Those of us blest with creature comfort tend to look down on those who are a generation or two behind struggling to reach the same comforts, such as moving into their own homes, having decent personal transportation, not beleaguered by collection agencies, a successful neighborhood school for the kids. We of the comfort class tend to think that we are ensconced in these relative comforts because we are, well, better than others. Thus, we construe their misfortune as incompetence and ignorance.
We seldom make any attempt to identify with their intolerable conditions because it is their nature to reside in squalor; otherwise they would not themselves tolerate being without. They are what they are and nothing can be done about it; after all, the Dummocrats for decades threw good money after bad, and these awful creatures still have not improved their lot. They still let their little girls get knocked up, let their sons join street gangs to engage in drug peddling and violence, their babies are still bitten by rats, they have no incentive to fix up their shabby apartments as if the absentee landlord will eventually get around to it.
Why bother to save for a better car? The ‘69 Chevy still runs once in a while — so what if the little woman has to take the bus at before midnight to get to her job at the hospital? —besides the husband gets to work by climbing onto the boss’s work-gang truck. Janet Jackson and gangster rappers’ DVDs are top priority in entertainment expenditures — forget about inspiring books for the kids. As for neighborhood-watch, that’s for those old foolish grandmothers who still care about child safety. Cops make three times more than the average breadwinner, let them patrol but they better not vent brutality.
Such is the bias of us who are free from such sordid existence. Quite simply, we know it is an inborn trait to make it in the world; so what if low-life is eternal? — that’s the Darwinian way.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: March 9, 2004.