What does it say about a culture when we take the trivial and mediocre and elevate it to celebrity status? Are we so starved for entertainment that watching self-obsessed and obnoxious bores is now considered art?

I am of the opinion that the real attraction to these shows is not the search for unsung talent but that good ole American tradition of watching train wrecks. What is it about the misfortunes of others that we find so enthralling? I shudder to think what future historians and anthropologists will write about our current culture. I wonder will they write about how we have replaced the fine art forms of poetry, painting, and music with rap, tattoos, and reality television. It appears we are rapidly becoming a nation of voyeurs who weekly peer into the lives of others for virtues and calamities that allow us to live vicariously through them. As our modern world relies more and more on technology it is becoming increasingly easier to replace face to face interaction and relationships with these contrived and detached interactions and relationships. We have replaced the virtues of serving the common good and self-sacrifice with this self-absorbed and do anything for a chance to see myself on television mentality.

My biggest concern with this type of entertainment is that it blurs the boundaries of fantasy and reality in the minds of many viewers. It cannot be reality once you introduce a camera. Regardless of the subject or the topic once you include a camera in the proceedings people are no longer spontaneous or real. They respond to the presence of the camera either in overly exaggerated or in understated ways depending on their circumstances and their personalities. I mean how is it spontaneous to watch Paris Hilton performing menial tasks when she is aware of the presence of a camera or for that matter a house full of strangers who know their every move is being recorded? Everyone knows the camera is there so where is the reality? Even with the cop shows their behavior is dictated by the camera. To some degree or another it is all scripted and edited. So what we are witnessing are isolated moments that are designed to illicit the most responses from the viewers and to reinforce previously held stereotypes. These shows for the most part appeal not to our higher natures, but to our lower natures.

Another concern I have is how so many relish in the humiliation of others in front of millions. It is not enough that people are defeated but they must be defeated in the most degrading and shameful ways. We tell ourselves it is just entertainment and no one is hurt, but think about what it is reinforcing in our culture. What are the values that are being offered by these shows; that it is ok to treat others in this way for the purpose of entertainment? In most cases it is success or winning at all costs. These shows glorify dishonesty, selfishness, and spite. Success and fame are to be sought after at the detriment of all other goals. Forget the fact that success as defined by these narrow standards is unobtainable for most people. You can find fame and wealth not through hard work and sacrifice but through displaying the worst traits of our common natures. We no longer celebrate the journey and all of the life lessons learned through it, but instead we celebrate that the ends justify the means. There is nothing to be learned through effort and defeat only in winning is there something of value.

We are allowing our popular culture to lead us astray and in the process we are losing sight of what things are truly important. This popular culture has no values to teach us that are lasting and meaningful. It has only one value money. How one gets it is immaterial to the fact that one has it. We see it in the videos of rappers, the greed of Wall Street, and the behavior of our public and elected officials. According to this culture if you are not white, rich, skinny, and beautiful your worth is diminished and the value of your life is depreciated. If you happened to be one of the unfortunate ones who do not possess all of these qualities not to worry they can still be yours for a price. And once in hand these things will lead you to a life of happiness and popularity. Instead of creating an atmosphere that will bring us closer together this type of entertainment only fosters stereotypes and further alienates us from each other. As we become increasingly separate from each other the easier it will be to humiliate and degrade one another for the sake of entertainment or just for the hell of it.

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Why Do We Hate Poor People?

Why is it that when we encounter poor or homeless people they make us cringe? Why do we want to make them disappear into shelters or remove them out of our sights? Since the Reagan revolution we have instead of being at war against poverty, we have been at war with poor people. They litter our streets like so many abandoned cars at a salvage yard. Why has it been so easy to sell the false narrative that people are poor by choice and that if they would just work harder they wouldn’t be poor? I think that our reactions to the poor says more about who we are than who they are. Let’s face it there have been poor people throughout recorded history, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is not that there are poor people, but that there are poor people we could help and don’t.

The reason I think we hate poor people is that rather than reminding of us of the blessings we have received, they instead remind us of our vulnerabilities and our insecurities. They remind so many of us that we are only one missed paycheck or one serious health issue away from their lot and it scares the hell out of us. We need so badly to believe that this could never happen to us, that we are so insulated from them and their fate that it could never be our fate. When the reality is too frightening to consider we create these illusions to placate ourselves. The greatest illusion is that we live in a society that if anyone is willing to work hard enough they can overcome the poverty of their birth. We regale ourselves with these fables of rags to riches, never considering the reality of these tales. The reality is a far cry from the false narratives being maintained by those who would keep us ignorant of the truth.

We are constantly fed the fairy-tale of the poor kid who signs a million-dollar sports contract, the million-dollar recording contract, or the Ivy League scholarship. And for those who have desires that steer towards more iniquitous pursuits we even have the “gangster” or drug dealer chronicles. In other words there is money and wealth to be had by all except the most slothful of our fellow citizens. How prevalent are these scenarios in modern America? The truth is that very little has changed for poor people, the majority of children born into poverty will remain in poverty. How can they not? They are provided with in many cases inferior homes, schools, and sometimes parents. The deck is stacked against them from the moment they take their first breath.

Sure we occasionally give a few dollars here and there with moral superiority and discuss how unfortunate those people are. All the while hoping they would just disappear and not remind us of how tenuous our hold on the American Dream is. Not only do they remind us of our perilous situations they also remind us of our conspicuous consumption and how truly far we have bought and sold the lie of more is better. The truth of this is in the fact that many of us believe that today’s poor are not really poor. We look at poverty in the third world and convince ourselves that those are truly poor people, the ones here are just whiners.

Robert Rector, a Senior Fellow at Heritage and a leading force behind welfare reform, similarly argued that federal studies should highlight the consumption—rather than income—of impoverished households. Many poor families do not record 'gray area' earnings because the federal wage threshold provides a disincentive to report joint income or informal earnings. Also, purchasing power varies across metropolitan, suburban, and rural communities. Rector's study, which utilizes data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, demonstrates that many allegedly impoverished households live in decent-to-comfortable conditions, making poverty somewhat different from John Edwards' "terrible condition struggling against incredible poverty."

Rector's report shows that the "typical," median poor household owns a car, air-conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a washer and dryer, a microwave, two color televisions, cable or satellite television, a vcr or dvd player, and a stereo. The typical poor family's house is in good repair and the family is able to afford both food and medical care throughout the year.

With living standards such as these, poverty in America may actually be an enviable state compared to living standards in other nations. According to the Census Bureau, 15.2% of immigrants live in poverty, whereas only 11.9% of natives are below the poverty threshold. Rector claims that 1 in 10 of immigrants in poverty is likely an illegal immigrant, but estimates remain vague; the U.S. census declines to ask immigrant responders whether they have documentation.[1]

So being poor in America is an enviable state? The Bible says, “Blessed is the poor”. How many of us actually drive by a poor neighborhood or a homeless person and say, “Boy, those folks are really lucky”? I wonder if the author of that report is willing to exchange places with one of these lucky poor people? The reason we need to deny their pain and hopelessness is so we can deny our greed. If poor people aren’t really poor, then I am not actually consuming too much. The world is made up of balances, there is only so many of anything. In order for someone to have more, someone has to have less. We assuage our guilt at ignoring their plight by criminalizing them or demonizing them. We don’t want them around us or bothering us. The thing I don’t like about poor people is that they are so needy. They are always asking for stuff.

We hate them because of what they tell us about ourselves and our lives. How we can live in a country that thinks nothing of spending over 700 billion for wars and war machinery, billions in corporate welfare, and every year we cut programs to help the poor. They don’t need early childhood intervention, better schools, or financial assistance. What they need is a swift kick in the butt to get them motivated. It’s no wonder that children born poor suffer from stress related brain trauma. Despite popular opinion being poor even as a child is stressful. We bombard the airwaves with these images of consumption, we tell our children you are not cool, hip, or anybody if you don’t wear these shoes, these clothes, or have these things. Then we act surprised by their actions to get them and call them animals and lock them up. And we’re the civilized ones. There, but for the grace of God, goes I.

[1] http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1713.cfm

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