Different Rules

Growing up I went through a lot of jackets. From ages 6 to 13, I lost almost every jacket my parents bought me. It was not until a few years ago when someone corrected my narrative. They informed me I left a jacket behind and then someone stole my jacket. Theft...Larceny. All of these years I had experienced petty forms of criminal activity, aided by my forgetfulness. Until a few years ago, I did not view my disappearing outerwear as a crime but an unfortunate example of opportunism. I did not have a proper perspective of right and wrong.

For my fellow Americans who live in poverty, the rules are different. The absence of economic justice and lack of safety began to warp the minds of those condemened to these zipcodes. The mind has a fascinating way of normalizing sustained suffering. The ubiquitous stress debilitates internal resiliency, which results in the mind accepting the violent and dangerous circumstances as normal. To maintain sanity in this type of environment, morality must be reunderstood. Traditional values as they are traditonally understood can result in harm. For example, there is an idea that anyone can achieve their dreams through hardwork. Usually, this is a sound piece of wisdom. However, in a world full of stray bullets, dreams are stolen daily. Hardwork does not matter when someone can shoot you, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our American values only function in a system that assumes safety. When individuals must work to ensure their survival, instead of it being a given, the value system breaks down. Much like chemical reactions, pressure alters the normal functioning of American ethics.

Seeing a child's conscience devolve into a fragmented psyche is a haunting feature of our inner citties. They are disciples of Nietzche in the purest sense. They have never read him but they live by his axiom "the will to power." They are godless because their world has abandoned them. To survive, strength is valued more than cooperation and power is worth killing for. Other people are viewed as potential threats instead of potential allies. Paranoia takes the place of compassion and life is valued only as much as one can profit from it. It is the epitome of social darwinism, and it is killing our country. Those who are strong enough to survive these conditions exit poverty and become a feel-good rags to riches story to entertain suburban America. Or these people survive and remain in poverty reproducing the values which kept them alive to the next generation. Both are examples of  social darwinism unfolding just a few blocks down.

Applying our normal standards of morality ignore the truth, their reality is fundamentally different therefore we must adjust our beliefs accordingly. When we condemn people who live in unsafe places for behaving like they are at war, our pride uncovers how little we really know about their circumstances, and how little we care to understand them. If we want behaviors to change, we must end the addage of "making the most out of a bad situation." How do you make the most out of a constant fear of death, unyielding hunger, and fluctuating access to electricity? Truly, How? Think about it... It is only by the grace of God that anyone makes it out of urban poverty; why leave it up to grace, when we can alter these conditions with a steady conserted effort? If Christians carry the Spirit of the living God in them, why do we settle for a stagnant love, which tolerates evil and avoids the truth? We cannot continue leveling judgement without understanding. Different rules require different mindsets, it is imperative that we learn both. Only then can we work with the collaboration necessary to build every American. Anything less continues a legacy of violence against the impoverished and it is their right to have better than what we have given.