September 17, 2013
Too Much of a Good Thing
A recent editorial in my local paper cites that
when it comes to the number of nonprofits in one location, our city is one of
the leaders in the State. No wonder I get so irritable every time a fundraiser
knocks on my door, or I have to run an obstacle course of good causes in order
to go to the grocery store. The newspaper correctly diagnosed the community as
having “charity fatigue”, but I question their prescription. Their cure is to
have one community umbrella organization receiving donated funds and then
dispersing those funds to other nonprofits who qualify for support. Wow…This
would be like asking all the churches in the city to put their tithes in one
pot and then an umbrella agency would oversee dispensing the tithes as they
deem appropriate.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----”…dispersing those funds to other nonprofits whom qualify…as they deem appropriate.” Appropriate according to whom? Qualify by whose criteria? Why do we always need surrogate decision-makers in our lives? Is it not good enough that each of us are able to determine by our own criteria which non-profits to support or not, and then support them individually?
-----There is a type of person who does not believe in other people’s ability to discern things. These people have trust issues, and they tend to be perfectionists. By continuously attacking the innate processes between individuals and their community, they destroy society’s chances of operating smoothly.
-----What is so laughable about these surrogate decision-makers is that every individual, them included, has limited knowledge. That is a truth, for it is always the observation. No one person knows the full scope nor depth of what there is to know. In fact, each individual knows only a very, very small slice of what is. And each knows his own slice well. There being many, many, many individuals knowing all of the different slices, their knowledge accumulated directs the complete gamut of the community’s affairs.
-----The surrogate decision-maker denies this reality, deeming his own knowledge to be sufficiently broader and better for steering all its affairs. Then he quickly leads the community into the ditch by trying to maneuver its entire mass around every petty problem, after which he blames individualism for not having given him complete enough control. Yetch! Get the stinky dog away!
-----We’ve heard a small tussle between world leaders over American Exceptionalism. Well, actually, its less a tussle between leaders, because even America’s leaders are agreeing with its adversaries on American Unexceptionalism. What far too few know is that American Exceptionalism is this very idea that amongst all of a population’s individuals is possessed sufficient knowledge and skills for the beneficial effecting of all its affairs through each of their individual efforts. It is a socio-political theory which limit’s the power and authority of the state to only that of preserving a safe environment for the population’s activities. Beyond that, it is the responsibility of every individual to make his life well and beneficially effect his piece of the community. In this manner, every affair of the population’s problems will be effected by the person who knows the most about it.
-----Moreover, as we were told by the old, dead, white guys who founded the country, the Constitution would serve only a moral and upright people. Not only is knowledge in itself insufficient, but without morality and uprightness, even knowledge fades into the overgrowth of resulting deceit and debauchery. American Exceptionalism stood upon these two feet - individual freedom and moral fiber.
-----Regarding the nation as a whole, I must unfortunately agree that American Exceptionalism is no more. The relentless attack upon moral fiber has raged for forty-five years. It has almost completely taken its toll. All social reflectors - TV, movies, books, music and arts, schools and universities, even the courts and legislators and administrators - say there are no universal moral norms. They say there are no universal truths. A population which can not even agree upon the guiding truth of a moral imperative as simple as, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” has entered complete chaos. Chaos begs for control. And wouldn’t you know, there is always a surrogate decision-maker waiting to take control. The truth be known, he’s of the same type who killed moral norms to create the chaos which cries out for control. We not only refuse to get the stinky dogs away, but we vote them into places of power.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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