Which Do You Fear More: Lazy-Selfishness or Greedy-Selfishness?

If you know me at all, you know I’m happy to talk politics and religion despite the fact that they can be upsetting topics. I’m not afraid to share what I believe. But I don’t do so in an attempt to convince everyone of the correctness of my convictions or to necessarily sway them to my way of thinking. One of my beliefs is the importance of open sharing and communication to promote understanding, so I share in the hopes that you will listen and try to understand me. And as much as I can be frustrated, enraged, and dumbfounded by those I differ with, I’m glad to hear their opposing viewpoints to gain a better understanding of where they’re coming from.

Right now I see a lot of anger in the political atmosphere, about the health care debate, the economy, and all kinds of related topics. It would be easy enough to dismiss the anger I disagree with as small-minded stupidity, but I think there is a lot of fear behind the anger. A lot of legitimate fear. And part of the reason I react so strongly in opposition is my reaction is motivated by my own fear. And the power of that fear impedes our ability to listen to or understand each other.

Of course any kind of formula like what follows is a gross oversimplification of the issues, but I see two different fears dividing people in the health care and economic debates: fear of lazy, undeserving people taking what we have earned and fear of greedy, undeserving people hoarding what we have a right to. I see the word “entitlement” used in both instances—we fear those who feel they are entitled to financial help they haven’t earned but we have, and we fear those who feel they are entitled to unfair amounts of privilege, even though they have worked no harder to earn it than the rest of us with less. We fear the lazy poor at the bottom of the pool who would take from us and we fear the greedy rich at the top who take more than they should without sharing.

It’s possible to fear both, and I think most people do, but I believe most of us fear one or the other more strongly and that drives where we sit in the debate. And the funny thing is, for most of us it’s a mostly hypothetical debate; we’re in that middle range that won’t be terribly affected by the reality because only a few people really experience the extremes. We don’t make enough money that the changes will be all that significant for us, but we’re also not struggling to the extent that we’ll need the added services. In health care language, if we already have basic insurance coverage we wouldn’t really see a lot of changes, only those on the extremes who either can buy any care they want without having to rely on insurance or those who can’t afford insurance will see significant change (from what I’ve read and learned). But that’s the power of an emotion like fear; it gets us wound up whether what we fear is likely or not.

I realize I’m only theorizing here, but I imagine the fear driving the “conservative” side of the debate is all about fear of the lazy-selfish. I know that fear. Many times in my life, both professionally and personally, I’ve felt my compassion soured by disgust. I’ve seen those I’m trying to help making poor choices and not having the desire, will, or discipline to do what they should to take care of themselves. They need education, instruction, emotional support, and the like to change their habits, but just handing them money without forcing them to change almost amounts to throwing that money away. I’ve also known those whose only goal in life is to work the system, to find ways to take all they can without ever earning any of it. God, they piss me off. I’d say lock them up, but then I’d still be helping to pay for their food and shelter. The only just penalty for them would be exile. So the prospect of some bureaucratic mess coming in and taking my hard-earned money and handing it over to those parasites without my permission is a pretty scary one indeed. Hell, no. I understand why people get angry.

But I’ve also seen it’s not all about the choices we make or our work ethic. I’ve known plenty of people who work as hard as could be, but have had one thing after another stacked against them preventing the success they deserve. I’ve known lazy, good-for-nothing people enjoy huge success because of circumstances and luck. It’s not an even playing field. So much of it depends upon what we are born into and things beyond our control. No matter how hard working we are, injury, illness, layoffs, accidents, and a multitude of other things we have no say in will impact us all. Some of us to more extent than others, through no fault of our own.

I once spent the day with someone who had started and run a homeless shelter/rehabilitation program. He said in twenty years of working with the homeless, he could only find one common denominator. The people he helped came from all walks of life, races, education levels, income levels, and backgrounds, but when life’s circumstances piled up against them they had no one to turn to. No network of family or friends who might help them out or provide a safety net to catch them, so they tumbled all the way down to the bottom. That idea scares the hell out of me. I’m constantly haunted by the thought of emotional isolation and loneliness, but can think of few things more terrifying than having financial isolation and helplessness piled on top of it.

Like most people, I have a mixed view of human nature. I know people are capable of great compassion and goodness and I trust that they will help those in need, but I believe there is a selfish limit to what they will give. They want their help to be personal, those they help to be known and trusted. They need there to be a face to their charity so they can believe in the good it will do. So the anonymous, unknown strangers without a network are those least likely to get help when they need it. The Old Testament refers to this category as the “widows and orphans.” The New Testament uses language like “the least of these.” I think people will always take care of their own, but there will also always be people who have no one. There has to be some kind of system in place to take care of those people, some way to insure that we don’t just share with those we know, but that we share systematically even with those we don’t know. Otherwise no one will help them. I fear that the greedy-selfish, who could easily afford to help them without much personal sacrifice, won’t.

So the idea that some big government bully could unjustly take my money and give it to some lazy, selfish, undeserving bum without my consent scares me, but the idea that I could someday be in desperate straits with no one willing to help me scares me even more. Either possibility is so hypothetical and unlikely to happen that it’s pretty silly to even take them into consideration when thinking politics, but the emotion behind our fear of them is so powerful that it’s almost amazing that they’re tempered by rational thought at all. I like to think my fear is not decisive, but I have to admit that it’s certainly a factor in my beliefs and positions. It helps lead me to the conclusion that I’m happy to vote for more socialism, if that’s what you want to call it, even knowing that some undeserving bastards will be taking advantage of the money I share, because I also believe that money will help many hard-working, deserving souls who are down on their luck with no one else to help them because, in some imagined alternate reality or possible future, they could be me.