Powerlessness is one of the primary effects of poverty. When people live in a resource- starved environment, they soon feel the very real constraints of limitation. Their lack of options makes them feel like victims, that their lives are determined by more powerful external forces. As a result, they live superstitiously, believing that a force they cannot control determines their life. They believe in fate, the idea that their life is something that happens to them, and that their job is to do their best to adapt to what happens. Believing in fate is like driving at night with your lights off. You can’t really do much about what happens, so you just try to keep your car from being totaled by whatever you hit. Destiny is oppressive to the poor, because an external force has all the power and leaves them with no power. The poor are slaves of their lives, and the feeling of powerlessness naturally creates anxiety, leading the poor to look for comfort by hanging their hopes on a lucky turn of events. It’s not the wealthy that are buying lottery tickets. It’s the poor who want a miraculous rescue from life’s conditions, which they cannot change. Life is about surviving within the context of their birth, and everyone they know has the same mindset. The young may hope to escape that context, but the hopes of the older ones among them have been crushed by the cruel life of poverty and they believe it to be immutable. They may know a few gifted and “blessed” individuals who have escaped this oppression, but most are trapped by a set of limitations that have kept them captive for generations. #CultureOfHonour #DannySilk #RevJoe
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 02:47:25 +0000
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