3/14/2006
The Speck in Your Brother's Eye
I'd like to apologize in advance for this post. I'm in a full-on battle with the Beast, and he's winning hands down. Therefore, this will seem like a disjointed rant to some of you. That's okay. I'll try being rational tomorrow.
American society is the most hypocritical in the world.
It wants you to succeed but resents you and tries to slap you down when you do. It wants you to be self-sufficient, then tells you what to do and when to do it. It wants you to be a leader but then won't take your advice. It wants you to pursue life, liberty and happiness, then thinks you're crazy for daring to do it. It wants you to be intelligent, then treats you like an incredible dummy. It wants you to be rich, but then comes up with a myriad of ways to take your money. It wants you to ask for help when you get into a jam, then considers you weak for doing so.
It wants you to be human, but treats you like an animal.
And frankly, the whole thing just makes me so very tired.
American society is the most hypocritical in the world.
It wants you to succeed but resents you and tries to slap you down when you do. It wants you to be self-sufficient, then tells you what to do and when to do it. It wants you to be a leader but then won't take your advice. It wants you to pursue life, liberty and happiness, then thinks you're crazy for daring to do it. It wants you to be intelligent, then treats you like an incredible dummy. It wants you to be rich, but then comes up with a myriad of ways to take your money. It wants you to ask for help when you get into a jam, then considers you weak for doing so.
It wants you to be human, but treats you like an animal.
And frankly, the whole thing just makes me so very tired.
# posted by Cybermancer @ 4:18 PM 
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hello Michael Brown!
I have been following your bloggings on and off for awhile now, and I think everything you say has power behind it, I just started my own blog, basically as a direct result of reading your blogs, I want to learn more about your circumstances and your experiences living as a homeless man, I am working on a project that will focus on banishing stereotpyes of homeless people and also open the eyes of, especially, Christian communities, (my university for one). I would love to hear back from you, I am sure you get lots of comments to read, but you can check out my blog or shoot me an email thank you for your time! Blessings to you and what you are doing
I have been following your bloggings on and off for awhile now, and I think everything you say has power behind it, I just started my own blog, basically as a direct result of reading your blogs, I want to learn more about your circumstances and your experiences living as a homeless man, I am working on a project that will focus on banishing stereotpyes of homeless people and also open the eyes of, especially, Christian communities, (my university for one). I would love to hear back from you, I am sure you get lots of comments to read, but you can check out my blog or shoot me an email thank you for your time! Blessings to you and what you are doing
Hi Michael, We know what you're going through. My husband, our 4 sons, our dog, and myself were all homeless 6 years ago. My husband lost his job when a new company bought the company he worked for and they needed to eliminate his position at work.
After doing some research we left our middle class suburbian neighborhood in Washington State and headed for California. We had enough money to move into a place and we thought it would be easy enough. Boy were we wrong! (Living day to day is NOT cheap!) We had to put everything in storage and stay at hotels while we looked for houses. When we realized that it was going to be much harder than we thought we switched to camping. This went on for almost 3 months and I guess we were lucky that it was summer, because we never had to stay at a shelter.
We can relate sooo much to your story that it made it really hard just for me to respond. Not that I haven't wanted to, but I guess it's just the shame you feel. Well that and it's a hard thing to have to relive by talking about it.
Some things that helped us was to just take it one day at a time and try to find something positive that happened that day. It takes your mind off of the negitive and lots of times it's the small things in life that really matter anyway. It's so hard while your in the situation that your in, but you have to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Be strong and remember that some days are worse than others, but things get better and by speaking out you may be helping more people than you had ever dreamed of.
After doing some research we left our middle class suburbian neighborhood in Washington State and headed for California. We had enough money to move into a place and we thought it would be easy enough. Boy were we wrong! (Living day to day is NOT cheap!) We had to put everything in storage and stay at hotels while we looked for houses. When we realized that it was going to be much harder than we thought we switched to camping. This went on for almost 3 months and I guess we were lucky that it was summer, because we never had to stay at a shelter.
We can relate sooo much to your story that it made it really hard just for me to respond. Not that I haven't wanted to, but I guess it's just the shame you feel. Well that and it's a hard thing to have to relive by talking about it.
Some things that helped us was to just take it one day at a time and try to find something positive that happened that day. It takes your mind off of the negitive and lots of times it's the small things in life that really matter anyway. It's so hard while your in the situation that your in, but you have to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Be strong and remember that some days are worse than others, but things get better and by speaking out you may be helping more people than you had ever dreamed of.
You don't really believe this, do you Cybermancer? I know you put in a disclaimer before the rant, but you wouldn't have posted it at all if you didn't believe in some of it, right?
Look... The truth of the matter is that American Society doesn't give a shit (pardon my Italian ;)) if you exist or not. As a matter of fact they'd PREFER it if you never made it known that you exist in the first place!
Think of this conceptually instead of face-value for a moment... There are two ways to eradicate the homeless situation; (1) We get every single person a home to live in and off the streets or (2) The homeless stop telling us or prevent them from telling us that they exist! Concepts, my brotha... Concepts!
Both statements are equally ridiculous when taken at face-value if you think about it, but conceptually they'd both work perfectly if executed. Every single country in the world, regardless of their economy and government, have homeless people. I mean, there are actual people who live their entire LIFE as homeless (we call them Nomads)! There is ABSOLUTELY no way we will EVER hear this on the news:
"There are now 0 people without homes in the world today! Joe Schmo, the last homeless person on earth finally moved into his new home today! He would have moved in sooner but you know it usually takes three months to finally close on a house!"
We also can't avoid those who are homeless or "keep them quiet" somehow either. We can't just secretly round them all up one night and get rid of them. There is ABSOLUTELY no way we will EVER hear this on the news:
"They're finally all silent! Joe Schmo was forced into the underground homeless shelter today, making him the LAST homeless person in the world in plain sight! Once he was pushed in, the Vice President did the honors of shutting the impenetrable door and sealing it shut!"
Do you know the only difference between the two are? The former makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you say it or hear it and the latter makes you look like an uncaring heartless bastard. Neither statement is realistic nor provides a logical solution to the problem even though in THEORY they'd both work. They're both hypocritical statements.
A hypocrite is a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives. American Society loves to say they'd love to help out the homeless, but the truth is that American Society doesn't care if every single homeless person is killed, jailed, swept away or anything else. American Society only cares about not knowing that there is a homeless problem. If they didn't KNOW about the homeless problem, then there IS no homeless problem. Try this...
"If a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody there to hear it, does it make a sound?" Anyone who answers this question is a hypocrite (read the definition again). Anyone who asks this question looking for an actual answer is also a hypocrite. Why? Because it is an UNANSWERABLE QUESTION!
The point I'm trying to make here is that we have total control of ourselves and nobody can make us do anything we don't want to have done to us. Those that make a poor decision and blame somebody else for the results is a hypocrite.
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Look... The truth of the matter is that American Society doesn't give a shit (pardon my Italian ;)) if you exist or not. As a matter of fact they'd PREFER it if you never made it known that you exist in the first place!
Think of this conceptually instead of face-value for a moment... There are two ways to eradicate the homeless situation; (1) We get every single person a home to live in and off the streets or (2) The homeless stop telling us or prevent them from telling us that they exist! Concepts, my brotha... Concepts!
Both statements are equally ridiculous when taken at face-value if you think about it, but conceptually they'd both work perfectly if executed. Every single country in the world, regardless of their economy and government, have homeless people. I mean, there are actual people who live their entire LIFE as homeless (we call them Nomads)! There is ABSOLUTELY no way we will EVER hear this on the news:
"There are now 0 people without homes in the world today! Joe Schmo, the last homeless person on earth finally moved into his new home today! He would have moved in sooner but you know it usually takes three months to finally close on a house!"
We also can't avoid those who are homeless or "keep them quiet" somehow either. We can't just secretly round them all up one night and get rid of them. There is ABSOLUTELY no way we will EVER hear this on the news:
"They're finally all silent! Joe Schmo was forced into the underground homeless shelter today, making him the LAST homeless person in the world in plain sight! Once he was pushed in, the Vice President did the honors of shutting the impenetrable door and sealing it shut!"
Do you know the only difference between the two are? The former makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you say it or hear it and the latter makes you look like an uncaring heartless bastard. Neither statement is realistic nor provides a logical solution to the problem even though in THEORY they'd both work. They're both hypocritical statements.
A hypocrite is a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives. American Society loves to say they'd love to help out the homeless, but the truth is that American Society doesn't care if every single homeless person is killed, jailed, swept away or anything else. American Society only cares about not knowing that there is a homeless problem. If they didn't KNOW about the homeless problem, then there IS no homeless problem. Try this...
"If a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody there to hear it, does it make a sound?" Anyone who answers this question is a hypocrite (read the definition again). Anyone who asks this question looking for an actual answer is also a hypocrite. Why? Because it is an UNANSWERABLE QUESTION!
The point I'm trying to make here is that we have total control of ourselves and nobody can make us do anything we don't want to have done to us. Those that make a poor decision and blame somebody else for the results is a hypocrite.
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