This week, poverty has been on my mind. In an Introduction to Ethics class I have been discussing with students issues around poverty and a moral response to poverty. Whose responsibility are the poor? Are there any duties the rich owe to the poor? In a large and complex society how would we begin to maximize happiness with regard to poverty? What causes poverty and how can we address those causes?
It is an intractable problem. Over the eleven years that I have been teaching this, students inevitably fall into the divisions of the "culture war." Some students express a compassionate response that whatever the causes of poverty, poor folk ought to be helped. Other students are resolute that if you are poor it is your own fault. You made bad choices. Pull yourself together and get a job. I try to help students tease out the complexities, good and bad, in both responses. I rehearse the standard conservative, liberal and radical responses to poverty with them. I hope that those with harsh responses become softer; those with naive responses less so.
During this week I happened, in another context, to be thinking about the Communist Manifesto and its prescription for a just society: "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." Then again, in another context, the infamous words over the gates of Auschwitz: "Arbeit Macht Frei." Work sets you free. In yet another context, the purpose of education as the cultural construction of "docile bodies" (Michel Foucault's phrase) to produce compliant workers for industrial capitalism.
It was interesting then to read the lectionary passage and the deutero-Pauline aphorism: "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat." The context seemed to be an early Christian community enjoying a primitive form of communism where all was shared by all, but in which some were merely lazy, unwilling to work and thus becoming a burden to others.
It fascinates me the way in one week so many ideas converge in one's thinking. How to make sense of all this? Needless to say, I have no solution. here are a few not quite random thoughts:
It is an intractable problem. Over the eleven years that I have been teaching this, students inevitably fall into the divisions of the "culture war." Some students express a compassionate response that whatever the causes of poverty, poor folk ought to be helped. Other students are resolute that if you are poor it is your own fault. You made bad choices. Pull yourself together and get a job. I try to help students tease out the complexities, good and bad, in both responses. I rehearse the standard conservative, liberal and radical responses to poverty with them. I hope that those with harsh responses become softer; those with naive responses less so.
During this week I happened, in another context, to be thinking about the Communist Manifesto and its prescription for a just society: "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." Then again, in another context, the infamous words over the gates of Auschwitz: "Arbeit Macht Frei." Work sets you free. In yet another context, the purpose of education as the cultural construction of "docile bodies" (Michel Foucault's phrase) to produce compliant workers for industrial capitalism.
It was interesting then to read the lectionary passage and the deutero-Pauline aphorism: "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat." The context seemed to be an early Christian community enjoying a primitive form of communism where all was shared by all, but in which some were merely lazy, unwilling to work and thus becoming a burden to others.
It fascinates me the way in one week so many ideas converge in one's thinking. How to make sense of all this? Needless to say, I have no solution. here are a few not quite random thoughts:
- Poverty is a terrible situation to be in and compassion for those who are poor is a much needed response. (To ponder: compassion)
- There are times in our lives when all of us cannot meet our own needs and must rely on the kindness of others. (To ponder: humility)
- We all have a contribution to make, and there are natural consequences for those who choose not to. (To ponder: diligence)
- Meaningful work is a part of being human. Yet, work without meaning is a drudgery and crushes the human spirit. (To ponder: purpose)
+ Ab. Andy