Poverty

Many words in the English language require a study of perspectives and context for clarity. Poverty is one of those words that must have an explanatory environment to convey specificity. An impoverished person can be extremely poor in relation to economics or with a lack of imagination or by a religious rejection of the material world or simply by having few, if any, redeemable qualities as a human being. I have friends, at least acquaintances, that fit into all those categories. Currently, I see a dangerous trend in my country regarding a kind of poverty that seems impossible given the resources available to most of us. We are suffering from a poverty of self-awareness, which in turn gives rise to a delusionary society without empathy.

By self-awareness I mean a concern for how we as humans fit into the grand scheme of things. It’s more of a consciousness concept than a biologically imperative one. Yes, we can be aware of ourselves if we are hungry or in pain and we respond to that awareness instinctively and on a visceral level like any animal. But I am thinking of something more than the animal in me. As I sit on my porch and look out over the small pond and the forest that surround me, I am cognizant of the trees and their limbs lilting in a slight breeze and of the snapping turtle rising to the pond’s surface to inhale that same breeze. I’m also aware that most of trees and the turtle are older than me, have fulfilled their exact purpose for being alive, and will never intentionally bring destruction to themselves or their environment. I feel a great respect for their lives and am mindful of a responsibility toward those lives regarding the way I conduct my own. I also recognize my place in the natural chain and not on top of it. That is the self being sensitive to its identity, power, importance, and actions—self awareness.

None of us, including and especially me, retains this quality without practice and discipline. None of us adheres to its beneficial behavior constantly. I fall short on every quality I’m thinking about in this little note, which is mostly a reminder to me. If you happen to read it and agree with some of the concepts in my reflection, that’s okay too. On the other hand, some of us choose willingly to ignore this awareness entirely by placing our priorities in other forms of human currency. Those who do are the true poor in this society.

Self-awareness is a different orientation completely than self-righteousness. I equivocate between the two like most other people. The resultant imperfections in judgment created by that equivocation make me human. However, what troubles me today is the trend toward self-righteousness overall. Is it related to the unavailability of education? Only by choice. Is it related to a lack of morality? Only in the way we define morals. Most of it seems to be related to our bankrupt state of empathy. Without empathy we are impoverished as a society and as individuals within said society. It isn’t that we aren’t able to understand the needs of our fellow humans or the planet or the climate or endangered wildlife. We simply don’t care, and we place mental roadblocks to keep us from caring that allow us to remain full of self-righteousness as we do.

For example, many white people can and do believe that we should eliminate social services because they themselves “work for a living” and “everyone in America can make it if they aren’t lazy or drug addicts.” Millions of white people see no racial inequality inherent in this Great American Dream. In fact, however, the high rate of unemployment, incarceration for drug abuse, inferior educational opportunities, lack of stable families, and poverty are social symptoms among people of color created by a lack of or corruption in social services in many inner city neighborhoods, not because of them. As a sidenote, it’s also important to note that more white people are on welfare and food stamps than any other demographic.

Some evangelicals believe America should be governed by their Christian dogmas. Others point to their rights to have unlimited access to any and all firearms over the rights of children to live. We’ve all heard arguments about why only certain people should vote or why women should be paid less than men for doing similar jobs.

The list is exhaustive and could continue for several pages, but the point remains the same. A poverty of empathy influences all the other types of poverty. Experts have various names for the phenomenon, cognitive dissonance, delusion, maybe the current iteration called the Dunning-Kruger effect in which people believe they are more intelligent and more capable than they really are. Whatever it is called, the problem is easily recognized, but solutions are ignored. The problem is easily fixed but few seem willing to apply the effort. Unlike the social ills these attitudes create, the solutions do not require massive bureaucratic effort and infinite economic investment. They do not need huge collective educational makeovers or legal restraints. This is where self-awareness becomes involved. We, as a people that make up a nation need to spend more time asking ourselves individually if we have the ability and the desire to understand and share the feelings of other people. Do we have compassion? Are we kind-hearted and generous within our own material limitations? Do we exercise neighborliness and humanity? The Greeks have a specific word for this—philia—after which we named a city, Philadelphia. Roughly translated it means brotherly love.

I’m writing my thoughts out here, not as a sermon for readers or a lecture to a class, but as a reminder to myself of what’s important to me personally and to question my own resolve at living up to the ideal and idea of empathy. If you happen to read this note, think about asking yourself the same questions I’m grappling with here. It will do all of us good.