"No more talking about the homeless"

[ZoNiE]

Sure, there are the types who fit that category, but many don't and want/need to get back on their feet. The group that wants to get back on their feet is what my suggestion is for.

Wabbit, What "purpose" do they possibly serve? Job creation for government staff???

[Wabbit]

For one they make a great scape goat for others. For some reason people need\want scapegoats. Every group has them, even down to your friends and family. Why do people like to scapegoat so much? I guess that's kinda rhetorical, but there is a big part of me that doesn't understand the necessity of it. Scapegoats are useful I guess, they make great distractions and are useful in showing the masses what happens to a person if they don't toe the line. The US is a class based society, just like the UK. Although over there they know it, here in the States the indoctrination is that there are no differences in classes, everyone is the same. If you're poor it's your own dam fault because you don't work hard enough. If your a drunk it's because you're a lazy piece of shit who wants to pass out in alleys. There is little understanding and even less empathy for the less fortunate. I'm not good with explaining stuff, but I try.

What do you think of the quote below? Is it true?

“If you are born poor its not your mistake, But if you die poor its your mistake.”
― Bill Gates

[Wabbit]

 An awful lot of them remain homeless by choice. They would much rather drown their sorrow with alcohol, and or drugs. They don't really want to be bothered with pretending to be civilized, but instead lay in an alley and puke themselves to death, while leaving a swath of broken bottles, crap, and vomit on peoples property. I've seen it first hand when I worked security. You try to be nice to them and they take you for being soft, and keep returning to create the same mess over and over.

I don't buy into this sentiment. I get that it is popular thinking, but not much in life is as simple as this. Saying that, I have felt this way in the past, but not anymore. Might be kinda nice if life was as cut and dried and there were no complexities, but I imagine it would be boring and there would not be many life lessons to learn. I might feel that I live in a predatory universe, but that doesn't mean I have to think\act like a predator(not saying that to anyone specific here) to survive. I can be me and if I cry or feel for myself or another person, I don't believe that makes me weak, it makes me human.

[OutdoorFT]

I dont really want to comment on the subject, due to what Ive seen. WHat Ive seen may not encompass the entire population, but truth nonetheless. If you want to live as a dirtbag, act rude and be a nuisance to society...by all means. But if you want to turn your life around, there are ways to do so. How hard you try is as far as youll go.

Just my opinion though.

[frater secessus]

Why do people like to scapegoat so much?

Because dealing with our own issues is hard work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection

[Scott7022]

I really don't understand how anyone in North America would or could be blind to the fact it is a class-based society? Ah just fly someplace. First class, Biz Class, Coach. Perhaps not as obvious as British Airways Concord, First, Biz, World Traveller Plus, World Traveller. Although BA sounds nicer; the British are very nice that way, almost Canadian LOL! Russian Aeroflot has the Regular economy, Economy plus and Presidents class. I had the Elite platinum level frequent flyer status with BA for years and this allowed me to use the Concord Lounge at Heathrow. In my tactical pants or jeans and T-shirt. Oh, the suits were miffed. I didn't fit their idea or picture of this class level.

Even dining out. Getting seated at a restaurant outside of LA requires shirt, shoes, and a nice watch helps. When I was back in Vancouver I did a few days of truck shopping for a dealer that could order and store what I want, when I wanted it, and when I could pick it up. A new one-ton truck. A few of the dealers left me alone to wander aimlessly as I didn't fit the picture of a person buying an 80 thousand dollar truck. Despite all the tongue wagging about people being judgement free few really are. I found one Ford and one Ram dealer that I could deal with. So one of those two dealers will get the sale when I can pull the trigger.

I had a personal experience related to homelessness. On my trip down to YARC I was stying in my car and one of the people I ran into nicely exclaimed ah you're homeless. I had a visceral and immediate reaction to these words. I didn't let it show at the time and the next night warm and a little drunk in a nice hotel room I thought about this interaction. He was right I was homeless. What I had in the bank, and the available credit extended to me by my long good relationship with that bank and the Rolex on my wrist didn't matter. I was by definition HOMELESS. I didn't owe anything, hadn't gone bankrupt, wasn't repossessed out of my home, yet I was still homeless. I was actually very surprised by that feeling. Well, surprised at my reaction to that situation and the feelings it created (Well the feelings I let it create but that is another set of fishing poles). I can't imagine, I tried that night, what it would be like to be repossessed out of my long-term home and bankrupt. "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and begin again" is not going to cut it. It would take a great deal of intestinal fortitude to carry on and not just crawl into a bottle of Jack. I have met those that have done it. I have nothing but respect for these people. We aren't talking about a failure to launch scenario. Those people are pathetic. We are talking launched, travelled, succeeded, and then crashed and burned. Got up, put the fire out, and carried on. I don't know what advice or life skills I have to offer these people? None past Wow! Well done.

I am blessed and cursed to have a skillset that is always required. Those that have money will always need people like me. So I am well aware of the class differences from both sides of the ditch and the smell between the two sides is just different. Not Good Bad, just different. We all pay for our life choices. I met a man in the desert that was once very well off. Perhaps, even rich. But in that life, he trusted no one and was always waiting for the hammer to fall. In the desert, he was "homeless" and yet was rich with friends. He only had a little money, yet he gladly shared what he could and gave of himself as much as he could, and wanted for very little. Loved and in the company of friends I knew he was happier now than he was when he was rich. We could be friends, and we became friends because my skillset provided nothing he needed. He exclaimed how happy he was and how loved he felt for the first time in his moderately short life. He wanted only friendship from me and it felt good giving it to him.

The problem with predators and sheep. (Commonly held idea of modern society)

The sheep are always scared and the wolves are always lonely.

While it would be a wonderful world if the world didn't need wolves and the sheep had nothing to fear. But I fear this is only possible when we learn what is enough. How much do I need? How much is enough? How do I make that assessment? By looking at those around me? By looking at the ads on TV that tell me what successful is? By making a pilgrimage to the desert and making a friend? Perhaps by being homeless we get a peek behind the curtain and what we see allows us to reevaluate our preconceived view of the world. It is still pretty ugly but I know islands of opulence, inhabited by wonderful people, surrounded by the most beautiful trees on the planet. Where the idea of living life free and removed from the ugly is possible.

[Putts]

Out in TheWorld (meaning "normal" society) homelessness is essentially thought of as a financial predicament, and all the talk around it centers on money and the ability to make it within TheWorld's system. I reckon TheWorld's system is insane, and you can't be sane in an insane world. 

I met a guy in Slab City that said he felt like a fish in a tree climbing contest out in TheWorld. Had nothing to do with money, he knew he didn't fit in and had to escape. 

I wonder how many of the homeless are so because they just can't take the TheWorld's bullshit. 

I see the bullshit. It doesn't make me crazy because I essentially have given up caring about it. Well, I care about it only enough to figure out how to play the game well enough to make a living. But once I figured out I could make my escape, I sure as hell made moves to do so. I'm close now. 

So I wonder: If we stop viewing homelessness as purely a financial issue within TheWorld's system, and, rather, begin to view it as an alternative to living in TheWorld, would we see it differently? I reckon maybe 10-20% of houseless people aren't there because they're incapable/unwilling to make a buck within the system, but rather that they're sick, fed up, and tired of TheWorld's bullshit and have just checked out as a matter of personal psychological survival. 

If you look at someone like that from within TheWorld's framework, these folks are deadbeats. If you look at them from the perspective of Universal Love, you see free spirits who refuse to live in the sheep pens. 

I reckon in the next ten years we're going to see a LOT more of these free spirits roaming around.

Like us, more or less.

[Cammalu]

What a thinker and writer Scott!

[ZoNiE]

Good point regarding scapegoats and the world needing them. I hadn't thought of that angle.

[Blanch]

We don’t have a homeless problem, I am considered homeless by my state of residence. People couch surfing are considered homeless as well.

Homelessness is a symptom of other problems such as untreated mental illness and substance abuse. You need to work on the underlying cause of the homelessness. You have to treat the illness of the individual, not the symptom. Giving housing to a homeless drug addict doesn’t work without treatment. Otherwise, as the homeless are a bit tribal and help each other, you end up with him/her inviting all of his/her shoot up buddies to share their new pad. I’ve seen it. It’s a mess.

Some people are happily homeless, I am one of them.


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