January 6, 2006
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Topic: Metaphors, a response to comments about the poor and gov’t, and clarifying my message about quality of life and mental health
i’ve come to love metaphors…because you can be so creative with them, because it helps us look at issues from different angles, and because any person’s metaphor can quickly be flipped on its head, and then re-flipped upright. kregg had a good one:
“Blaming one’s surrounding for one’s position in life is like blaming a car for an auto accident.”
To quickly address the metaphor, and to show how it is in fact appropriate to blame one’s surroundings for one’s position in life, try comparing driving a Ford Pinto vs. a car like a Volvo. Ford Pinto being the car the would virtually explode on impact if rear-ended (Ralph Nader started his career by blaming cars and car-makers for putting profits ahead of human lives), and the Volvo being considered a safe-family car of today. The driver is not the only one in control of the car. The driver is affected by the quality and safety of the car, as well as the drivers and cars on the road around them. Getting into an accident w/ a VW Bug will have a different impact than getting hit by a Hummer. Driving through parts of South Africa, there’s a possibility of someone driving you off the road, holding a knife to your throat, and taking your car. Do you blame the individual in this case, or the environment? The individual driving a car is also affected by the level of instruction they received. Were they given enough experience before being sent off onto a highway alone?
So…there’s 1000′s of factors that affect an individual (or a driver), that go beyond the individual themselves. These factors, or, the environment beyond the will or ability of the individual, play a crucial role. To address the metaphor one last time:
“Blaming one’s surroundin’s for one’s position in life is exactly like blaming a car in an auto accident!”
The purpose of the metaphor was to comment on the issue of how the environment of poverty affects poor people. My current thinking is that the environment of poverty hinders, though does not prevent, the prospect of rising above the duldrums (ultimately…ideas of success and other measurements of life are relative throughout time and culture…but here i choose to discuss this issue within the generally accepted standards of what consitutes a satisfactory level of living…vague for now, but will work on that later). Anyways…I believe that environment, which includes physical and social factors, has a significant influence on human development. I accept Kregg’s claims that most people have relatively equal capacities to learn and achieve (although that’s likely a false generalization about mental capacity), however, social factors vary widely. The reason that well-off suburban white kids can go on to “do well” in life, at a higher rate than urban minorities, is likely due to those external factors. The issue is not black and white, and certainly there are cases of kids rising out of the duldrums to do amazing things, but my concern is with the odds. The odds of success are different for people of different socio-economic status.
I’ve been having this conversation with myself the past 24hrs. about the role of money in society. Is money a pre-requisitie for “quality of life.” (quality of life, in quotes because of its relativism, until i come up w/ an appropriate definition). After all, there were people who went through the Holocaust who still managed to maintain a positive outlook on life, and there’s kids in run-down African townships who spend their days singing with joy, and there’s kids in rich suburban neighborhoods who are burdened by social pressures and depression and suicidal thoughts. So…why even stress over politics, budgets, and “helping” the poor, when money doesn’t seem to be realted to quality of life?
Let me take a step back…I believe society can objectively improve over time in two ways. The first way is increasing life span, which is occuring today through improved medicine and knowledge of health. And the second way is to improve the “quality of life.” Addressing the qualityf of life issue will require looking deeper into our culture, and seeing what role gov’t plays in this.
Through the private sector, people are able to work together to attempt to improve the quality of lives of other people. This is done through charities and volunteerism, as well as through the work of social workers, pyscyologists, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and virtually any number of professions, including plumbers, carpenters, entertainers (athletes, movie stars, musicians, etc) mechanics, waiters, etc. These people do work that serves to improve the quality of life for other human beings.
Now…we need to tackle the idea of those of low income, who are not able to benefit from many of those goods and services that are being exchanged between people. Those who have less options for the kind of work they will do, the kind of school they will attend, the kind of food they will eat, the kind of homes they will live in, and most importantly in my eyes, the kind of leisure they will partake in.
I also want to offer the idea that the poor are at a psychological disadvantage to the rich, in terms of attaining a quality of life that is available to people with money. I’m not necessarily saying the poor should be given money so they can experience what it’s like to watch a sporting event from a luxury box, or to fly first class to spend a week on a Carribean island (although…ideally, all people would be able to enjoy the riches that life has to offer). But…the poor should have the same opportunities to the environmental factors that allow for quality of life. (i need to further define these factors…)
The issue that I have for rich and poor alike, and which I will likely make the focus of my future writings, are those environmental factors, for the rich and poor, that contribute to poor mental health. (apparently…i currently believe that good mental health is equivalant to a high quality of life). Whether it is the unnecessary social pressures and mindless priorities of some middle-class neighborhoods, or the crime-infested, overcrowded, dirty, angry and uninspiring neighborhoods of some of the lower-class. Perhaps the issues for the poor can only be done w/ the support of the government…but ultimately, improving quality of life for our society crosses both class and race.
What do you think?
Comments (3)
I think cars don’t drive themselves. Ever.
i never said cars drive themselves..i did say they can cause accident.
Good luck with your cooking friend.
I’ve never been able to get into soy milk, but I do drink rice milk. Not all the time, though. Usually only when we run out of cow’s milk, which we buy organic from our local natural foods store. There’s nothing like milk from a glass jar! We have cut down and try to drink less milk, partly because it’s so expensive to buy the good stuff.
I love metaphor, too. It’s hard to argue against one, and it kind of ruins it if you have to explain it (which is why I don’t try anymore). Metaphors say things that can’t be said as well through explanation. I think we value explanation way too highly in this society, and metaphor not enough.