| > How can we make sure that people don’t have to sleep on the street and suffer from poor healthcare? The first step is a cultural change. I believe the ball is in the court of the writers, musicians, philosophers, poets, celebrities ... people involved with shaping culture. To give an example of how how toxic our culture has become, I'll recount something that just happened 30 minutes ago. There's this nice old lady near my hackerspace who operates a small food cart. Not many people visit her because where she's allowed to be is laughably secluded, so she mainly sits there all day waiting for customers. Another member of the hackerspace said he was going to Wallgreens to get a candy bar and asked if anyone else wanted something. I said: "Hey, there's the food cart lady who has that stuff and she's just a 1 minute walk away, instead of the Wallgreens which is 10 minutes away." Upon hearing this, another member grunted with disapproval. I asked what was up. He said: "She sold me a disgusting sandwich, you shouldn't support a business that is run that poorly." I replied: "She's an old lady! Did you give her any feedback on the sandwich, maybe she can improve?" Him: "A business run like that is beyond help." I'm still shocked how this person couldn't even see past the business into the person. This is a huge problem I see: we forget we are dealing with people because we classify them simply as objects of utility. Our consumerist abstractions are causing us to be quite nasty to others. |