The problem isn’t that the system’s white. The problem is that it’s a system at all.
I first meant to title this, “Choosing disorder,” but settled on using a word that’s a bit more edgy, and consistent with my past vocabulary.
There are interesting relationships among some words.
In medicine, “disorder” is equivalent to “disease.”
I have obsessive-compulsive disorder. One might as well say obsessive-compulsive “disease.”
There are dozens of different kinds of personality disorder. One might as well call them personality disease. In fact, some of them have known genetic bases, including anti-social personality disorder. That one is in fact very much a mental illness, a brain disease, involving congenital deformities to the brain.
For some reason, I think of the word “dysfunction” as coming from the world of mechanics and engineering. “Dysfunction” refers to a machine that’s broken somehow — not working. This has other applications. It can refer to medical conditions: OCD involves dysfunction of the caudate nucleus, diabetes a dysfunction of the insulin metabolism. It can refer to behavior patterns: dysfunctional people literally don’t work.
I have elsewhere said “the needy” are those who can’t hold a job.
Jesus referred to poverty as a disease. When the Pharisees questioned his eating with riff raff, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)
A lot of it has to do with choosing chaos.
Much of this post is destined for re-use in Get on your feet.
The language used in pre-Trump campus turmoil made some things clear. The black man does not answer to white expectations; he does not answer to other expectations; he does not answer to ANY expectations — but one. The one and only expectation one can have of the black man is that he will do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and no one dare tell him no.
Mainstream or prosperous readers: know for certain, these are not the decisions you or I would make. These decisions are made wholly without regard for anyone’s well-being or for plainly foreseeable consequences (e.g., prison). One does not count the cost (Luke 14:28).
This mentality, which I call “defiant infantilism,” hates The System not because it’s racist, but because it is a system; whereas, sooner or later, any system will place demands and expectations on the individual.
Of course, some white people display this posture also. But it’s not a defining attribute of whiteness, as it is of blackness.
If you won’t put the toys back in the toybox, you’ll soon enough be tripping over them. If you never wash the dishes, they’ll soon enough all be dirty. (I always washed the dishes — immediately before use.) Some men I deal with literally don’t wipe their butts.
Chaos creates poverty.
If you spend your cash and food stamps based wholly on impulse, you’re likely to run out at mid-month, and there may not be anyone who can save you from the crisis you yourself created.
The only system I recognize is karma.
Karma is not about rewards and punishments, but about results — the results of your own actions. The basic order of the cosmos is that you will meet the results of your own actions, whether you want to or not.
Everyone is accountable to the results of her or his own actions. Some folks spend their lives energetically seeking to avoid that accountability. Thus (1) they choose chaos. And (2) that’s exactly why their lives are so hard.
The obstacles in their path are the wreckage of the bootstraps, opportunities, relationships, personal belongings and dwellings they’ve destroyed.
The trash that congests their streets and alleys is the trash of their spiritual lives.
In life, we face adversity. One kind of adversity comes with choosing chaos. A different adversity comes with choosing order. Chaos, however, prevails among those who refuse to accept any adversity at all.
I observe that the happier I am, the easier adversity is to face.
Conclusion: people who will not face adversity, aren’t happy enough.
Becoming happier is what The Way of Peace is all about.
One who lives as Jesus taught will become happier — potentially without limit, though there is a learning curve.
NOTE: Living as Jesus taught has nothing to do with “belief in” Jesus.
It’s a choice.
=================================
תגובות