He knows it. He says, "I only drive when I have to." I think it's incredibly sad that he's put in a position where he still needs to drive his disabled son to the doctor. I understand why people talk about social programs in situations like these, but to me the bigger question is - where is the community? Does he have no other children, no nieces or nephews or cousins grandkids? Neighbors? Friends from church or the VFW? Why is no one helping this poor old man so that he doesn't have to drive?
Government programs can help a lot but they won't solve everything. People need to learn to help each other again and have a sense of responsibility to their family, neighbors, and community.
It’s easy to say “organized efforts are good but they don’t have the same value as TRUE community.” It sounds simple enough. But then you have direct examples like the old man in the video. What value would you place on HIS community? They aren’t helping him at all. I’d assume you’d say that doesn’t count as a true community because they aren’t helping him.
And that’s the rub. It’s only TRUE community if it’s done a very specific good way… which is rarely done… & if it’s provided by the government it’s actually not as good somehow as that elusive TRUE version. Again, sounds simple enough but is completely unachievable in practice. The goalposts for “true community” can be constantly moved to suit the narrative. When a community is bad, we can just say it doesn’t count as “true.” Ignoring the real criticism to be made of human selfishness in communal living & how we might come together to combat that unfortunate reality in advance through organized social programs.
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u/Langlie Feb 27 '25
He knows it. He says, "I only drive when I have to." I think it's incredibly sad that he's put in a position where he still needs to drive his disabled son to the doctor. I understand why people talk about social programs in situations like these, but to me the bigger question is - where is the community? Does he have no other children, no nieces or nephews or cousins grandkids? Neighbors? Friends from church or the VFW? Why is no one helping this poor old man so that he doesn't have to drive?
Government programs can help a lot but they won't solve everything. People need to learn to help each other again and have a sense of responsibility to their family, neighbors, and community.