Left out in the cold
by Bob on May 4, 2007
Sometimes reality as we know it is very harsh. One is reminded of the 1963 book by John Le Carre, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and the ones who never made it back.
Sometimes society at large is cruel at worst, and apathetic at best, to people who are out in the cold, even metaphorically. We see this in insensitivity to other people's suffering, in direct contrast to a keystone story about The Good Samaritan. As the Good Samaritan said to the helpless person after he was aided, fed, and given shelter in the inn, "Go and do Thou likewise". This was also formerly on the seal and motto of some hospitals. Not anymore. More fancy and modern and neutral logos appear now in its place.
It is harsh on people who are left in the cold, and have no family, friends, or effective help to get back. It is almost a psychological method of ostracising someone. We see it with the poor, and the growing world-wide problem of homeless people, and just plain people who have a home whose contacts with the word have been unwittingly severed by others despite the person's attempts to seek out a continued love and friendship. It's as if today we want people in rigid categories of existence. One is reminded at this point of a 1993 film, "Falling Down" wherein there is a vignette where a man is standing in front of a bank who refused to give him a loan, and holding a sign on which the words of the bank officer are printed: "NOT ECONOMICALLY VIABLE". That's a label. And a harsh one.
The idea of the Pharmakos in ancient Greece, usually translated as a "scapegoat", was a useful but later dubious concept. Originally every so often, people in the community would vote out one or more fellow neighbours, and they would be banished. Originally it was a kind of ritual purification of the community, getting rid of someone who was disturbing the harmony of the polis. But later it got very political. And hence using shells to vote and what we now call to ostracise someone.
We have it today. It would appear to be more subtle, but it isn't.
For example, many large cities in the "first" world are becoming much like cities in the "third" world. A very rich class, a very poor class, and nothing much in between.
When people are outcast, perhaps through no real fault of their own, it would seem that people today are insensitive to their plight. Sure, there are soup kitchens, and make-shift shelters for people without domiciles, but in the main, these outcasts are to be treated as "under the radar" of everyday life, if even simply treated as invisible. Like in the 19th century, when poor people and sick people were sent to an isolated island in a harbor near a big city away from the sight of normal life forms.
Especially one has seen this in churches. These churches used to be open for prayer and services all the time. One could go in at any time and make a devotion, be in a sacred place or space, or just be at peace. Somehow, poor people started staying in the churches all day. The normal congregation objected as they called them unsightly or foul-smelling. So pressure on the churches made the poor and homeless and destitute people be put out and the church doors closed except during hours when services were held. One wonders if such poor and downtrodden people are closer to the Divine than most others. One would think so. One would hope so. For all they have left from the heavens is Divine Mercy.
Society at large becomes polarised. And insensitive. And people die prematurely from lack of proper medical care, love or even food or the inclement elements on a piece of cardboard under a bridge in the freezing cold.
One hopes and prays that this will all change. "There but for the grace of God go I" as the saying goes. If it were practiced and readily believed by the more fortunate, then there would be no such overwhelming social problem or polarisation.
The one glitch in this all is that there tends to be a growing industry and business in processing the poor and downtrodden. Shelters become privately incorporated and get a certain amount of money per head for poor people sleeping overnight. It becomes an institutionalisation of human beings.
One again is reminded of a film, "Midnight Express", from 1978, in which the incarcerated main character (we will not take a point of view that he didn't commit a crime) is told by another inmate, as they walk around a circle, presumably and ostensibly in prayer and meditation, in the pit of the prison, that he has not faced the fact that he is a broken machine from the factory, and such broken machines are discarded. The main character in utter desperation and futility cries "But I come from where they make the machines!". That was the beginning of his turn-around to escape eventually.
Realisation that we are on a treadmill, or like Sisyphus, pushing the rock up the hill out of sheer habit, just to see it fall back down again, and to try to push it up again and again, failing forever.
Humankind cannot afford the luxury of such insensitivity. One has to believe it can happen to anyone to balance it all out. Even Plato in his brilliant "Republic" touched on that. One never knew who one's parents were, by design of the Guardians, so one would have to assume that any person seen could be their blood brother or sister. Interesting theory. A sage once told that "we are all related because we were created". Unless Darwinism is to be given the upper hand. Then it all gets so very complicated. Or simple, depending on how you interpret it.
I hope we can get back to the garden, as the 1969 song "Woodstock" by Joni Mitchell said. As she wrote in the song, "I'm going to try and get my soul free". So it goes.
* * *
From the song "Woodstock" from 1969 by Joni Mitchell. ...
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden ...
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden ...