One should not be giving for their own benefit. That isn’t altruism, that is charity. One should be giving for the benefit of the receiver because they are engaged in solidarity with them.
I give money to the homeless frequently and if I am with coworkers when I do, they tell me “they are just going to go and buy drugs.”. This is charitable gate keeping. This mindset is why most people don’t give more. They can always find some excuse not to give money to someone, so they give none to anyone. Religion creates an even stronger sense of charitable gatekeeping. They may give inside their religion, but if they give outside of their religion, it often comes with stipulations. This is because they are incapable of solidarity with those on bad times. In many ways this is rooted in the “Karma/Righteousness dogma”. “I am wealthy, therefore I am favored by god.” It makes people believe that those who experience bad times are bad people.
Capitalism has this ideology rooted in it as well. We celebrate success under capitalism and show contempt for failure to an extent that we not only determine a person’s moral alignment based on that success, we also determine their inherent value.
Solidarity means you have empathy and understanding. You understand that you could end up in the same situation with a single event culminating in loss of everything. I knew a young lady who was rear ended in her car. She had some serious neck pain, so she was prescribed opiates. She became addicted, switch to illicit drugs after her prescription ran out, got caught, went to jail, lost her job, lost her home, and eventually became homeless as her family turned their back on her because she was a “drug addict”. She needed help, not persecution and judgement. But under capitalism, if you don’t make enough to afford help, you are a bad person and not worthy of any help.
Anarchists have a saying “Kill your heroes.” If means that you should never accept anyone as infallible. It creates dangerous ideologues who can’t be reasoned with. Instead, you can recognize the brilliance of some ideas from an individual, but still be critical of stupid ideas or ones that have been proven false. This concept should also be applied to “gods”.
One should not be giving for their own benefit. That isn’t altruism, that is charity. One should be giving for the benefit of the receiver because they are engaged in solidarity with them.
I give money to the homeless frequently and if I am with coworkers when I do, they tell me “they are just going to go and buy drugs.”. This is charitable gate keeping. This mindset is why most people don’t give more. They can always find some excuse not to give money to someone, so they give none to anyone. Religion creates an even stronger sense of charitable gatekeeping. They may give inside their religion, but if they give outside of their religion, it often comes with stipulations. This is because they are incapable of solidarity with those on bad times. In many ways this is rooted in the “Karma/Righteousness dogma”. “I am wealthy, therefore I am favored by god.” It makes people believe that those who experience bad times are bad people.
Capitalism has this ideology rooted in it as well. We celebrate success under capitalism and show contempt for failure to an extent that we not only determine a person’s moral alignment based on that success, we also determine their inherent value.
Solidarity means you have empathy and understanding. You understand that you could end up in the same situation with a single event culminating in loss of everything. I knew a young lady who was rear ended in her car. She had some serious neck pain, so she was prescribed opiates. She became addicted, switch to illicit drugs after her prescription ran out, got caught, went to jail, lost her job, lost her home, and eventually became homeless as her family turned their back on her because she was a “drug addict”. She needed help, not persecution and judgement. But under capitalism, if you don’t make enough to afford help, you are a bad person and not worthy of any help.
Anarchists have a saying “Kill your heroes.” If means that you should never accept anyone as infallible. It creates dangerous ideologues who can’t be reasoned with. Instead, you can recognize the brilliance of some ideas from an individual, but still be critical of stupid ideas or ones that have been proven false. This concept should also be applied to “gods”.