I do think comfort on one hand eases the coming out of narcissistic meanness, but on the other attenuates our mean mind's violent disposition. I just don't see a condition under which humans aren't mean.
I have experienced the generosity of poor people in Africa, North and South of the Sahara. I have noticed that the richer people are, the less generous they tend to be, especially towards individuals. And the more comfortably they live, the less empathy and sympathetic imagination they have.
Comfort leads to narcissism on the one hand, and hypocritical judgement over the homeless and poor on the other. Middle-class heavy drinkers and alcoholics show no mercy to beggars who "might spend what we give them on drink and drugs".
Haves tend to despise have-nots, because we seem to devote our lives to having, acquiring - and throwing away. I have been in places where a plastic bag was a prized possession.
Comfort is utterly addictive. We live now at a level undreamed of by Roman emperors. Central heating, television, tables and chairs, hot running water - even cars...are all now seen as *necessities* - these are "Western Values" for which we will go to war.
Mental and emotional comfort, Almina, are contentment, 'happiness' - not related at all to luxury, and usually diametrically opposed to it.
Young women among the emotionally-distressed and obscenely-luxurious rich are, for example, are now starting a trend for voluntary genital mutilation (dressed up as expensive 'cosmetic surgery') - and example of how wealth and luxury drive individuals, groups and whole societies insane.
Ah yes, I temporarily forgot about our hypocrisy. I know people who are obstinate in that the poor work less and thus deserve less, yet these very same people would agree that they themselves ought deserve more than they do. The homeless likely don't enjoy that respite, for the other day one returned me the assurance that they would only use the money for food, even though I didn't ask anything, nor think I would know better than them what relief to spend upon. That reminded me that I really don't like the class I was born into, for we only care for what makes us feel good.
Yet, rather than go to war, we let the poor do war for our comfort. That's how imperialism, colonialism, proxy-wars and neo-colonialism work: legionaries, crusaders, jihadists, the lost youth from ghettoes, sponsored militia, .... they all have in common that they are poor folks and will exact violence for very little incentive. "We", those not poor, stay in our comfy couches, waving our money at the spoils and licking our fingers over our piece of the pie.
And on the side of my father's family, in Burundi, a lot of Hutu men were killed, robbed and evicted, essentially for their privileges and possessions. Tutsi, both rich and poor were eager to make their hands dirty: the rich orchestrated a genocidal purge of middle class Hutu to remove an emerging rival and the poor were given a carte blanche to take from and do whatever they wanted to the designated victims. And so they did, taking cattle, money and lives. Mind you, I'm not absolving the victims from their own greed: my ancestors exploited the poor, whether Hutu or Tutsi, as serfs, snubbed the Twa as untouchables, but did not murder or enslave anyone or do anything else that merited their own fate.
I read recently a survey here in Denmark, that the poorest Kommune (Region) gave proportionly more to charity than the richest. This was not a surprise, as, in my own experience, as homeless, the poorest are more empathetic than the rich. So, yes, comfort can be a relief, but, excessive it's a humanity killer.
7 comments:
I disagree! I don't think it makes one mean and mean-minded. Though yeah, it's quite addictive. =)
I do think comfort on one hand eases the coming out of narcissistic meanness, but on the other attenuates our mean mind's violent disposition. I just don't see a condition under which humans aren't mean.
I have experienced the generosity of poor people in Africa, North and South of the Sahara. I have noticed that the richer people are, the less generous they tend to be, especially towards individuals. And the more comfortably they live, the less empathy and sympathetic imagination they have.
Comfort leads to narcissism on the one hand, and hypocritical judgement over the homeless and poor on the other. Middle-class heavy drinkers and alcoholics show no mercy to beggars who "might spend what we give them on drink and drugs".
Haves tend to despise have-nots, because we seem to devote our lives to having, acquiring - and throwing away. I have been in places where a plastic bag was a prized possession.
Comfort is utterly addictive. We live now at a level undreamed of by Roman emperors. Central heating, television, tables and chairs, hot running water - even cars...are all now seen as *necessities* - these are "Western Values" for which we will go to war.
If I grasped correctly it's a poetry and metaphor. Can you comment on mental and emotional comfort? Thank you.
Mental and emotional comfort, Almina, are contentment, 'happiness' - not related at all to luxury, and usually diametrically opposed to it.
Young women among the emotionally-distressed and obscenely-luxurious rich are, for example, are now starting a trend for voluntary genital mutilation (dressed up as expensive 'cosmetic surgery') - and example of how wealth and luxury drive individuals, groups and whole societies insane.
Ah yes, I temporarily forgot about our hypocrisy. I know people who are obstinate in that the poor work less and thus deserve less, yet these very same people would agree that they themselves ought deserve more than they do.
The homeless likely don't enjoy that respite, for the other day one returned me the assurance that they would only use the money for food, even though I didn't ask anything, nor think I would know better than them what relief to spend upon.
That reminded me that I really don't like the class I was born into, for we only care for what makes us feel good.
Yet, rather than go to war, we let the poor do war for our comfort. That's how imperialism, colonialism, proxy-wars and neo-colonialism work: legionaries, crusaders, jihadists, the lost youth from ghettoes, sponsored militia, .... they all have in common that they are poor folks and will exact violence for very little incentive.
"We", those not poor, stay in our comfy couches, waving our money at the spoils and licking our fingers over our piece of the pie.
And on the side of my father's family, in Burundi, a lot of Hutu men were killed, robbed and evicted, essentially for their privileges and possessions. Tutsi, both rich and poor were eager to make their hands dirty: the rich orchestrated a genocidal purge of middle class Hutu to remove an emerging rival and the poor were given a carte blanche to take from and do whatever they wanted to the designated victims. And so they did, taking cattle, money and lives.
Mind you, I'm not absolving the victims from their own greed: my ancestors exploited the poor, whether Hutu or Tutsi, as serfs, snubbed the Twa as untouchables, but did not murder or enslave anyone or do anything else that merited their own fate.
I read recently a survey here in Denmark, that the poorest Kommune (Region) gave proportionly more to charity than the richest. This was not a surprise, as, in my own experience, as homeless, the poorest are more empathetic than the rich. So, yes, comfort can be a relief, but, excessive it's a humanity killer.
Post a Comment