Wretches

Dearest Madame:

Your words on mistrust are digging deeper at the roots.  What is behind the mistrust one might ask?  It is not just the lack of a tangible mega-enemy (Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia) that has fractured us and bitterly polarized us. It is our disconnection with each other and with our society.  We retreat into, and hide behind, our so called instruments of connection (television, internet, cellphones, social media).  We do not FEEL the human connection.  We are reaping the excessive focus on our “independent” American nature, our hyper-individuality.

It is a fine thing, a very fine thing, to have grit and determination and solitary work ethic.  It can work wonders in both personal and societal benefit, as well as self-pride.  But it can also mutate all too easily into a dismissive, judgmental—even condemning—anger and disgust with those who do not seem to perform the same.

Those doing the condemning leave aside the incredible importance that luck and fortunate background and circumstances play in one’s outcome, even when those factors are not readily apparent.  People are also spun up by the manipulators with their own malicious or selfish agendas.  Yes, there are some of the lower class who abuse the social safety net system and tax code, and it is infuriating when that happens.  But it isn’t the majority, and certainly not the majority of the poor.  What ails them (and with them, us) are systemic things.

Can the poor be blamed if their economic foundation is removed, and virtually all of their ready options, when they even exist, involve lower wages?  Can the poor be condemned for “stupidity” when the system not only discourages critical thinking, not only encourages despair and passive acceptance, but even more so encourages diversion into entertainment of all kinds?  Can the poor be blamed for, in what little time remains after working 2-3 far below livable wage jobs, having their thoughts and drive often drowned in a cloud of fatigue?  Can they be blamed for not bearing sufficiently all the crushing weight of all their burdens as the nuclear family or sole individual bears them all without the social support network—for nearly everyone in that network are all similarly burdened?  Can the poor be blamed for not having clarity of thought if they are forced to live with few healthful options, but only a poisoned environment and degraded and low-quality food that all leads to mental and physical and emotional disabilities, toxicity, and genetic damage?

Those who listen strictly to the manipulators want a quick and meaningless sound bite so they can congratulate themselves, like the biblical Pharisee, at how superior they are to the poor and sinful.  That false sense of superiority—instead of the calm, reflective, and nuanced truth—is just as sad and reprehensible as it was 2000 years ago.

More credence might be given to the complainers if they wanted to make their society better, if they wanted to get involved and do something positive.  But caustic negativity spewed into the ether—especially when it has at most only kernels of partial validity—breeds only division, hatred, and other forms of societal disintegration.  Our bucket is already brimming over with those.  We need to drain the bucket, not add to it.