Relearning the Concept of Caring

Taking Care Of One Another


Today we are living in a world that is coming apart at the seams. As I write this, over 2 and a half million jobs have been exported overseas by US multinational corporations, and they are not coming back. As a result, we have over 17 million Americans who are either unemployed or who are working part-time when full-time work is needed. An increasing number of these workers are juggling 2 or 3 part-time jobs just to make ends meet. The US government's official unemployment rate, according to the mainstream news media, is said to be around 8.5 percent as I write this. This is a complete joke to those persons like myself who have been following current events because those workers who have used up their unemployment benefits and who have been out of work for more than the maximum of 99 weeks are no longer being counted. Also not being counted are so-called “discouraged” workers who have dropped out of the job market and are sharing living quarters with immediate family. Without this family safety net in place, people usually wind up homeless through no fault of their own. I know this to be true because I was one of those unfortunate individuals a few years back. Despite my best efforts to find full-time work in my field, which was computer/IT, I could only find temporary jobs of short-term duration. I spent roughly a third of my time searching for more work. By the time I finally wound up homeless, my health simply collapsed shortly thereafter and I wound up taking early retirement. I have learned the hard way that being homeless and on the street with no transportation or income permanently damages people. It breaks the spirit, it wounds the soul, and it fractures the mind in ways that most people can't even imagine.


The evaporation of these millions of US jobs is having severe repercussions for the overwhelming majority of Americans. There have been about 3 million foreclosures since 2008, with 2 million more on the horizon by the end of 2012. Cars and trucks are being repossessed at record rates, and an increasingly larger number of college graduates who cannot find jobs are defaulting on their student loans. Record numbers of these unemployed college graduates, some of them in their 30's and 40's, are moving back in with parents or siblings due to their being victims of foreclosures or evictions. They simply have no where else to go. All the rest, the multitudes of disillusioned, disenchanted and disenfranchised US workers who lost their jobs and careers, their housing and their transportation wind up in homeless shelters or sleeping under bridges. The more fortunate ones in this group of people that capitalism has discarded still have their vehicles, so that's where they sleep. Yet if we study the four Gospels, we find that it was to this very group of poor people that Jesus gravitated towards the most.


As we are living in these last days before Christ's return, we would do well to emulate Jesus in this regard – His compassion and unconditional love for us all. It used to be that when I encountered a homeless person asking for money, I would walk on by them without saying a word. Having experienced homelessness myself, I find that I can no longer do so without stopping and witnessing to them about Christ, and how He has brought me all the way back from the brink of oblivion. As I talk to them I inquire of the Spirit whether I should help them or not. Usually I give them whatever spare change I have. Occasionally I buy them a burger and fries with my debit card (since I seldom carry much cash), particularly if they are in really bad shape and when the Holy Spirit encourages me to do so. It's just that being a follower of Christ has filled me with compassion, and I allow His peace to overshadow any anxiety I may have about whether they might decide to try and rob me, or if I can afford to buy them lunch or not. Jesus always comes first with me, others second and myself third. That's what it takes to be a true follower of Christ. We are to emulate His example of unconditional love for us by showing that same love for others. And as hard times continue to get harder and meaner, an increasing number of folks from all backgrounds find themselves emulating Christ in one way or another whether they realize it or not.


As a rapidly growing population of long-term unemployed begins to congregate regularly at shelters, churches, soup kitchens and food banks, a good number of them volunteer in order to help give back what these charities have given them. In so doing they are finding themselves interconnected in ways that they may not have been in a long time. It is one thing to be connected on Facebook or Twitter, but being in groups of people having direct contact with others is another thing altogether. The exponential growth of the Internet, along with computer and information technology, has an increasing number of us spending more time in front of our computers and flat screen TV's than we do with other people. Of course, that is only counting the people who still have the means of acquiring the trappings of being solidly middle class. As I write this, an increasing majority of unemployed American workers are putting these items into storage or dumping them at pawn shops in a desperate attempt to get some money in their pockets.


What do we do to solve this dilemma? What are we going to do with all these displaced workers who desperately want to restart their careers and their incomes, but can find no way of doing so due to a complete lack of opportunity that is beyond their control? First, we have to come to the realization that our economic system is broken and in need of replacement. Not just fixing it, mind you, I'm talking about starting all over again on a clean sheet of paper. For some detailed commentary on this subject, you may check out my political website and order a copy of my first book, “The Middle and Working Class Manifesto”.


For now all I will say is that the entire concept of profit and its benefits needs to be reexamined. When we have incalculable trillions of dollars in liquid wealth or assets of one kind or another in the hands of so few people, any claims of democratic government by this tiny but extraordinarily powerful group of people becomes completely ludicrous. So, not only do we need an economic system that is essentially nonprofit, we’ve also got to redefine democracy itself. We have been stuck in worn-out concepts of representative democracy that worked much better when the population of the earth was far lower than it is today, which has caused us to believe that it’s by getting other people to do things for us that we progress. The Internet and information technology have made these concepts obsolete. If we can interconnect directly with one another, then who needs big government? Big government clearly creates more problems than it solves. And I think that we’ve reached the point now where we’re stuck with a whole lot of antiquated concepts, so that when Michael Moore speaks about the relatively small number of people who make all this money while so many other people don’t, it sounds as if we’re struggling for equality with them. Who wants to be equal to these guys? Who wants to imitate people who hoard billions while formerly middle class people are living in vehicles, shelters, and in cardboard boxes under bridges? I think we have to be thinking much more profoundly than mere capitalism and the empty acquisition of material wealth for its own sake that accompanies it. The earth's population has become so great that we would all be far better served by spending our time helping others instead of helping ourselves. The needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the few.


Actually, if you go back to what Marx said in The Communist Manifesto over 150 years ago, when in talking about the constant revolutions in technology, he ended that paragraph by saying, “All that is sacred is profaned, all that is solid melts into air, and men and women are forced to face with sober senses our conditions of life and our relations with our kind.” We’re at that sort of turning point in human history. And I think that, talking about recovery, talking about democracy, we too easily get sucked into old notions of what we want. So we’re expecting protest. I don’t mind protests, and I encourage them at times. But what happened in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2011 in Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and England, plus the ongoing unrest in Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, that is when people gathered to say another world is necessary, another world is possible, and another world is happening, I think that that’s what’s happening. It's already started here in the US with the Occupy Wall St. movement and the “We are the 99%” movement. These movements are the new civil rights marches of the 21st century by Americans who are becoming aware that our governmental – and particularly our economic – systems are broken. In Detroit, for example, – or what is left of it – people are beginning to say the only way to survive is by taking care of one another, by recreating our relationships to one another, that we have created a society, over the last period, in particular, where each of us is pursuing self-interest.


We are collectively arriving at the conclusion that greed is bad and that excess profit always equals equally excessive greed. Human progress, on the other hand, depends on pursuing goals collectively for our mutual benefit. In so doing we are evolving as human beings. Jesus commanded us all to “love your neighbor as yourself” and to “love your enemies”. Natural disasters tend to draw people together, with volunteers flooding into the hardest-hit areas where the need is greatest. The current economic depression we are going through (sorry, but 'recession' is not a strong enough word in my opinion) is turning out much the same way. More people are volunteering to help the poor and the less fortunate, which now includes much of the former US middle class. So in closing I would encourage each of you to find something or someone that needs help and go and find out what you can do to help. By the same token, if you are in dire straits, take heart and do not be afraid. Your guardian angel and Jesus himself are right there with you. You are not alone. “Be of good cheer,” said our Lord. “I have overcome the world”. This means Jesus hasn't just mastered your situation, it means He has overcome all the bad luck on the entire planet, including yours. Remember, if you are in need of help, there is no shame in asking for it. And, if you don't need help, there is no shame in showing it. So show it by helping someone else, even a total stranger. God is watching you and you will be rewarded.