Through the Looking Glass: How Harming Others Makes Sense

[TexasTowelie]

By Dr. Brian Carr
President, Behavioral Health Associates, Lubbock, Texas, 1991-Present
Chairman, City of Lubbock Board of Health, 2013
Submitted on November 3, 2013 - 10:04am

Nearly four decades after President Ronald Reagan put forth the story of the “welfare queen” while on the 1976 presidential campaign trail we are still seeing the false belief of how the poor are enjoying life on the backs of hard-working Americans.

In an article on MSNBC (BW and TC will love this) TEApublicans love to talk about the “welfare queen” loading her lobster and crab legs into her Cadillac Escalade and going home to enjoy it in front of her 50 inch plasma TV. The working poor have it too easy. They’re lazy, living an opulent lifestyle.

The article highlights the plight of Sara Grier who is a single mother of four living in Charlotte, North Carolina. She has been receiving $500 per month in SNAP (food stamps) benefits to help feed her children. She is not an extravagant shopper. She buys meats which are on sale and carefully watches what she buys — stretching her food dollars to the limit. Ramen noodles are a common lunch, she carefully measures out a half bowl of cereal for each child’s breakfast and counts out an exact number of chicken nuggets when that is the meat for the evening meal or lunch.

She recently received notice that her new SNAP benefit, beginning this month will be reduced — to $16!

Thanks Congressman Neugebauer for your vote to cut her and 36,000 other American’s benefits.

How can people who are our friends and family be in support of such action? How can someone identify themselves as a Christian and act in such an un-Christian manner?

Bill Moyers described the evolving study of morality, politics, and cognitive science in understanding our society. The interview with Chris Mooney details how people can take such a stance against providing health care to the uninsured because of differing cognitive styles and processes. He related that:

“It’s not that conservatives don’t feel that emotion, but they don’t necessarily feel it as strongly. They feel other things more strongly. So to Haidt, this explains the health care debate because liberals feel, most of all, this harm-care-compassion thing. Conservatives feel it a little bit less strongly, even as they have this other morality. Haidt compares it to karma — it’s really interesting — where basically, you’re supposed to get what you deserve. And what really bothers them is somebody not getting what they deserve. So the government getting involved and interfering with people getting what they deserve is really bad. That, I think, is the clash.”

Social psychology teaches us the lesson that people seek simplicity in a complex world. This desire has been hijacked by forces such as the Koch brothers who offer this comfort at the altar of their corporate benefit. By classifying ALL poor people as undeserving it becomes possible to understand the issue and the proposed solution. To let people suffer because THEY deserve it, because they CAUSED it, helps to sooth the personal pain of how the world is built.

I find that people are caring and compassionate but far less so when they can hide behind their computer monitors and “gated communities”. When I am told that we should simply turn people away who cannot afford health care I find it helpful in the discussion to invite them to join me on rounds in a dialysis unit where they can have the personal opportunity to look another human in the eye and tell them they are a waste of funding. I have yet to have anyone take me up on that offer.

Please, see the world as complex and difficult, and help to find solutions that help REAL people and REAL children. Perhaps our Congressman Randy might lose his pinkish complexion and fattened cheeks if he had to survive on the SNAP program he derides and seeks to dissemble. Perhaps it Congress had to work every day for minimum wage and not just the 16 days left for them before Christmas they might understand. Perhaps if the Extreme Right had to live in “Tent City” on Ave A in Lubbock they might stir compassion in their hearts.

Until then, simple blame, contorted enemies, and ultimate solutions will harm us all.

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http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/dr-brian-carr/2013-11-03/through-looking-glass-how-harming-others-makes-sense

Cross-posted in Good Reads forum.