Difference between revisions of "Poverty consciousness"
From Danton's Real Life Userguide
(→Poverty consciousness) |
(→Poverty consciousness) |
||
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
==Poverty consciousness== | ==Poverty consciousness== | ||
| − | Prosperity consciousness is a striving to be someone else than one is now, with a different amount of wealth, however such wealth may be defined. It is a cultivated dissatisfaction with and refusal to accept one's current status. It is moreover an unrealistic and ultimately futile practice. There are steps one can take to improve one's lot in life, but simply trying to "change one's thoughts" or repeating "I am getting rich" are particularly ineffective ways to achieve anything. | + | Prosperity consciousness is a striving to be someone else than one is now, with a different amount of wealth, however such wealth may be defined. It is a cultivated dissatisfaction with, and refusal to accept, one's current status. It is moreover an unrealistic and ultimately futile practice. There are steps one can take to improve one's lot in life, but simply trying to "change one's thoughts" or repeating "I am getting rich" are particularly ineffective ways to achieve anything. |
In direct opposition to such a futile flight from reality, poverty consciousness is an attempt to acknowledge one's present misery. Life is hard for most of us who work for a living, or who struggle to get by as best we may, and very few of us win the lottery or manage to create a successful startup. Moreover, in a class society, usually only the rich get richer. The more privileged members of society, instead of sitting around repeating "affirmations," are busy putting to use their acquired know-how and social connections to hustle and bustle. Thus poverty consciousness, as the recognition and acceptance of social reality, is close to [[class consciousness]]. | In direct opposition to such a futile flight from reality, poverty consciousness is an attempt to acknowledge one's present misery. Life is hard for most of us who work for a living, or who struggle to get by as best we may, and very few of us win the lottery or manage to create a successful startup. Moreover, in a class society, usually only the rich get richer. The more privileged members of society, instead of sitting around repeating "affirmations," are busy putting to use their acquired know-how and social connections to hustle and bustle. Thus poverty consciousness, as the recognition and acceptance of social reality, is close to [[class consciousness]]. | ||
| − | But poverty consciousness also has a spiritual dimension. Notice how many religions associate poverty with holiness. We are born with nothing and we take nothing with us when we die. In a sense, poverty is the human condition: we always lack something, and strive to have what we lack, in perpetual frustration, no matter how well off we are. | + | But poverty consciousness also has a spiritual dimension. Notice how many religions associate poverty with holiness. We are born with nothing and we take nothing with us when we die. In a sense, poverty is the human condition: we always lack something, and strive to have what we lack, in perpetual frustration, no matter how well off we are. Poverty consciousness is thus the acceptance of this existential lack, and the attempt to be satisfied with what little we have. |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ||
==Links== | ==Links== | ||
