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07 September 2010

Minumum Requirements of Being Human

I woke this morning, turned on my television to catch up on the news.  Before even starting the coffee, this is what I saw:





TRY HERE FOR REPORT AND VIDEO

In that report, you can hear The Song of the Sub-Human, it goes like this,
[Homelessness] is an issue which effects the Convention Center,
it effects Tourism
and we want to address it in a positive way.
--Tim League, CEO, Alamo Drafthouse

And words which are violated by such a song come to mind,
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
--(Luke 6:20-21 ESV)

Not in this life!  Not when tourist dollars outweigh the needs of the poor and hungry!  Of course, Jesus was speaking of the Kingdom of God (as in, "Thy Kingdom Come"), not that any of those blessing would come to anyone in this life.  No, here and now, we endure the greed and self-righteousness of the rich, powerful elitists.

I adore Carl Gustov Jung's teachings (have you noticed?).  He writes,
There is only one remedy for the levelling effect of all collective measures, and that is to emphasize and increase the value of the individual.

A fundamental change of attitude (metanoia) is required, a real recognition of the whole man. This can only be the business of the individual and it must begin with the individual in order to be real.

...Large political and social organizations must not be ends in themselves, but merely temporary expedients. Just as it was felt necessary in America to break up the great Trusts, so the destruction of huge organizations will eventually prove to be a necessity because, like a cancerous growth, they eat away man's nature as soon as they become ends in themselves and attain autonomy. From that moment they grow beyond man and escape his control. He becomes their victim and is sacrificed to the madness of an idea that knows no master.

All great organizations in which the individual no longer counts are exposed to this danger. There seems to be only one way of countering this threat to our lives, and that is the "revaluation" of the individual.
-- Jung, Carl Gustav, Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies [Princeton]: Princeton UP, 1978. p. 73f.

Carl Jung wrote that in 1858!  Is anyone listening?  Is it any wonder that our downtown streets are filled with invisible broken people (who are, apparently, not invisible enough), and that we can sit calmly and remotely at our conference tables and discuss how we can better serve tourism given the nuicence of the homeless?

Please!  Please tell me I am not alone in outrage!
"Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
(Matthew 25:41-45 ESV)

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