When there's a crisis happening, everyone says, "Man, that's terrible." It's what is said next that defines the difference between conservatives and liberals. The conservatives will ask, "What are you going to do?" Liberals ask, "How can I help?" Perception is everything; here's how these reactions can be viewed.
"What are you going to do?" could be taken as empowering, as in "I believe you have the tools and initiative it takes to solve your own problem." On the other hand, it can be seen as cold, as in "Solve your own problems, I'm not about to help you!"
"How can I help?" Wow, how paternalistic. Don't they have any confidence in my ability to do things for myself? On the other hand, it can be seen as a lifeline: someone's there to help me - I'm in over my head!
The American cultural psyche is based on self-reliance. We don't want to be the recipient of assistance, but we're proud of being the first to step up when it's needed. Maybe that's why it's so hard to realize that some of us need more help than others; maybe a lot more help.
It's not bad, or weak, to ask for help in a crisis. Nor is it bad to offer it. If one asks, "Can I help?", you can always say, "No thanks, I'm good." The only bad thing would to walk on by when someone is obviously suffering, and to do nothing.
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Comments: 8
It's in dealing with people at a distance, in large numbers, that both conservatives and liberals fall back on different mindsets. Human beings do not really handle abstracts well, on the whole.
Conservatives remember to hold people accountable for their own responsibilities -- but forget that they may not have the resources to meet those responsibilities. How is a man to go from sleeping in a doorway straight to work? If you give him a safe, clean, stable place to sleep, access to a shower and laundry, and a breakfast, then you can rightfully expect a good day's work from him.
Liberals remember that people have needs and act to fill those needs -- but they forget that among the needs a human being has is the need to contribute, to do something, to make something, and the need to direct one's own life, make one's own decisions. They forget to let people do what they can for themselves, and to hold them accountable for their own responsibilities. Liberal social-workers confronted by homeless people who have set up their own mutual-help networks outside of the system go helplessly, frantically nuts.
This is one of the reasons why we need both conservatives and liberals, in the same society. We have always had both conservatives and liberals, whatever we called them. Society does best when we have a balance between them, and we all have to dialogue and work together; not when either one or the other dominates, and marginalizes the other.
Next.
Charles: New Orleans was the worst of the damage; the founders were warned not to build a city there, but proceeded anyway. Modern technology is making it less vunerable, but much of that technology is post Katrina. These people were devastated and abandoned; we reacted more to catastrophies overseas than we did at home. Our reaction time was poor and even though there were many citizens who should have left, many others were bound to their property without a way to get anywhere and perhaps even shut in.
Your article reminds me of a short story I read long ago, I can't remember the author, about a woman who is passing through a gallery for a picture to hang in her home, but we are not immediately privy to the fact that she is looking at paintings and not real life stuff on the streets. In the end, the truth is revealed and her ignorance comes to light.
I saw a few titles in your list that show you were writing about health care topic before it became the 'hot topic'. I'll go check those out next.