MEDIAWATCH: On homelessness, class eugenics, and middle class sensibilities
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The first three paragraphs are brilliant. The next three are a descent into the depths of wilful human blindness. It is tragic how many people feel this way…
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… as if the right to have a family and raise children to be good citizens of this country is now the sole privilege of the affluent.
So I replied, with my thoughts;
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from: Frank Macskasy <fmacskasy@gmail.com>
to: The Wellingtonian <editor@thewellingtonian.co.nz>
date: Sat, Jun 4, 2016
subject:Letter to the editor.
The editorThe Wellingtonian
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Russell Vant’s first three paragraphs of his letter, on homelessness, conveyed the true spirit of Kiwi generosity. (26 May)
But his last three paragraphs appears to make a subtle argument for what can only be described as class eugenics; the elimination of undesirables from society for economic reasons.
Mr Vant demands, “at what point does the collective have a say in the reproductive process, coming together to work out how many children our society can adequately support”?It is a chilling suggestion that our “reproductive processes” should be pre-determined and enforced like some Kiwi version of China’s one-child policy.
Perhaps his idea is more targetted at a specific group in our society? Not Jews – this time it’s poor families. The suggestion that poor people shouldn’t “breed” because of their financial circumstances is not uncommon.
It is a naive, simplistic response to low incomes and growing poverty since the neo-liberal revolution in 1984.
Addressing the real causes of income/wealth disparity is a complex process. That is no reason to make scapegoats out of those who have been crushed by the cold invisible hand of the so-called “free” market.
The day New Zealand allows only the affluent to raise a family is not a day I want to live to see..-Frank Macskasy
[address and phone number supplied]
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= fs =
Bloody good point FRANK.
Where is human kindness now days?
All these terms were the foundation rules of our society in the 1950’s.
*We will reap what we sow.
*Charity begins at home.
In my Memory, Christianity during my early Sunday school years taught me; That to be a worthy Christian in the sight of God, follow the scriptures,
*”it is better to give than receive.”
We have come down descending into the lower order of the animal world today since then sadly.
The Scriptures have been slightly modified to take into account the dominant neo-liberal ideology currently infesting our country like a tapeworm in a cat’s gut.
It now reads, “It is better to give (taxcuts to the rich), than to receive (benefit payments from a government that wants you to crawl into a hole and die.)”
Praise the Lord (free market)!
The whole of neoliberalism has been an attempt to return to that social structure that gave us social dawinism. To continue to blame the poor when the RBNZ is quite clear that it sees wage inflation as a good reason to increase the unearned income that is interest rates in order to keep wages depressed, when tax cuts for the wealthy are matched by service cuts and tax increases to the rest, when schools in poor areas struggle while the rich and aspirational either either send their kids to private fee paying schools or ensure that housing prices exclude the poor, is repulsive. As is the sanctimonious punishing of the kids for supposed faults of their poor and often overworked parents.
But at the same time the world is not just over using resources, it is over populated. While educating and freeing women is a good tactic in reducing total fertility as Bradshaw and Brook make very clear, we do have to say to some people whether they are very rich, very religious or just in need of help, enough is enough.
A rights based society must look after the kids but it must also think about the great great grandkids and how to look after them whether they are the children of the poor or the rich. Inter-generational equity means that we need to think about the future.
How many adults would rush to assist a child that was involved in a car smash and seriously injured ?….
Yet how many of those same adults would tut tut behind closed curtains and unthinkingly endorse what amounts to Hitlers eugenics simply because this is NZ and that sort of thing doesn’t happen here?
( BTW – I don’t give a shit about Godwin’s law . In my view that’s a convenient excuse by the far right wing fanatic to push all manner of evil shit on people )
We have rampant unchecked immigration at the moment yet we have this sanctimonious double standard about our own NZ citizens. It would appear that those expounding those views are very much of the neo liberal variety.
At one time they were a convenient scapegoat and political football for all society’s problems by the the National party. But a peculiar thing about evil for those who wish to indulge in it. It has a nasty way of coming back to bite them on the bum.
This is what the housing crisis and homelessness is now all about.
In Nationals rush to procure votes by keeping the housing market over-boiling with mass immigration and speculators putting pressure on infrastructure and jobs and housing, – with their tax cuts for the rich – this has caused displacement of a large demographic. A demographic that used to be a favorite whipping boy for National.
A demographic that was once so easily used as propaganda and held up for public ridicule by the National party now has become the very demographic that not only has caused the far right fanatics national shame, – but has also struck back because of the publicity as of late.
And as most intelligent people would see – that this group is only the tip of the iceberg and it worry’s them. They are starting to see their own family’s future being threatened by this govt’s subtlety disguised agenda.
All it would take would be a serious illness, family breakup , a downturn economically , job loss – any number of things – and then they too , could see themselves being counted as among that number of Keys favorite whipping boys , – and targets for the subtle suggestion of eugenics for the poor.
Not a very pleasant thought when you ponder how you would like that applied to yourself,…
IS IT.