The Disaffection Tendencies of Hunger.
Poverty has a way of stretching people's humanity thin. And this is why crime rates are higher in countries and communities where there is ravishing lack.
A former boss- a multi-millionaire- often told me he’d never trust a poor person.
When they’re servile to you, it’s because they need to eat or receive from you. When they’re pompous, it’s from a wounded place that seeks to protect what’s left of all hardship has taken from them.
People’s character often take on a new hue when they have money. People call it 'true colors.’ Maybe they’re correct; because poverty stifles and bridles ostentatious tendencies.
But at the same, it nurtures wild survival instincts.
And since the beginning of human existence, survival instincts in men have often tethered on the edge of inhumane conduct to their fellow human.
With animals, survival is akin to loss, mauling, stomping and even death.
With humans, even in a modern world, survival is equally synonymous with tussle and knocking off another.
When people are struggling to survive, they can become a feral distortion of themselves.
Have you read ‘Lord of the Flies' by William Golding?
The author fought in the Royal Navy during World War 11 and saw firsthand the grotesque possibilities of the human nature in a state of survival.
Nothing short of vicious and animalistic. The same people who’d been conscripted to fight what they considered to be unjust.
Which validates the notion that human morality has always been relative; people speak about wrong or right but do not know that their compasses can shift at the blink of an eye in a different context.
Which is also why the countries often thought to be 'godless' by traditional religious parameters, still hold the most values for human life and consider themselves to be most humane. E.g America.
On the other hand, nations that claim reverence for a higher being, historically have less value for human life and pride ‘ideologies’ over human life and dignity.
Think fanatical middle-eastern countries and Nigeria.
No moral system in the world can eliminate man's innate inclination to wickedness: even Christianity- if practiced simply as a religion.
But true Christianity - the life of Christ being lived out through a man- can do this.
But I detoured. Back to the subject.
If you’re surrounded by friends or family who’re still at the stage of their lives where they’re 'hustling to earn a living,' you may find many actions they take baffling and incongruent with the tenets of the relationship you both sustain.
I once attended a burial where a family member of the deceased made away with a huge sack of fried beef after the burial rites were over; I’m talking about over 500 pieces of cow meat that should have been shared equally amongst other family members.
Till now, I remember this incident with both shock and amusement.
This erring family member was not the black sheep of the fold by the way. This person is supposed to be a good person. But they were in lack. And they saw an opportunity.
Perhaps, it’s an issue of character. But again, character just like morality, is often relative to the context for most people.
Poverty tests the boundaries of people’s values and puts their morality to the highest pressure.
As one African chief said, “We feel strongly for the poor and we try to help. But we keep them at arm’s length to protect our stock.”
Lacking compassion? Perhaps. Do I understand his point? Yes.
