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If You Escaped the Meltdown, What Should You Do?
When Barack Obama declared, "I am my brother's keeper," he stated not just a Christian obligation but a core tent of society. When the social contract is viable, the majority protects the rights of the minority. The obligation becomes stronger when the social contract runs into crisis, because that is the point where common bonds are most frayed. There's also a sense of natural morality at work. Passengers who made it into lifeboats on the Titanic pulled others out of the water. The same happened among the passengers on the recent crash landing of a jet in the Hudson River. So, yes, if you have escaped a collective economic disaster, it's your obligation to help the less fortunate. This is simple morality, and most people abide by it.
Ugly realities intrude, however. During the Great Depression many moneyed interests sat on the sidelines and did nothing but hoard their wealth. Others took advantage of misfortune, and the minority political party became obstructionists. We are seeing a repetition of the same pattern now. It's ironic, given that the Republicans are the party of right-wing religion, that "Am I my brother's keeper?" originated as a sarcastic comment by Cain after he killed Abel (it's also the first question that a human asks God in the Bible). To implicitly side with Cain seems wrongheaded, but particularly so since Jesus tells his disciples that their primary duty is to love one another.
But let's say that someone has avoided the worst of the economic meltdown and actually wants to help. The influence of fear, selfishness, uncertainty, caution, and pessimism still clouds the issue. Leaving aside any religious or moral injunction, we all have a psychological stake in two things that aren't totally compatible: individual survival and social survival. Perhaps the wisest guidance comes from the human body. Cancer, a runaway form of individual survival at the expense of collective survival, ultimately proves fatal. The individual and the collective both perish. Normal cells survive and cooperate at the same time. They are connected to every other cell in the body. They share the same food and air; they are sustained by the same circulation of blood.
With that in mind, the question of what to do comes clearer:
-- Identify with your own situation and society's situation as two halves of one whole.
-- Don't indulge in the illusion that selfish isolation is a valid survival technique. We all need each other.
-- Don't protect your luxuries when others close to you are struggling for necessities.
-- Refrain from blame, which only weakens the social fabric.
-- Remember basic moral dictates like "Love one another."
-- Be generous of spirit in every way, not just in how you handle money.
I think the last point is the most important. In a crisis the temptation is always to contract with anxiety, but no one ever got through a crisis by doing that. The heroes of every calamity are those who expand beyond fear. They don't keep only courage alive but reason, love, compassion, and giving -- the very values that we are here to experience if we want to be fully human. When you are generous of spirit, you consciously side against fear. You add to the expanded awareness that saves everyone, not just yourself.
By
Deepak Chopra
|
March 5, 2009; 7:20 AM ET
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Posted by: kjohnson3 | March 8, 2009 7:27 PM
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Viejitadeloeste,
I live quite well, not all that humbly, but I made sure I could afford my lifestyle with plenty of room to spare.
Those who lived above their means are not starving by any means. They are perfectly able to find more modest accomomdations without slumming it. However, I have no sympathy for them. It is not as if they were buying what was needed to sustain life. They wanted bigger and all the extras, most bought on credit. They can suffer. They deserve to suffer. They partied. Now they can live with the long, long hangover.
Posted by: mmm1110 | March 7, 2009 6:05 PM
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mmm1110,
You have a point, but it is enough that they be taken down a peg and forced to live as humbly as the rest of us. It is not necessary that anyone starve or be homeless.
Posted by: ViejitaDelOeste | March 7, 2009 3:58 PM
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Be very, very happy.
Many who are experiencing pain because of the econmic meltdown are part of the problem. Many went heavily into debt and never thought the day of reckoning would come. Too bad for them. Maybe they will lear something from this experience.
Posted by: mmm1110 | March 6, 2009 8:18 PM
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I like what you are saying without the dogmatic story tales that plague organized religions.
It is difficult to generate compassion for religious Charlatans.The ones who are more akin to a grifter than beacon of light and love. This present Dalia lama is a prime example of the extremes of delusions that can be created from what is upon closer scrutiny do not hold up to the Chalice of integrity and truthfulness. This man who wears the robes of a holy lama and lies with the ease of a summer breeze to deceive the innocents of the world. In actuality, he is no more than a reincarnate war lord crowned by the Mongolian Cavalry after he murdered a Wisdom Buddha to sanctify the slaughter he launched against his competitors and seize the full power of a dictator by his ruse of reincarnating as a God-King for over the last 350 +-.
He is cruel to his own people by banning the Dharma Protector he created and is the proof he murdered Dragpa Gyalshen or Dorje Shugden , "The Supreme Dharma Protector. He is the only diety that Dl has banned out of a 1,000 dieties, he chastise only the one he is accused of murdering to seize absolute control over a population in which 95% were as slaves and serfs.
Dl makes it difficult to show compassion for his unrepentant crimes against others.
Posted by: thomascanada | March 5, 2009 7:35 PM
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Thanks for pointing out what those of us who are fortunate enough to be weathering the downturn can do to help others. Although I have no need to make large purchases (appliances are all ok, cars are both new), I am concentrating on shopping at local stores and specialty stores, so that they can survive a little longer. I'm giving more to charities that benefit humans and the animals that they're forced to abandon when they leave their homes. I generally don't give money to people begging at stoplights, because I think that it's a dangerous way to get money and that they should deal more with social agencies. Mostly, I am thankful that my husband and I had our problems in the last downturn, and not now.
Posted by: Athena4 | March 5, 2009 6:27 PM
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And you, Mr. Chopra, will be donating your ill-gotten billions to...?