Have people lost all compassion in the US?

[Mari333]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3254714.stm
what is happening...why are people merrily going about their stinking Holiday business and not giving a shite what is happening to our kids, are they blind??? are they ignoring it out of denial? does anyone give a shit??
sometimes, I honestly think I am going to lose my mind.

[onebigbadwulf]

1. $29 dvd player is > important than starving kids okay?

[MrPrax]

12. I wish I scored a $29 DVD player...

oh yeah starving people...

"For the poor always ye have with you"
But not necessarily $29 DVD players!!!

There is more than enough food to go around, but we insist on robbing people of their worldly possessions via a free market...

Like the other saying,
"A loaf of bread costs the same for a rich man as it does a beggar"

What to do, what to do...
about half of the world living in abject poverty?

[pistoff democrat]

2. This is a great topic and

I hope you get lots of responses.

I don't think there ever was a majority sentiment of compassion or empathy.

Yes, some people deny and ignore because of different reasons; think they can't make a difference, can't deal with the fear most of the news engenders, focus on their families and making a living etc.

Sometimes I try to argue out of how good things will affect them personally...e.g., on healthcare. I explain it's in their best interests to have a healthy populace in order to keep those nasty new infectious diseases away from them. It usually doesn't work and I usually end up telling them that gated communities are prisons...or something similar.

Maybe, down deep, people really are self-absorbed cretins...maybe people have gotten what they deserved with this government...but, damn it: I didn't, you didn't...

Okay, I now honestly think I am going to lose my mind; prosac cocktail, Mari333?

[JitterbugPerfume]

6. mass media has made

everyone selfish. It makes people want things that are not good for them. It makes suspetible people act like victims of ADD Hell it even makes people think George FU@#$ ing Bush is a good president

What kids???

[AngryAmish]

3. Most people don't care

They do not know a dead or wounded US soldier. They sure as hell don't know any Iraqi and do not care. This country worships death, especially the of the lower classes, minorities or foreigners. Kill - Kill - Kill The PNAC crowd feed that hatred of the world and feed off of that hatred and death. Unfortuneately only a few of us have the requisite compassion to see of what true morality consists.

[Tinoire]

4. I'm with you... I don't even see how people can go about holiday business

Hunger Constitutes Threat to Peace, Says John Paul II

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 5, 2003 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II warns that hunger constitutes a threat to peace in the new globalized world.
<snip>

After mentioning the "close relationship between hunger and peace," the Holy Father added that it "is clear that economic and political decisions and strategies must increasingly be guided by a commitment to global solidarity and respect for fundamental human rights, including the right to adequate nourishment."

"Human dignity itself is compromised wherever a narrow pragmatism detached from the objective demands of the moral law leads to decisions which benefit a fortunate few while ignoring the sufferings of large segments of the human family," the Pope lamented.

<snip>

In this context, John Paul II encouraged FAO in its plan to establish an International Alliance Against Hunger which should inspire political decisions in "the awareness that humanity is one family."

He added: "The world may not remain deaf to the plea of those who demand the food they need in order to survive."


http://www.catholic.org/cathcom/international_story.php?id=5117

[Justice]

11. Thanks, I Had Not Seen That Story

I only hear about the Catholic church when they are condemning condoms, banishing elected officials who are prochoice, arguing for a ban on gay marriage. It is nice to see this - how true.

[GCP]

14. Kissinger was the author of the doctrine

that made the donation of US aid to third world countries dependent of support of US doctrines throughout the world.
He stated something to the effect that "people starving is not in of itself enough of a reason to send aid".

What a prince. I hope karma gets him some way or another.

[kalian]

5. This says it all...

We can take these kinds of casualties indefinitely as long as people believe in the mission

Anthony Cordesman,
Center for Strategic and International Studies

But then again, we know who runs the CSIS...

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. The families of the troops who are killed mourn them, if told, but

you have to remember that the US military is not a popular career choice for people who have choices.

The military is aware of this, and has concentrated its recruitment efforts in low income demographics, and the result is that most of the troops that are put most directly in harm's way are ethnic minorities and/or poor, who joined the military in the hopes of obtaining an education and health care which they had little chance of obtaining otherwise.

They were considered undesirables before they joined the military, and disposable once they did join it.

In my opinion, the regime is being overcautious in its prohibition of showing flag-draped coffins and its "discouraging" of any but the most cursory reporting of those casualties which the regime is unable to keep secret.

It is interesting, if you watch CNN International, in the last few weeks, they have shown flag-draped airport arrivals and state funerals, complete with weeping family members, military bands playing solemn music, and top level government officials intoning platitudes at state funerals, for the people of Italy, Spain, Korea, and Japan who have died to defend the freedom of Halliburton to have a really spectacular fourth quarter.

[Selwynn]

8. It's going to be like this during the holidays....

...even the good people suffer from fatiuge. Christmas is a very special holiday season for me when I am especially close to family and wrapped in a lot of tradition. And right now, I'll confess my family time over the holdiays is more on my mind than politics. It's not that I stop caring about what's going on - its just a question of prioritizaion, and right now, family tradition and family time comes first..

[Mikimouse]

9. Out of sight, out of mind...

exactly the way * and his a## kissing mediawhores want it.

[Justice]

10. Tough Topic

Empathy is a word that has little meaning here. If it doesn't affect me, why should I care. It is all about me.

I thought 9/11 was shocking, and people pulled together in the days following - they were kinder, they grieved for people they didn't even know. I would read the NYT's stories about victims all the time crying, as I felt it was a way to honor their life.

But somewhere we focused only on the revenge and anger and greed and now we are in a very dark place IMO - people don't care, they are too busy.

You saw it with the Medicare debate (not me, it will change before I get there)
You see it with Iraq (support only really fell when the $87 B number came up)
You see it with school funding in your town (why should we pay more)
You see it with cuts in special ed, womean and childrens program, homeless shelters, heck toys for tots. (get a job, not a handout)
You see it when people walk into you on the street rather than move because they need to be first

[SoCalDem]

13. ..."I got MINE, you can go to HELL"...

Unfortunately that is the majority sentiment of the US.. Everything is about "ME" and "MINE"..

Consumerism has taken hold in a major way, and people equate worth, with aquisitions..Better job automatically means better person Rish person means better person..People say they have compassion, but it is a false compassion.. When a rich man plunks down $20 in the collection plate and pats himself on the back for being so generous, his donation pales next to the $5 that a $25,000.00 a year person put in..

People get all "fuzzy and warm," at holiday time, and will gladly donate for a needy family to have a decent Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, but they seem to block out the fact that these people need to eat more than twice a year..

If they are a "middle class" suburbanite , they probably are satisfied with their children's school, so they do not give much thought to the poorer schools in your district, except for when they ask for more money.. When they do that, it is automatically spun so that to provide extra money for them, is to lessen the money to YOURS, so guess what happens??

When their job is "secure", they do not care much about unemployment for others.. they must not have been good employees, they must have been not-too-smart, they must be lazy,they must have chosen the wrong thing in school, etc.. There are a million reasons why someone else is unemployed, BUT when a downsizing occurs and YOUR job is affected, it's a travesty..

The truth is so ugly, that people do not WANT to see it.. We are captives of a capricious and hard-hearted master.. The master will carry us along, only as long as it suits HIS wishes.. If he can find a cheaper worker, he will dump you is a heartbeat.. There is no loyalty to workers.. The people we hire to watch over our best interests are in cahoots with the master, and are on his payroll..

We are on the caboose of a runaway train, and there is little that any of us can do to stop it..

People say they are compassionate, but only so long as it does not "put them out"..

[salinen]

15. My treatice on this

is that by intitutional desire and especially corporate desire, adolescent or juvenile behavior is prefered over adulthood. It's too obvious to go into detail but to say that children have a natural and protective need to be selfish (sharing is painful). Extend this through life and you have the perfect capitalist unit.

[SoCalDem]

17. I agree.. Look at the adulation given to the inane

sports heroes
bubbleheaded, but voluptuous "singing Barbies"
Nascar
wrestling
Crass, vulgar tv programming
sports metaphors in EVERY facet of life

In the 60's the teens were catered to because we were a burgeoning class of new consumers, and the marketeers just never lets ANYONE "grow up".. We are continually marketed to as if we were ALL 16.. Our behavior proves them right..

[salinen]

18. I would guess

that it's not a conspiracy, rather an evolution of capitalism to perfect the most desireable type.

[Astarho]

16. Compassion is not valued in this society

We are taught from childhood to take care of ourselves first and accumulate as much material wealth as possible, and that is to be our first priority.

Group, family and friends are secondary to our pursuit of that material wealth.

[buddhamama]

19. a few answers

could apply

1)they didn't have compassion to begin with

2)they care, but the holidays are an escape
feeling helpless--which is understandable. life goes on. and i do believe it has to, to a certain extent.