The New Environment

I was in a discussion today with Kelli, and the homeless came up when talking about responsibility.  And I had a thought that I thought was worth sharing.

Those that don't want to live in society don't have a place to go. Society has replaced the environment with society.  It has robbed the fish from the rivers, the buffalo from the plain, and the fruit from the trees.  Society now is the environment.

Some choose to just live off of the environment.  Something that may be much closer to our nature as human beings.  It's sad for them that their environment is now our society, and instead of catching fish or gathering berries, they instead have to beg for money and live off of the government.  And they lose a sense of self worth - because they now have to beg, borrow, perhaps even steal to even just live.

And we judge them for it.  We judge them for taking what we 'made' or 'earned' without recognizing that we took the lush environment that would have supported them otherwise.

Sure, there are many that beg for booze or steal for drugs.  And that's sad and deserves perhaps even more compassion.  But to judge those that just want to live, and are forced to live off of this new environment because the old environment doesn't exist - that just seems like we're pointing the finger in the wrong direction.