Useful guilt

This came across my facebook feed today.
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Remember this picture when you take more than you need.
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“I went shopping for my elderly parents tonight. Walmart turned its customers away at 8pm. So I then went to Kroger’s. The shelves looked like this picture. There was no meat, no bread, very little medicine. Please stop hoarding.” – Fr. Greg Bramlage
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“The bread you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.” – St. Basil the Great

Yup. Downright embarrassing.

I think it's hard to see real want, even when we "see it" in passing, for many of us who have never come close to  real widespread want or need. We are so rarely able to see it, observing from our own private perspective. We don't know how to think about and how to deal with the inner conflicts and questions it raises. That picture, to me doesn't show poverty so much as helplessness and _want_, created thoughtlessly by the rest of us. Most, I think, equate pictures like that with lack of money, and often that's part of it. But that picture shows something that no amount of money, relatively speaking, would fix. It points to something deeper.

I'm afraid I cannot say I'm better than the rest. But I think I see a wake up call to take a look at our emphatically individualistic habits and the attitudes that bring them about.  With luck, and lots of encouragement, I hope our leaders will belly up and talk community, cooperation and such stuff.  At least for a while. We at permies are lucky to benefit from a guy who has, in some ways, been pushing in that direction for many years.

Thanks for posting that.


Regards,
Rufus

Great post.  I walked into a Walmart a couple of days ago  to pick up an airhorn (it works great to scare the coyotes).   The shelves were empty in the food section.  

I think that the entire "hoarding" thing has been basically made up by the media, I only have British figures but we are told that they have "hoarded" 1billon pounds of extra food over 3 weeks. The thing is when you work that out that is 10% extra food or £15 per person per week. since all the restaurants, work canteens, school lunches etc are stopped that really isn't ANY extra food, it's just that now all the food has to come from the supermarkets and they simply do not have the capacity to sell that extra 10% week in week out. I'm sure there are some people who have stocked up, but there are others who's full trolleys the press mocks are actually for 3 or 4 households. Anyone helping their elderly or infirm neighbours and relatives is now accused of hoarding.

the simple reality is that no sector of the economy can cope with 10% increase in demand overnight I would think that in the US there may be an even bigger increase in demand as the average number of meals eaten outside the house is higher than the UK.  The amount of food in the system is enough for everyone but it is not in the right places or in the right form. The same goes for Toilet paper. how much do you use at work/school? that extra usage is again now at home coming from a supermarket instead of a bulk delivery.