“Do you truly believe that life is fair, Senor de la Vega?
-No, maestro, but I plan to do everything in my power to make it so.”
― Isabel Allende, Zorro
If there is one thing every
living creature craves, it must surely be certainty. This craving takes many forms: the surety of the next meal,
a safe and reasonably comfortable place to lay our heads at night, a
paycheque. These are all proximate
forms of the desire for certainty, however. Certainty of survival, if only in the short-term, is what
ultimately lies behind it all.
We go to great lengths to hide our uncertainty from others just as others endeavour to conceal their anxiety from us. What is keeping up with the Joneses but an effort to appear at least as wealthy and confident in life as the guy next door? We put up with far more shit from our employer than we otherwise would, endure emotional and sometimes even physical abuse because we fear the the unknowns associated with the alternative, and gamble away billions in Vegas or on the local lottery every year eagerly seeking the jackpot that will deliver us from our current (real or imagined) financial distress.
The more we fail to recognize our own insecurity the more uncertain we feel, and the more we seek to hide it from others the more craving for it we generate within our communities. There’s just no escaping it, and believe me I've tried. All the truly illuminating philosophies tell us the only way to cope with it is to accept it. No matter how much money, land, or food you acquire uncertainty will still be lurking right around the corner. A thief may be plotting to take it all away from us, though these days the market is more likely to be the culprit. Perhaps the food you have cached will go bad before you have a chance to eat it, or will be snatched by another animal that is feeling at least as uncomfortable with the prospects of going hungry. Whatever you do, circumstances beyond your control are always at play in the shadows threatening to make a mess of your best laid plans. In an effort to compensate we hoard, invest in alarm systems, buy guns, open a mutual funds and take out insurance policies, but after all is said and done at best all we've done is manage to improve the odds a little bit for a little while.
All that said it would be wrong to argue that uncertainty is the great equalizer. While it is definitely true we all must deal with it one way or another, it is not true we are all equally equipped to do so. The reasons range from physical or mental disabilities to the circumstances we are born into. If we haven’t read the studies ourselves, we’ve all at least heard references to the abundant research showing a child born into poverty is facing far longer odds than a child born in Beverly Hills or the Hamptons. Even if we assume the myth of pulling oneself up by ones bootstraps contains some truth, certainly we can agree a poor child faces a future that involves far more pulling on already frayed bootstraps than one born into relative wealth. The wealthy have shown time and again that they can gamble away a small fortune in the stock market or on risky business ventures and still come out largely unscathed. How many times has Donald Trump gone through bankruptcy? The same mistakes, when made by the poor on a much smaller scale, leave scars that are both more painful and more enduring.
My mother was fond of saying “life isn’t fair.” No, it isn’t, but human beings should strive to be to the greatest possible extent. We’re aware of uncertainty and its consequences and therefore we should do something about it whenever we can. Empathy is recognition of the suffering that inevitably comes to every living thing as a consequence of enjoying the privilege of being alive, and justice is nothing if not a fair response to this condition. “Life is not fair” is accurate as far as it goes, but it is ultimately a dodge. Life isn’t fair, so what are we going to do about it? If we don’t follow up with that question than life isn’t worth living. Life demands more than mere resignation from a species that has been endowed with awareness.
We go to great lengths to hide our uncertainty from others just as others endeavour to conceal their anxiety from us. What is keeping up with the Joneses but an effort to appear at least as wealthy and confident in life as the guy next door? We put up with far more shit from our employer than we otherwise would, endure emotional and sometimes even physical abuse because we fear the the unknowns associated with the alternative, and gamble away billions in Vegas or on the local lottery every year eagerly seeking the jackpot that will deliver us from our current (real or imagined) financial distress.
The more we fail to recognize our own insecurity the more uncertain we feel, and the more we seek to hide it from others the more craving for it we generate within our communities. There’s just no escaping it, and believe me I've tried. All the truly illuminating philosophies tell us the only way to cope with it is to accept it. No matter how much money, land, or food you acquire uncertainty will still be lurking right around the corner. A thief may be plotting to take it all away from us, though these days the market is more likely to be the culprit. Perhaps the food you have cached will go bad before you have a chance to eat it, or will be snatched by another animal that is feeling at least as uncomfortable with the prospects of going hungry. Whatever you do, circumstances beyond your control are always at play in the shadows threatening to make a mess of your best laid plans. In an effort to compensate we hoard, invest in alarm systems, buy guns, open a mutual funds and take out insurance policies, but after all is said and done at best all we've done is manage to improve the odds a little bit for a little while.
All that said it would be wrong to argue that uncertainty is the great equalizer. While it is definitely true we all must deal with it one way or another, it is not true we are all equally equipped to do so. The reasons range from physical or mental disabilities to the circumstances we are born into. If we haven’t read the studies ourselves, we’ve all at least heard references to the abundant research showing a child born into poverty is facing far longer odds than a child born in Beverly Hills or the Hamptons. Even if we assume the myth of pulling oneself up by ones bootstraps contains some truth, certainly we can agree a poor child faces a future that involves far more pulling on already frayed bootstraps than one born into relative wealth. The wealthy have shown time and again that they can gamble away a small fortune in the stock market or on risky business ventures and still come out largely unscathed. How many times has Donald Trump gone through bankruptcy? The same mistakes, when made by the poor on a much smaller scale, leave scars that are both more painful and more enduring.
My mother was fond of saying “life isn’t fair.” No, it isn’t, but human beings should strive to be to the greatest possible extent. We’re aware of uncertainty and its consequences and therefore we should do something about it whenever we can. Empathy is recognition of the suffering that inevitably comes to every living thing as a consequence of enjoying the privilege of being alive, and justice is nothing if not a fair response to this condition. “Life is not fair” is accurate as far as it goes, but it is ultimately a dodge. Life isn’t fair, so what are we going to do about it? If we don’t follow up with that question than life isn’t worth living. Life demands more than mere resignation from a species that has been endowed with awareness.
If we create a society that produces
millions of people living in desperation from paycheque to paycheque, or no
paycheque at all, then we should expect a culture where millions will do
desperate things to make ends meet.
I’ve been guilty of this myself from time-to-time as we’ve struggled along
the path to a university degree.
Some times the Hail Mary passes that are thrown in an effort to make it
are caught, and sometimes they aren’t.
If this sounds like an excuse for the mistakes people make, then ask
yourself what your reaction is when acts born of desperation are
successful. We tend to praise risk
takers, but only when they succeed.
Those who fail are typically labelled foolish.
In
the weeks and months ahead I’ll be researching a guaranteed annual income (GAI)
program, hopefully as part of a small research scholarship I’ve applied for. The goal is to have an article accepted
for publication sometime next year articulating some of the implications of
such a policy. Once we've made it through my final year of school, I’ll be initiating an effort to lobby for
this program in both Canada and the United States shortly after graduation. Both countries have upcoming federal
elections in 2015 and 2016 respectively, making this an ideal time to begin
such an effort. If you are interested in being involved in the initial stages of this campaign, please let me know.
In the meantime, I’m providing a link here to a Go Fund Me page and asking all my friends and the readers of this blog to consider making a small contribution to help us as I complete my final year at university. This page was launched a few months ago when we faced a similar financial crunch to the one we do now, and though the amount shown indicates very little response, many of you responded via mail with a cheque to help us out bringing us much closer to our goal than indicated. If you would prefer to send a gift via mail, please contact me directly via Facebook and I’ll send along our address. Your support is critical because my final year involves a full load of 400 level courses plus the research project mentioned above. As a result I’ll have little time to work. Your support will be incredibly valuable both to us personally and to the eventual initiation of a grassroots GAI campaign.
More information will follow on this blog and via Facebook as it becomes available. If you have any questions about GAI, please don’t hesitate to ask them. Your questions will help guide research and assist me tremendously in anticipating concerns that may arise as the lobbying effort gets underway. I’ll be seeking opportunities to present on this topic beginning sometime next year as well, so please keep that in mind if you or others within your community might be interested in becoming involved. In the meantime, please widely share information posted here as it becomes available. Thank you all for your support.
Craig's Go Fund Me page: http://www.gofundme.com/1lwf9c
In the meantime, I’m providing a link here to a Go Fund Me page and asking all my friends and the readers of this blog to consider making a small contribution to help us as I complete my final year at university. This page was launched a few months ago when we faced a similar financial crunch to the one we do now, and though the amount shown indicates very little response, many of you responded via mail with a cheque to help us out bringing us much closer to our goal than indicated. If you would prefer to send a gift via mail, please contact me directly via Facebook and I’ll send along our address. Your support is critical because my final year involves a full load of 400 level courses plus the research project mentioned above. As a result I’ll have little time to work. Your support will be incredibly valuable both to us personally and to the eventual initiation of a grassroots GAI campaign.
More information will follow on this blog and via Facebook as it becomes available. If you have any questions about GAI, please don’t hesitate to ask them. Your questions will help guide research and assist me tremendously in anticipating concerns that may arise as the lobbying effort gets underway. I’ll be seeking opportunities to present on this topic beginning sometime next year as well, so please keep that in mind if you or others within your community might be interested in becoming involved. In the meantime, please widely share information posted here as it becomes available. Thank you all for your support.
Craig's Go Fund Me page: http://www.gofundme.com/1lwf9c
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