House of Eratosthenes

I’ve been told, so often and so stridently, to feel this and to feel that and to feel for the downtrodden of the world, that I find I no longer feel anything at all. I don’t think I’m alone in not caring. I think caring and compassion, now that it has been institutionalized enough to demand caring and compassion, has finally found its limit…Compassion can never be made compulsory and cash-flow positive at the same time. Whenever and wherever compassion has been made compulsory the people soon find they no longer have care or quartas to spare.

Perhaps what our friend in Seattle is feeling, is the onset of some deplorable disease.

Or perhaps it’s a recovery. A recovery from that wretched infestation known as…dramatic pause…drumroll, please…

Goodperson Fever.

It’s our modern plague. If you’ve ever done a good deed, and then just kinda hung around awhile to see if anyone noticed, and if so, how many, and what they thought about it all…you have been infected. And you probably still have it, unless you’ve since gotten in touch with your inner dark, uncaring, cynical bastard.

I’ll repost here what I said at Gerard’s:

“I think I’m with you there, bro.

I’m a Christian and am thus called upon to exercise some of that old-fashioned compassion for the poor. I have found that the people most eager to hit me over the head with this, however, are those who don’t believe at all. I rarely seem to get self-righteous lectures on compassion from fellow Christians.

Well, there IS my cousin’s wife, but she is a horribly misguided lefty who still hasn’t figured out that Christianity and her political ideals are profoundly incompatible. I try to avoid brawling with her for the sake of family harmony, but my main question for her would be, “What gives a secular government the right to take from non-believers and ‘help’ the poor in the name of Jesus? Shouldn’t we believers be doing that without the government’s army of IRS workers behind us?”

It’s a case-in-point of something so simple, but which so many seem not to understand: That private voluntary charity is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT animal than public-sector wealth redistribution, no matter how noble the aim or effective the delivery.

And the fact that so many seem to miss this critical distinction, I think, is why many of us are just plain tapped-out, both financially and in terms of “compassion.” I sometimes argue with my church minister and/or fellow parishioners when told that I need to “give 10% right off the top.” My answer is usually along the lines of, “I’d find that a lot easier to do if the government weren’t already taking a frigging QUARTA of my paycheck.”

Heh. There’s that word again.”
- cylarz | 08/26/2009 @ 23:13
From my favorite leftover hippy band.

Goodpeople by Widespread Panic

We are the good people
The ones they told you about
The ones that disappeared
Behind the calling of the sun
Like footprints to the sea
They dance upon the rising storm
Ten thousand voices singing
Hardly thrills our soul

Louder and louder
Hear the engines roar
Faster and faster
Fables overturned
Tighter and tighter
Oh the lightning flash
Closer and closer
Here are your waters so drink and be whole again

Machines that make their rounds
Don’t care if they ever see the dawn
It’ll be peaceful flowing rivers
After the winter’s come and gone
Some are weak and wounded
Others sick and sore
Old woman at the well
Dropping roses from planted thorns

Louder and louder
Hear the engines roar
Faster and faster
Fables overturned
Tighter and tighter
Oh the lightning flash
Closer and closer
Here are your waters so drink and be whole again

We are the good people
The ones they told you about
One kiss of mother nature
Her spirit waits in light

Louder and louder
Hear the engines roar
Faster and faster
Fables overturned
Tighter and tighter
Oh the lightning flash
Closer and closer
Here are your waters so drink
Here are your waters so drink and be whole again
Be whole again
- Robohobo | 08/27/2009 @ 17:25

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Compassion FatigueWednesday, August 26th, 2009

Compassion Fatigue
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009