Reply #13: I was struck at the "help is harmful" theme being discussed [View All]

[checks-n-balances]

It's the first time in years I've heard anyone even point out this huge (and likely astroturf-originated) talking point that has insinuated itself into our culture for about 30 years. By steadily hearing the phrase "do-gooder," uttered by RWers for so long (and with such disdain) our society has effectively been conditioned - first to look down our noses at people in need, and then to look the other way.

I'm talking about "the pseudoscientific theories that claim to show that helping people actually hurts them, that charity is cruelty, that a higher minimum wage hurts workers, that health coverage leads to poor habits and health, that altruism doesn't "really" exist and therefore should not be engaged in..."

The "stories of home healthcare workers who are forbidden...to assist (their clients) them in various ways, but who go out of their way to help anyway" remind me of the remarkable staff who work with my mother who lives in a nursing facility due to Alzheimer's. They care about the residents as they would for their own parents, and in doing so they model for the community a way that we should behave toward others.

I've only read part of this and have to save it until tomorrow, but (except for the author's flawed view of our destructive activities abroad), it sounds like a worthile book.

Our society is going to depend on people who have grappled with these ideas and are willing to show leadership in this area. We cannot sustain a decent, humane society, let alone any kind of democracy, without teaching one another, once again, to have and show a certain amount of empathy and a sense of community.

These are ideas I'd like to read more about here at DU, since we likely won't find them much of anywhere else. Thanks very much, David S., for posting your review...